Resupply and Postponing Christmas

The Aurora Australis

So we've been super busy lately with the Arrival of the Aurora Australis - the AAD's Icebreaker that has come to resupply us with a years supply of food, alcohol, construction materials, machinery and our "econ" with is our personal belongings we sent down because they wouldn't fit on the plane - woohoo!

My truck for resupply 

My job during the cargo part of resupply is driving what is possibly one of the coolest trucks in antarctica - an '82 R model Mack 6x6. This beast has ex-military written allover it. The haul is from the wharf to the station via a steep, slippery dirt track carved through snow with walls higher than the truck itself.

To top it off the ship also brings us almost a million litres of diesel which has to be transferred from the ship to our diesel tanks. This involves running a fuel hose out over the water to the Aurora anchored in Newcomb Bay to connect with Casey Station's two "fuel farms" for pumping. During the fuel transfer it's my job to monitor the upper fuel farm which involves dipping the 90,000 litre tanks as they fill to take the levels and changing the valves over so they don't overflow. My first shift started at midnight Christmas day and with the first full moon to fall on a christmas day in 38 years the sky show was amazing.

Dipping Fuel Tanks under the Christmas Moon

Anyway that's about it for now. Christmas has been postponed here so hopefully we get to have it early next week.

Laters

Wayne