Windless Bight

Today we were on the Twin Otter schedule and the Helo schedule.  We were not only on the Twin Otter schedule but we were also listed for other sites as backups.  The Twin Otter flights were canceled right away due to weather.  By the time I got into the office the Team decided that the Helo would probably get canceled too, so we scheduled 4 snow machines.  It was time to gear up.  We were taking 4 snowmobiles to a site called Windless Bight.

It was my first time on a snowmobile.  The ride out to Windless Bight was a lot of fun.  It took us one hour and forty minutes to get there.  The funny thing about Antarctica is that “it’s just over there.”  The features here are so large and there is vast openness it feels like you can just walk right over to the place you see.  However, that is not the case, it didn’t seem like it would take that long.  I am not sure where I got the idea but I thought it would take forty minutes to get there on snowmobiles.  It took an hour longer but that was fine.  The snow went on for miles, the sun was bright and high in the sky.  It was a great day to be outside working.  I wasn’t cold, dressing correctly does wonders, the ECW is quite warm.

Once we arrived we took the heights of the instruments from the snow surface.  

Then we began the process of moving them to another tower.  This particular site visit required a new tower.  The riggers had been out to Windless Bight earlier this week.  They installed a new tower for us.  Windless Bight is known for very little wind, hence the name, and lots and lots of accumulation.  The new tower is built with the expectation that in a year or two we will need to raise it.  We dug down about 5 feet to the battery box and brought that up for the new tower.  We had to dig stairs up the snow to get the battery box up out of the hole.  

The process continued we took down the sensors, the solar panel, the aero vane, and the electronics enclosure.  It took us four plus hours but it is moved to the new tower, working and transmitting.

I didn’t look at the time personally.  I just knew I was ready for another ride back to a warm dinner.  I took a bunch of video and pictures.  I struggle with capturing the beauty of this place.  I keep trying though.