What do you do for fun,

When you are about 5000k's from home, you look for ways to entertain yourself away from work so when Stu suggests that some of us should get together, bring 4 songs you like and we'll play darts, drink beer, eat chips and talk shit of course the answer is i'll be in it. 

That being said with my 4 songs and a bit on each I made my way to the impromptu studio located in the operations building where the band practices. This was week 1 after much deliberation and the fact we didn't really have much room, the studio is relocated to new premises still in the ops building ut a much better room for recording, the old agso's area. 

What would a show be without the appearance of a guest, this week saw Nick the on station chippie join us with his selection of 4 songs, mix this all up and we have a radio show, which can be listened to at the following link it goes for about and hour and a half and has some great tunes mixed with a bit of conversation and of course we play darts throughout the whole experience.

 https://soundcloud.com/stuart-shaw-11/davis-radio-18-04-14

Enjoy and give your feedback, 

Our new premises including a shot of the guest booth.

 Corey in front, Nick and Stu discussing the program.

Stu illustrating a few bars on the window of the booth.

A bit pushed for room, dart board is located in the cupboard, regulation height and distances though.

Blizzard and Ice Drilling

This week saw our first blizzard, only mild but still  a first. Winds 40 to 50 knots gusting 45 to 60 this made getting to work a little difficult but achievable.

We decided that it was time to start drilling the ice in the harbour, it's now been 3 weeks since the Saturday night sitting in the LQ enjoying a quite ale we noticed the greasy ice forming on the surface.

It's pretty amazing to see how fast the ice forms it should now grow at about 100mm a week, depending on how much snow lies on the top as it forms an insulation layer slowing the process down. 

Never the less, drilling and science has now begun, so Nick, Dave and myself headed out for the first time in 2014, a little dubious at first, walking on the ocean can do that to you. First drill about 5m from the wharf saw the ice at 360mm more than safe to walk on. We have 7 points to install for the Winter, this exercise would see us place canes at points 1,2 and 7. These will be monitored weekly and recorded, information sent back to the Glaciologists based at Kingston. 

 Ready to head out from the LQ into the Blizzard and back to work.

Entrance to the SMQ during the bliz

The Loader just after the Bliz, and before it was warmed up for a days work clearing the roads

The JCB 

 The IT in the background

The front windows of the LQ

Our BBQ table on the verandah

The SAR HAG ready to take us to the Ice and just in case!

The camel train, Dave and Nick, heading out behind me onto the ice, we are all tied together 15m apart in case the first one goes in.

Share it around, Nick drilling another test hole, these are drilled every 50-100m depending on the depth of ice.

Nick enjoying the day and getting a bite of lunch

Drilling point number 7

Measuring the depth of ice.