Welcome Dear Reader, to Day 13 when we say farewell to Casey and leave on our mission to help our mates stuck in the ice at Prydz Bay. If you're reading this for the first time, may I suggest that you visit HERE and start from the beginning. You will have a little catching up to do - but hopefully it will be worth the effort.
I will talk further over the next few days, about the Antarctic clean up, what eventually happened to our containers and the waste at Thala Valley, and the ongoing saga of the Wilkes clean up.
Until then - please read on...
Friday 28th December 2001
at sea (65 deg S, 110 deg E)
Today we left Casey and are presently steaming in a north-westerly direction as we make our way around the ice shelf towards Polar Bird about 4 days sailing from here. As I wrote a few days ago Bird has been beset in heavy ice since before we left Hobart and our mission is to reach her and break though about 15 miles (28 km) of ice to let her out so that she can continue her own mission which is to refuel and resupply Mawson Station, Australia’s most westerly Antarctic base. I’m sure we’ll have more to say about this over the next few days.
Our last day at Casey has been a moving day in more than one sense.
It is moving in that it is the day when all last season’s winter and summer expeditioners say farewell to the place which has been their home for many months. The summerers came south in September and have been in Casey for the past three months. These are mostly scientists and researchers, engaged in a wide range of activities associated with the very special flora and fauna in this part of the world and the impact that previous and future visitors (including tourists) will have on the long-term survival of this fragile territory. Many of the summer scientists have been engaged in assessing the impacts that the Thala Valley and the Wilkes waste tips have had on the marine environment. Some examples include studies of the impacts of contaminants on frozen groundwater and the consequence of waterborne pollution on the marine sediments in the surrounding waters.
Of course, not all the people on Station are scientists. There is a need for plant operators, diesel mechanics, riggers, carpenters and plumbers and, of course, the most important man on the station, the cook. Altogether there were about 30 expeditioners who spent the summer season at Casey.
The expeditioners for whom most respect is reserved are however, the winterers. These 15 or so people arrived at Casey in December last year and have now spent a year at the Base. These are the people: the meteorologists, the communications technicians and tradespeople who have maintained the station and its presence through the long freezing winter where temperatures are 50 degrees below zero, and winds 300 km per hour and who then continued through the busy, only slightly less cold Antarctic summer when the station population increased from 16 to 50.
Today is also moving in the sense that there is a lot of emotion as one group of expeditioners farewelled their home for the past several months and another group, the sixteen 2002 winterers were left to manage and maintain the base and prepare it for next year’s summer expeditioners who will be back in September 2002 to commence the next cycle.
The formal handover from 2001 expeditioners to the 2002 group took place in the Red Shed at 9 am. Some of those leaving were already on board Aurora and only a handful of round-trippers like me were there to witness the little ceremony. First, were awards of the Antarctic Medal made to expeditioners who had made outstanding contributions during the past year. This was followed by the formal handover of the “keys” to the Shed from outgoing Station Leader, Paul Cullen to new Station Leader, John Rich. As a final token, Paul presented John with the last resort survival package to enable him to endure the ultimate catastrophe should everything that could possibly go wrong eventuate, a bottle of 12-year-old single malt whiskey.
It was also time to say our farewells and best wishes to the winterers we were leaving behind. Those of us that had come down on Aurora for the round trip had made good friends with them and there appears to be little doubt that the station will be well looked after by John and his team.
John’s parting words to me were, “Don’t worry Mike, we’ll make sure that we look after the rubbish and have all your containers ready for you to collect next season.”
Aurora’s little work boat was used to ferry the outgoing expeditioners and their bags out to the ship, which was a hive of activity all morning. After the relatively quiet trip south where the total number of souls on board was just sixty, our numbers have now increased to just under a hundred and the lines at mealtimes are suddenly much longer. A whole lot of new faces have joined us, some still with heavy beards, some whose winter whiskers have been freshly shaven; and a variety of hair colours – greens, blues and gold which will no doubt be allowed to grow out as they return to a somewhat more conventional existence over the next few months. Many will be back next summer.
By 12.30pm, Captain Tony Hansen was ready to lift anchor and depart. The last passenger was on board, all the samples from all the experiments were stowed, the boats and barges which we brought with us, and without which the cargo handling couldn’t happen had all been lifted on board and safely lashed to the deck. Returning expeditioners and round-trippers gathered on the decks as we started underway. From Casey, an orange smoke flare was lit as a traditional farewell and a few bright glowing red and orange lights were seen outside the Red Shed as the winterers gave us their traditional send-off. Aurora sounded a long loud blast on her foghorn and headed out of the bay. There were quite a few with lumps in their throats as we watched Casey disappear and a couple of burly expeditioners later mentioned to me that they were glad to be wearing dark glasses to hide their tears.
And so to Polar Bird…
No comments:
Post a Comment