Monday 29 October 1973
Skua’s are becoming a common sight. There were three in the pressure ridges this morning. John Bitters and the Cape Evans party with dogs arrived back late Sunday night. Mike Wing has been bitten in the knee but not seriously. Bitters has recommended Newland as his replacement. Dr Torii (Japan) of JARE is spending a few nights with us. He is a most pleasant guest but is worried by the non-arrival of his equipment. John Bitters placed a few small charges in the ‘Pee’ Glacier and blew a channel through it but more needs to be done. With the delay in helicopter availability, Shaun Norman has had to plan an interim programme with event leaders as follows
Event 1 (Less Rothery) Reconnaissance of Erebus Glacier tongue by SnoTrac
Event 2 (Plus Keys) Geological reconnaissance and setting out salt buckets.
Late in the day a good deal of cargo unexpectedly arrived and by working Gordon Nation well into the night it will be possible to put the Vanda party and Event 6 out to Marble Point. This will give us the leverage to get an early allocation of helicopter hours so all are busy getting ready.
Cargo being unloaded at McMurdo
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind South-East 8 knots Temperature -12.2°C
Ration Strength 35
Tuesday 30 October 1973
John Warriner’s birthday but Ray Colliver forgot to ice the cake. The party for Marble Point, including Rob Grant and myself as drivers, got away at 1130 hours with a favourable Met forecast. We will have to get a lot better at the business of preparing and moving to a timetable. It is not a problem when travelling by vehicle but when we start to use helicopters we will have to be ready at the stated time. VXE-6 Squadron is still having problems getting the helicopters operational. There were no aircraft in from Christchurch.
The Marble Point party arrived at 1800 hours after an uneventful trip including a few minutes photographing seals with young. After a hurried meal Rob Grant and I started back and in perfect weather had a simple but rather boring trip, arriving back at Base at 0230 hours. On unpacking I was ashamed to find that the chaps who had packed our sledge whilst Rob and I were eating had left out both the radio and my personal survival pack. Of course it was my fault. I should have checked.
Base Survival & Rescue training had got underway.
Event 3 reported bad weather at Royds with wind gusts to 50 knots
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind East 8 knots Temperature -12.9°C
Ration Strength 30
Wednesday 31 October 1973
Alan Dawrant the Post Office Technician from the last team was released and flew out today. Shaun Norman and I viewed the Survival and Rescue instructional course in the morning. There was a good deal of practical activity and the senior National Science Foundation (NSF) officer present said he was very happy with both the course content and the standard of instruction. John Bitters again attacked the Pee Glacier, this time successfully. The Royds party (Event 3) have returned and are affecting minor repairs to gear. Event 7 & 11 arrived by air at about 2200 hours unannounced. I had enquired not half an hour before the aircraft landed and no one at this end knew who was on the aircraft.
Conditions at 0900 hours No wind -4.2°C
Ration Strength 33
The Scott Base Post Office
Thursday 1 November 1973
This morning we were able to get Brian Fischer away from Scott Base to Vanda in a helicopter together with a full load of building materials. The helicopter also moved the Marble Point remaining staff to Vanda.
We held a fire practice which threw up several shortcomings; in particular three people turned up at the rendezvous inadequately dressed and both the nominal roll and the warning out book were left behind.
Dr Torii, still with us, is becoming very worried about his equipment which has still not arrived. This evening we entertained first Cdr Tom Fitzpatrick in charge of ship operations and then Lyle McGuiness US DVDP co-ordinator. Following that we held a works programme meeting with Shaun Norman, Bill Johnson, Derrick Hobby and myself. I think we are all clear as to what needs doing and only await materials in a few cases. The SAR instructors having spent the night in igloos in the field had a day sorting gear preparing for the next course and doing their washing.
The ionosonde broke down but was repaired within two hours. The Auckland University people are being most helpful. Frank Blair is working on the Base fuel system, Steve Warder on the electric field mill and Gerry Straka is helping the laboratory with the routine reduction and analysis of data.
Conditions at 0900 hours Temperature -9.1°C
Ration Strength 39
Friday 2 November 1973
This morning Events 1 and 3 having now received their technical equipment set out for Marble Point in SnoTracs in an effort once again to seize a chance to be on-moved to Vanda. The met forecast was so so predicting cloudy skies, occasional snow showers and open water further south than usual.
Shaun held the party for an hour and finally let it go. Later in the day they reported in safely from Marble Point by radio. We also got a heavy load of building materials away by helo from Base. Event 7, Ron Heath, with the aid of a US ice drill, Stuart Clarke and Bob Newland, installed his equipment and is now ready to leave.
John Bitters ran the dogs and the usual Base maintenance proceeded. Shaun and I attended a helo allocation meeting in the afternoon.
Capt Fowler was not present and I was not called upon to speak. It was interesting to hear the Americans angrily decrying their field radios and saying they ought to have radio’s like ours.
Gordon Nation is very busy sorting all the inwards cargo and trying to make issues at the same time.
Cargo operations at Williams Field
This evening we had two helo pilots to dinner. They seemed nice enough lads and quite interested in what we are doing. Ski club met tonight for the first time.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind South-West 20 knots Temperature -5.8°C
Ration Strength 31
Saturday 3 November 1973
By breakfast the returning party from Marble Point had not arrived. Event 1 at Marble Point reported in however and said the returning party had left at 2230 hours yesterday intending to camp if the threatened bad weather struck and told us to expect them at Base at about 1800 hours today. The returning party did not keep either of its radio schedules so at 1400 hours I dispatched a party, which included myself, to meet them. We took the Nodwell loaded by the US to our SAR instructional team and the Dodge well-deck with a toboggan and sledge loaded. We met the returning party 15 miles from McMurdo and started back after reporting to Base by radio. The returning party’s radio had failed. After about 5 miles the weather had deteriorated to the point where we could make no progress. The wind was gusting to an estimated 50 knots and visibility was about 20 feet. There was a danger we would become separated so I decided to make camp.
US Nodwell Fire Tractor
Next morning we had a little difficulty getting the Nodwell and SnoTracs started but managed to get moving by midday and came home without incident. As a result of this exercise we missed a wine mess with Capt Fowler.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind South-East 20 knots Temperature -11.6°C
Ration Strength 31
Sunday 4 November 1973
Capt Fowler has now invited us to a wine mess on Saturday 10th November. After our trip out onto the ice we dried and checked our gear and it became apparent that I had not controlled the issues properly at the time of our departure. Although it seems nothing has been lost I have drafted standing instructions to cover similar future exercises.
Ron Heath was delivered to a departing Hercules C130 at Williams Field. It taxied to the end of the field, waited 15 minutes and then taxied back with a faulty generator. Finally it got away 4 hours later.
Conditions at 0900 hours Wind East 25 knots Temperature -10.5
Ration Strength 31
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