The past few weeks have seen a lot of people leave the base. Quite a few good friendships had been forged over the four months I've spent on base, but one of the things I learned after living in Cambridge for a three years is that people come and people go. I've become used to saying goodbye and just getting on with things. The last of the planes left at the beginning of March, and now the ship has gone.
So here we are. Twenty people -- a motley crew of mountaineers, scientists, engineers, chefs and doctors -- left alone, not only on the base but quite likely the whole of Adelaide Island for the next eight months. The ship, Ernest Shackleton, left Rothera on Sunday 20th March 2011, taking the last remaining personnel from the summer season.
This years winterers had been invited on board the Shack on the Friday night for a meal. I hadn't realised at the time, but one of the luxuries that the crew of the Shack have been enjoying is milk. We have a powdered milk substitute on base which is an acquired taste -- so much so that most of the people on base have no intention of acquiring it. So when I got my first chug of real milk on the ship, I was very tempted to leave the base behind and stowaway.
So on to work. I've been left to my own devices since the end of February, when my predecessor, John Wedlake, left. It was an excellent handover, and if I'm honest, I've got my work cut out if I'm to do a good a job as he did. My job now, and for the next 8 months, is to keep the experiments running to the best of my ability. Most of the work is computer based, and the traditional IT Crowd-esque, "turn it off and turn it on again" is a good start. (This is a valid technique by the way!! NASA engineers call it "cycling the hardware") However, there have been a number of occasions where I've had to get down and dirty with cable impedance matching and other electronicy goodness. In my geeky heart of hearts, I know that this is where the fun lies!! I am by no means an expert in the systems here on base, but an old boss of mine once gave me some advice, "If you don't know how to fix something, there's bound to be somebody in the world who does!"
The nights began to draw in noticeably about a months ago. This meant that the sun actually dipped below the horizon for a few more hours each night, and the stars began to put on one hell of a show. There's an area of the base which is devoid of any man made light and by picking a good time, we can go up there and see the Milky Way in all its splendour. This is amazing to me -- I've grown up in and around Wrexham, and like most people living near towns and cities, we've grown up with light pollution. To see the stars in crystal clarity, as well as a host of meteorites and satellites, was amazing. Unfortunately, my camera skills are still next to nothing, so trying to capture what I've been seeing is almost an exercise in futility. But here's one attempt!
