Monday 28 January 1974
Drilling having ended, our two honorary drillers, Max Tunnicliffe and Ross Cooper reported in for duty and in readiness to return home to NZ. At Vanda I was able to get a seat on the helicopter bringing Peter Anderton and John Rothery back to the Base. As it flew by way of the Taylor Valley Lakes I was given a very enjoyable scenic trip but unfortunately got no chance to inspect Mount Newall for a site for the IPCO active repeater.
Vanda now has 70 drums of DFA besides kerosene, mogas and propane and I believe this will be enough to see them through the winter assuming reasonable consumption and no disastrous losses. Mike Wing arrived to take up his duties as winter dog handler and field assistant.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind North-North-East 15 knots Temperature -3.2°C
Ration Strength 29
Tuesday 29 January 1974
Today at 0630 hours we dispatched Maurice Conly back to NZ. He has been a pleasant and helpful member of the team and certainly does not resemble the layman’s stereotype image of the artist. Ken Blackwood is busy putting down new lino in the kitchen.
Although it is snowing lights and there is a keen wind, I have a small group piling spoil against the exterior walls of the cold corridor.
Brian Fischer is rearranging the shelving in the ready use store to make room for the two deep freezers. Bill Whitely and Mike Wing are lining the steel bin which we intend to use as the replacement for our seal meat wannigan.
We sent a party to collect ice during the day and got two sledges full in an hour and a half. The ice fractures into bigger blocks now the weather is colder. In the evening the Lazi film team took some footage of a group of us supposedly receiving mail from the winter airdrop. In fact Titch Gibson walked in with a bag full of philatelic rubbish which he handed out to a group of us. Although no actors, we tried to look suitably ecstatic.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind East 14 knots Temperature -9.0°C
Ration Strength 28
Wednesday 30 January 1974
Today we had neither fixed wing nor helicopter movement. The various maintenance projects continued. Tony Atkinson had a triumph. He has at last traced the fault in the VFO of the ionosonde which has resulted in the low power output commented on in his October and November reports. Output is now much improved.
I spent the day catching up on routine paperwork. There isn’t a great deal of this really but if I shirk it for a couple of weeks it takes me at least a day to catch up. Shaun was given the opportunity of joining an American party flying across the South Pole to the Pensacola Mountains. The NSF and US Navy are endeavouring to sight an airfield in that area which will eventually give them an alternative route through South America to Antarctica. This gave us the opportunity to get further air samples for CSIRO.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind North-North-East 15 knots Temperature -13.2°C
Ration Strength 28
Thursday 31 January 1974
Early this morning we dispatched Franz Lazi’s, Heintz Von Matthey and Klaus Lautenbacher to Christchurch. I think they got footage of everything they asked for. Also departing were Max Tunnicliffe and Ross Cooper, field leader and field assistant. Since helicopters will cease flying on 2nd February I felt that Vanda’s winter supply of frozen food must go whether or not their temperatures were below freezing. We have been able to make up a reasonable issue for them although it left us with “nil stock” of some lines and did not provide them with quite the variety we would have liked. Then late in the evening to my great concern Vanda called to say that the starter gear on one of their Petters had failed. We had already ordered replacements but I couldn’t gamble that they would arrive at Scott Base in time to be delivered to Vanda. So I called the Cape Bird party and instructed them to bring out their Petter when they came. It is a different kind of Petter but as there is a degree of commonality, if it can be got to Vanda it will help. The problem is complicated by the fact that it belongs to Canterbury and not DSIR. Meantime Bill Johnson is organising his staff to make replacement starter gear teeth by hand. At the same time it became obvious that the alpero radio at Vanda was still not working properly so I told the Post Office to have a second 557 set flown in. Finally, Gordon Nation reported that the residue for Vanda weighed nearer 4000lbs than the 2000 I had planned on. Some frantic late night telephoning finally got us the extra helicopter space.
Conditions at 0900 hours Calm Temperature -6.7°C
Ration Strength 23
Friday 1 February 1974
The first helicopter for Vanda left this morning with 2500lbs on board. The rotors seemed almost to curl upwards as it lifted off. Then the helicopter from Cape Bird arrived back with the Canterbury Petter and Ian Clement on board. Bill Johnson started work on the Petter at once and had it ready by the time the next helicopter for Vanda left at 1500 hours. Ian Clement, Mike Wing, John Rothery and Bill Whitley are now hard at work butchering the winter supply of seals.
Packing up camp for a new day
Late in the day the rest of the Cape Bird party arrived. They will have to work most of the night to clean up and return their gear ready for a 0630 hours start for the aircraft to Christchurch tomorrow.
On Wednesday, on instructions from the Superintendent, I had arranged for Dave Console the McMurdo doctor to visit Vanda. At 1800 hours he called on the radio and asked me to issue Vanda with a selection of systematic antibiotics which they could use in an emergency on his instructions. Fortunately I had just checked through our dispensary and was able to tell him at once that we could not supply. We then arranged to meet in his surgery at 2300 hours.
Ken Blackwood laid the green lino, given by the Staten Island ice breaker, in the kitchen and most worn part of the Mess. It is good quality lino but seems hard to polish. At 2300 hours Dave Console issued me with five types of antibiotic which will go to Vanda on the last helicopter tomorrow.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind North-North-East 2 knot Temperature -4.6°C
Ration strength 28
Saturday 2 February 1974
Late last night Terminal Operations rang to say that only two of the five passengers booked on the 0200 hours flight could go. So I delivered John Early of Canterbury University and Doug Willets, the DVDP cook, to the plane. The remaining three were to go at 1000 hours but the flight was repeatedly deferred. This gave them a chance to polish the lino. They did their best but the result was still not good.
The last helicopter to Vanda finally got away with 1200lbs of batteries underslung and a full load inside. Just as it was arriving we heard that a cargon for us had been delivered to Williams Field. Gordon Nation set off to collect it at once but by the time he brought it back the helicopter had gone. Inside were the Petter parts so badly needed by Vanda. Still they have the Canterbury University Petter and the parts repaired by Bill Johnson, so they may be alright.
On the way back from Vanda the helicopter brought out Event 1 Graham Boddy, and Graham Horrel and cruised around Mount Newall to select a site for the IPCO repeater. The spot selected was on the South West ridge of the mountain surprisingly enough. In the evening we had about 19 of the helicopter pilots and crews to a buffet supper and during the course of the evening I heard that a US Navy maintenance flight was going to Marble Point. The pilot eventually agreed to go a little further and deliver the Petter parts.
Vanda’s Alpeco radio has now developed the annoying fault of transmitting intermittently. At midnight we heard that the remaining three Canterbury members were to leave at 0800 hours tomorrow.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind Northerly 4 knots Temperature -6.3°C
Ration Strength 29
Sunday 3 February 1974
I delivered Joy Woods, Paul Sagar and Chris Paulin to the aircraft at 0630 hours and then returned to take up the Sunday mouse duties. At 10am we heard that the Navy helicopter to Marble Point had not been able to get on to Vanda because of low cloud over the Wilson Piermont glacier. Most Base staff went skiing. The new lino, despite my best early morning mouse efforts, looks terrible.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind calm Temperature -5.3°C
Ration strength 26
No comments:
Post a Comment