Mid Winter's Day

Hello again. Mid-winter’s day is a huge milestone in Antarctic life, as I have said before, and if there is a particular day worth celebrating here you feel this is it. For all that mid-winter means to me back home, I’m sure I will always think of Antarctica at this time of year from now on – of the people who are here, and the people who have wintered here before. After some rough calculations we figured the total number of people on the continent during the 2008 winter would be less than 1000, and that the total number of people who have ever wintered here would be less than the number of people an average AFL match draws to a stadium. Amazing when you think that Antarctica is actually twice the size of Australia (not including the area covered by sea-ice during the winter months)! So on days like mid-winter’s day you feel pretty lucky to be here, and that it’s something worth celebrating. But celebrations are only what you make them, and it was up to us to make the day enjoyable, so here is how we did it:

We started the day with an extravagant morning tea, which included plenty of pastries, fruit salad, muffins, and a large selection of “smoko” bowel-clogging stuff. It may not sound like much, but considering morning tea usually consists of a biscuit and a cup of tea, this was a big hit with the “tradies” on station. Unfortunately I have no photos of this, but you can probably get an idea just by looking at the photos of our mid-winter’s dinner, below.

Our next ‘event’ was the mid-winter’s swim, a big tradition in cold climates such as Scandinavia, Iceland, Canada… and Antarctica. Some of the guys cut a 3x3 metre hole in the sea-ice close to the wharf, and then attached a wooden ladder to help people to get in and out. They had done this the day before our swim, but due to the cold temperatures the hole had frozen back over during the night, so it was re-dug before our swim, and reforming ice needed to be continually scooped off the surface as people were going in.
It was all quite a drawn out process. Only one person was to go in at a time, and they were to be attached to a rope via a harness for safety reasons (down here we are frequently restricted by OH&S red tape). As I am part of the medical team I was to be present during the whole process, but all the time standing around waiting meant I lost a lot of feeling in my fingers and toes (something you get used to here). It was interesting to watch people’s reactions to the cold water. Once in, it took most people a good few seconds before they could stop making shivering sounds and start talking, and even then words were few and far between. I promised myself that when I went in I wouldn’t make any shivering sounds, but I found that in truth I really didn’t have much control over what sounds I made. I also noticed that nobody really smiled while they were in the water, but conversely, once they were out, they couldn’t stop themselves from smiling. Before the swim I had only planned on going in up to my waist, but once in that far I felt the water wasn’t as cold as I had expected, and so I went under. Despite my hair freezing in the –22 degree air temperature within minutes of my getting out, my fingers and toes were really the only parts of me that needed warming, and for that we had a heated shipping container nearby.After the swim, a number of us chose to relax and warm up in the spa, which had been specifically placed just in front of the Red Shed for the day (another Casey tradition on mid-winter’s day). With a water temp of around thirty-eight degrees, and an air temp of around minus twenty, we had a temperature difference of fifty degrees between head and body!As you can see from Tod’s photos, steam from the water settling in our hair made for an amusement afternoon spa, during which we all ages about fifty years. The mid-winter dinner is a huge part of the day’s festivities, and something the chef works very long and hard to make special.As you can see, for 19 people the quantity of food was totally ridiculous, but given the only fresh produce came from our meagre hydroponics facilities, the quality was first rate, and something everyone appreciated.This is a time when several speeches are made. Anyone can make a speech, or toast, but after putting together both a formal and an informal invitation for people to send out (to friends, family, loved ones, celebrities, members of parliament etc etc), I was asked to read out some of the more interesting responses received, and toast to those people who would like to be here, but couldn’t be. I included in this a response I received myself from a friend (who shall remain nameless), in which I was worried he had actually bought himself a ticket to Hobart and was waiting there for instructions on how to catch the next flight to Casey. It was a good reminder of how little people know about this place, and how lucky I am to be here.Usually, people dress very well for the mid-winter’s dinner (this generally means suit and tie), which was something I didn’t know of until I got here, so I had to make do with what I could find in the station props room.

Later at night, after dinner and a drink or two at the bar, a few plays, poem recitals, and skits were performed in the Odeon, to loud applause… which had nothing whatever to do with the drink or two at the bar before hand. I played the part of a puppet in a stage-adapted version of Team America, which people were kind enough to say they enjoyed.To finish the night off Casey’s newest rock band, Comfy Chair, played a few songs in the wallow, which I believe was also received very well, probably due to the fact that people miss seeing live music more than the quality of the performance… but we had fun nevertheless.In the end, mid-winter’s day for us here was always going to be whatever we made it. I think most people did something to contribute to the festivities in some way, and consequently we had a great time. It was a good way to celebrate the ‘mid-point’ of the year, the shortest and darkest day, and the return of the light.

Mid Winter #1

This post comes with a warning. After many questions on the subject, I have tried in this post to explain what our days are like in terms of daylight hours. Consequently, I have included lots of sunset and sunrise photos, which you may be sick of by now. But if you dont live in the higher latitudes, it can be difficult to understand the significance of this time of year (in particular the Winter Solstice), and so this post is a bit of an explanation.

Sunrise... 11:30am

Midday... 12:40pm Sunset... 1:50pm

Its 10:45am here, and there’s a thin line of orange starting to appear on the northern horizon. For the past hour the features of the landscape have been slowly emerging from darkness, and are only now starting to take the shapes and forms that have become quite familiar to me. It’s funny that after 8 months here, I’ve even learnt to take 30m high ice-cliffs and distant kilometre wide bergs for granted, at times. But on a good morning like this I’m brought back to the reality of where I am and what brought me here. In another half an hour the scene is better lit, illuminated by splashes of orange and red protruding from the bottom of a thin layer of cloud. Another half an hour still and splashes of colour become brilliant flames reaching down from the sky toward the ground.

Unlike the mid latitudes, where these brilliant moments of sunrise and sunset last only a matter or minutes, here they can last for an hour. The rising sun makes such an angle with the horizon, and moves in such a shallow arc, that at mid-day it is only about 5 degrees above the surface of the far stretching sea-ice, and if I look to the south at this time on a clear day there is still a band of deep pastel blue in the sky, mixed with a layer of soft pink, that tells me the night has only retreated a little way in that direction, and briefly, but will soon return for another long night.

Looking towards the southern moon at midday

In the mess, where we eat, one of the plumbers is staring from the window toward the distant north; as I pass through the wallow, our living room, one of the mechanics is likewise fixated by the rising sun; and outside I can see one of our communications technicians with a camera and tripod, setting up to capture the moment. But a photo wont do the scene justice… none of mine do anyway. As I get to the operations building, where I work, I pass the Station Leader’s office - he’ s taking some time out and standing, hands on hips, at a window which faces north. We’ve had some bad weather lately, lots of wind and snow, and haven’t seen the sun for a good few days. But now, as the dawn appears to be breaking from a long night (even by local standards), the station has paused, briefly, to take it in. It’s probably my imagination more than anything, but it feels like a special sunrise. We’re just a few days from the mid-winter solstice, and the sun has travelled more or less as far north as it is planning to for the entire year. Soon it will begin to move south again, and the seemingly eternal night will retreat south of Casey as daylight hours return. Instead of rising in the far north north east and setting in the far north north west, the sun will start to rise from a more easterly position, and set further to the west. Midday sun over Casey

On a rare clear day we will get maybe 3 or 4 hours of visible light in a day, even though the sun is technically only “up” for two and a bit hours in every 24. But on more commonly overcast days we probably only have 2 hours or so of light – and by “light” I mean a grey diffuse glow, just enough to turn the headlights off while driving. Nothing to get overly excited about.

When I first started to calculate how many hours of darkness we would be getting during the “winter” I was disappointed to find that even at the solstice we would not be getting the famed “24 hours darkness” that springs to mind when ones thinks of the polar regions of the globe (we are just a little north of the Antarctic circle). Now, just a few days from this point, I can safely say that 21 hours darkness gives you a pretty good idea. 21 hours? 24 hours? Lets not get caught up in the detail. Between you and I, I think I’m glad the sun is almost ready to start moving south again.

Sunset over Reeve Hill

A place of extremes.

Although technically only the mid month of Autumn, I must say that April was much more like what I’ve been expecting the winter to be like. Strong winds, wild weather, and our most spectacular aurora to date (photo by Tom, bellow), punctuated a month in which I finally began to understand what extreme Antarctica can be like. We’ve seen the thermometer drop bellow –20 degrees on a few occasions, although it fluctuates wildly, and even reached positive 4.5 degrees a few days ago!!! A May record for Casey since records began! In terms of blizzards too, winter has definitely arrived. We had more blizzards in April than all other months combined since our arrival on October 30, and our most recent blizzard actually took our wind anemometer to the tantalizing speed of 99 knots (183km/hr) as a maximum gust! Anywhere else in the world, that would equate to a force three category cyclone, but inside the safe confines of our trusty buildings we carry on business as usual. In some parts of the Red Shed in fact, the sound of the wind is barely audible. Above was a photo taken by Tod, of me, and I can now see why the ropes are put up around station: that sort of wind has some serious power! The days are becoming significantly shorter now too. The sun, while technically above the horizon for 6.5 hours or so, makes such a shallow arc in the sky that at midday it is only about 25 degrees above the horizon (see the wonky photo of me above, with the Red Shed in the background). Of course, due to the angle it comes up at though, our sunrises and sunsets last for hours now, which is great on a clear or partly cloudy day. And we’ve been having a few of those lately. The shots above and bellow were taken from one of my favourite places in the world! It’s a hill called Reeve Hill, only 500m or so from station, but the view to the north-west is just brilliant! It’s actually one of the few places left here where we can be guaranteed to still see some animal life. Snow Petrels, which seem to be one of the only creatures game enough to winter with us by the look of things, along with seals, love playing around the steep rocky slopes. In the mid-ground you can also see Shirley Island. After proper sea-ice drilling and testing in mid May we should be able to head back over there for the first time since December! Which will be great, despite there being no penguins left any more.Theres nothing like a fine and sunny day to be out of doors in Antarctica. The sharp light really highlights the bergs and other ice features, which you just don’t get to see on those cloudy and gloomy days, so the idea is to just make the most of it when the sun is out! The great thing about the people who come to Antarctica is that a good percentage of us are into ‘the outdoors’ and exploring: Craig, Tom and Tod are always up for getting out and about, so I’ve added a few photos bellow of just that.

Craig took this on a recent overnight hike we did to the Wilkes Hilton. In the background you can see that the bay just in front of station was completely iced over… however, a few days later and the katabatic winds blew it all out to sea. That’s why sea-ice travel is pretty much not done in most areas around Casey: you need lots of good islands just offshore to hold the ice in when the strong winds blow, and we just don’t have many of those.

On another walk, Tom and I ran into this Waddell Seal (bellow). Although they look like huge sea slugs from a distance, they do have quite a cute face. We’re told to expect to see these seal all year round, and if you travel 40kms or so south, to the Browning Peninsula (the only hut I haven’t been to yet), you’ll get to see a large elephant seal colony. I’m really looking forward to that once spring comes round. In the absence of people who might care about our appearances (ie girlfriends), Tom and I both thought we’d road test some new hairstyles. Back in late February Tom got a Mohawk, and I all but shaved my head… something I haven’t done since I had nits in year two. But lets face it, even a second grader would’ve known better than to shave his head coming in to an Antarctic winter! I generally detest beanies… they remind me of pubescent teenagers with hooded jumpers and skateboards, terrorising old people, and showing too much of their silky boxer shorts… but lately I’ve been a little less scathing of their functionality.

The sun continues to move north now, but even shorter days, colder temperatures, and strong winds won’t stop people from getting out and seeing some of the surrounds. Now, just a month and a half away from mid-winter, the first half of the year seems to have flown by. But the nights are certainly getting longer, and the phrase perpetual darkness is meaning more to me every day.

However, the winter and wild weather we are coming into now was all part of the allure for me in the first place - and has always been. It’s really quite an amazing place: where else to you see the moon and sun setting, simultaneously, on opposite sides of the horizon, like this?

Autumn Chill

The days are getting much shorter now at Casey. After losing something close to one hour each week around the Autumnal Equinox (March 22nd), the rate of change is now slowing down so that 7 days from now we will have just 40 minutes less daylight than we do today. Come June 22 (the Winter Solstice) we will have just two and a half hours of light each day (presuming it isn’t cloudy). But for the most part we have been very lucky with the weather so far. For a few weeks after the ship left we had lots of low cloud, and not much sunshine, but generally light winds. A little way into March though, the cloud disappeared (probably went to somewhere like Mawson or Davis), and we were treated to two or three weeks of fine and sunny weather. The clear night skies here are great, and even better when you get to see something like this…

As much as I like these photos however, I will admit that they give a somewhat warped idea of reality. While nothing can really compare to watching this light show in person, the necessarily long exposure of the camera, 40 seconds or more, definitely enhances the colour. To give you an idea, the snowy foreground was almost pitch black to the naked eye, but the camera picks up the colour very well. I must have stood outside (in –15C or so, which isn’t really that cold unless you’re standing still taking photos) for over an hour that night (I was excited), but the aurora itself actually lasted for 3 nights (albeit faintly). The third night of which Craig and I had decided to ski to Wilkes again.
Although due to the shorter days we no longer have the luxury of choosing to travel at any hour of the day, we set off this evening after work and were aided by the recently full moon. By the by, you will have to wait another 10 years for a full moon on the Autumnal Equinox… for those who are interested. This was to be my second visit to the Hilton in a week – a place that for me is becoming a home away from home away from home… Whats more, it was to be my third jolly in as many weeks, after a trip to Jack’s Donga the previous weekend. Its hard to resist the only wood fire in all of the Australian Antarctic Territory. What I particularly like about visiting these huts is that it gives you an idea of what it was like for the real explorers… even if its just an idea. We live in such comfort and luxury that I can sit at my window in the evening, reading a book with a cup of tea, and 2 feet away, on the other side of the window, the temperature can easily be 30C or 40C lower and blowing 30 knots. If you forget how things freeze here, and how quickly you can get cold outside, visiting these huts if a nice reminder. We turn the bar-heaters in the huts off at night for safety reasons, and at Wilkes the fire will go out. Ventilation means that by the time you wake up in the morning the hut has more or less dropped to ambient outside temperatures (-10C or so), and it will be a while before it heats up again. But for us this is just one night in many, for Scott it was every night, and he didn’t have bar-heaters… But the wood fire isn’t all I like about Wilkes. It is, as I have mentioned before, a historical site, quite literally frozen in time.

In summer, this (above) was a shallow melt pond at Wilkes. A few inches bellow the surface are planks of wood, tin cans, metal pipes, and other bits and pieces.It’s a black and white photographer’s dream… and a nice place for a novice like myself to try shooting off a few too. My take on Wilkes is this: it was positioned terribly by the Americans, who seemed to have landed in Newcomb Bay and thought “right, where is the most snow accumulating, the most wind blowing, and generally the worst looking area?” and started building at Wilkes. They then got sick of digging the station out of the snow every time there was a puff of wind, and gave over power to the Australians. After about a decade (50s or 60s I think) they too got sick of it and decided to pack up and leave. No… wait a minute… they didn’t pack up anything, they just left! As I am going to do now. Arrivederci!