sitrep 7/1/08

Sitrep 7th January 2008

Weather summary:

Cloudy early with a slight northerly breeze. Skies cleared as the day wore on with less than 5 knots most of the afternoon.

Today's activities:

Brett was the first up this morning by virtue of the fact he never went to bed. For the past 24 hours he has been filming a scenic shot on the Sony HD camera, requiring to change tapes every hour, keep batteries up to the camera, and stay awake. Basically he had a half an hour down time between each visit, the jar of Nescafe blend 43 copped a real hiding!

The rest of us surfaced to a radio call from the tourist vessel Orion. She was is port and offloading passengers by 10.30. Jon and I offered the use of the chainsaw to carve some steps for their landing site but an opportunistic ice break provided a great ramp for the crew and passengers to use all day. Anne ventured over to do some PR work at the hut, while back at the hut Steve made some adjustments to the power intake cord so that we have the option of using the small or large generator, in the hope to save some fuel. Jon and I continued to finish the tie down to the Sorensen extension. Around lunch time Tony, Michelle, Anne and Steve and Peter Morse headed over to the Orion for a shower sauna and buffet lunch. Jon and I headed down to Boat Harbour to have a quick look at the new tide gauge from onboard one of Orion's inflatable boats. We then had our arms twisted to venture out to the five star service of Orion for a shower. As we boarded the vessel the other five were just leaving after sweeping the prize pool at a game of trivia. Peter Morse relieved Brett for his last two hours of tape changing so he too could join us on board. After the shower the crew asked us to join the crowd for dinner. Overwhelmed by the opulence of it all we followed our noses past the piano lounge to the restaurant. The three of us were asked to mingle with the diners, who were all keen to hear all about our stay. After the lavish feast we bid farewell to our warm hosts and headed back ashore.

Today is the anniversary of the death of Xavier Mertz, from Mawson's tragic sledging journey in 1913. So 95 years later we gathered at the memorial cross to pay our respects, while the Orion quietly steamed out of Commonwealth Bay with another ship full of happy customers. Squeaky clean once more we headed for home.

Tomorrow is will probably be eviction day for the tent dwellers of Cape Denison, with the cargo pick up drawing closer we are keen to take advantage of good weather and start stockpiling gear at the helipad. We are also keen to download some data from the tide gauge first up, before we deflate the little zodiac.

Warm wishes from the MHF team

Peter McCabe Field Leader