Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Casey update and test post

The trip to Antarctica last Friday (8th) went ahead like clockwork, just as planned and defying the typical Antarctic pattern. We went straight through McMurdo with just an hour or so on the ice, transferring from the AAD airbus to a USAP C130 and on to Casey. If I have time I'll post a couple of pictures and further detail.

Things are proceeding apace, and after 4 days at Casey, it looks like our onward flight to Dumont d'Urville (DDU) could happen on Friday, just a couple of days away.

We are expecting a few tonnes of further cargo in from McMurdo, hopefully before Friday, and have been busy doing last minute jobs: checking gear and assembling cargo for the onward flight.

Our next leg will be on a Basler (a rebuilt DC3) ski equipped plane. This aircraft has been working at Davis Station, west of here, and the weather looks promising for it to arrive here on Thursday. The whole chain of events requires a sequence of good weather windows at Davis-Casey-DDU which might normally require delays of a week or more. So, for us to get to DDU this Friday would represent a great head-start.

The real purpose of this post is a test of the technology; using email rather than a web interface, in readiness for the satellite phone link we will soon be using.