Christmas, and resupply continues......

Merry Christmas...... from Casey station Antarctica.

 Although I will probably write exactly the same thing in the next blog entry, and in fact post some pictures of our actual Christmas celebrations. This is because today.... the 25th December is going to be a normal working day for us here at Casey station as the resupply ship, the Aurora Australis is still here trying to complete resupply.

Resupply has been quite drawn out this year due to poor weather conditions, in particular high winds. As a result of these winds it has been difficult to move cargo and fuel from the ship to the shore, and all opportunities of good weather windows need to be taken, so that the ship can leave and head back to Tasmania.

At this point Christmas for us will be delayed, and it is likely that we will celebrate Christmas some time later next week!

One of the reasons that resupply has taken so long, is due to the blizzard that came through last weekend. In the last blog I posted some video which I took while at work, but below is a few pictures from the Casey skiway. At the moment only have one small aircraft here... a Twin Otter. There is always a bit of work required to keep the skiway up and running, but as a result of blizzard, there is now many days of work required to re-prepare the skiway, and dig the aircraft out.

Twin Otter before the blizzard

Twin Otter after the blizzard

Twin Otter after the blizzard

Some of the people who have arrived on the ship are what we call 'round trippers'. These are people who sail down on the ship, and have a small task or project to complete during resupply, and then return to Tassie when the ship leaves. A couple of those 'round trippers' on this voyage needed to get out to some of the penguin rookeries/islands to complete projects. So last week, before the blizzard set in a few of us set of in the IRB's to the islands around Casey for a few hours.

Adelie Penguin

Emperor Penguin

 

Below is a short video/tour of the operations building, which is where Comms, BoM, and the station leader spend their hours at work....

Below are some links to articles published over the past week or so... with most of the articles this week being in relation to the Mawson Centenary voyage, and the icebergs that are blocking passage into Commonwealth Bay, and Mawson's Hut.

SMH newspaper article.
The Australian newspaper article on the Mawson commemorative voyage.
Vancouver Sun newspaper article on Mawson Centenary voyage.
The Mercury newspaper article.
Canberra Times newspaper article.
AFP article.