January 27, 2013

By Anton Bowring: The sea ice cleared the bay overnight so that we could land the support team at 8am as usual. The crane is busy unloading full drums and re-loading the empties. Up the track towards the depot lines, work continues to prepare the living caboose and the science caboose for the Ice Group to move in. The big job is getting the padded tea cosies to fit over each caboose tightly and…

We were very saddened to hear the news of the three Canadians whose plane went missing and has now been discovered on the side of Mt Elizabeth, Antarctica. The reports have not confirmed their deaths, but given the nature and position of the crash they have been presumed dead. This is a tragedy which will rock the communities not just in their homeland of Canada, but across the Antarctic…

(Please note this update was written late last night, and relates to events which happened yesterday. Due to comms limitations over night, we could only upload it this morning) We remained nosed into the ice shelf by our unloading site all night. It was very calm and the ship remained in position without buffeting. Today started as usual. At 8 am the basket was swinging over the ship’s side and…