8 How about a little BLOW!!!!14/11/10

Firstly id like to start by thanking all of the 516 of you that have visited my little page and its humbling that so many of you find what boring old Michael gets up to, but i love it!!!!

Some of you that got my emails last season might remember the first weekend we were here last year we had a blizzard. Well we got one this year too, not quite as bad as last years but none the less impressive.

Here is a pic from last year of the weather board in the mess...............
AT= Actual temp DP= Dew point
Wind = direction in a compass reading/average wind speed in knots and WG= Wing gusts in knots

So first thing to notice is the direction from which the wind is coming from. Here at Casey the strongest wind always comes from the Easterly direction and 73 isn't far form it. Wind gusts of 91 knots even though last year it did apparently reach 101 so to put that into perspective 91 knots =  168.532kph and 101knots = 187.052kph. Rule of thumb in going outside in those sort of conditions isn't like a stroll in the park. We have blizz lines installed around the station. All they are is rope around poles that join all the buildings up so in zero visibility conditions it is possible to get from building to building. Secondly you must inform someone as to where you are going and call them when you get there. Only too often you hear stories form other stations where an expeditioner has gone outside only not to make it to where they wanted to go and nobody knew. There is only one result for that.............................. Lastly there is the 1kg to 1 knot rule, needless to say i haven't been in a blizz i haven't been able to stand up in.

Met (Bureau of Meteorology) had predicted a blow for us on Friday afternoon peaking that evening and dropping off to next to no wind on Saturday. You quickly learn that unlike back in Australia they are seldom wrong here. Friday we were working eagerly to prepare the station for the blizz which is ensuring all the blizz lines are in place and everything is tied down from being a potential missile.

A little video of trying to move around last season................you'll hear me laughing towards the end and that's Jeff on the ground you should just be able to make out after being blown over and Brett chickening out in going to the smokers hut........

Here is what happens when stuff isn't tied down..................... Antarctic Ingenuity wins with the modification of a bit of plywood and a little plastic.

This is a pic of the same board almost a year later and its amazing that the numbers are almost identical.......................but this is what we had on Friday.

Here i am working hard.............

Here are a series of pics to give you an idea of how and what it looks like..........

Taken lunch time Friday 1pm..................

Dinner time 6pm.....................

Saterday morning 8am...............

to give you an idea on distances, the closest gas bottle it about 4m away fertherst 9m maybe..............thats not as bad as i have seen here either. It wasnt snowing wither, it was snow being blown. Over winter there was a hell of a lot of snow fall here. One dump they had i think 2 or 3 foot, it was a months snow in one day. This hadent been hard packed so its still blowing around..........

On my way to take the middle shot in the series above just to give you an idea what happend to you.....................here i am in all my glory

Another thing i was going to show you was our toilet..................i know why would i want to show that but as you can imagine with the high winds there is an incredable sound inside the red shed (living quaters) and with the differing air pressures you get intresting side affects like......................

Then there was the after effects.........................

Wharf Road for those of you who remember from last season has been completed and now must be done again...................i didn't have much to do with it this year as i was on the second Herc it had already been commenced by a couple other operators and only helped out occasionally. But its about 30% full again and now must dig it out again! LOL

This week we also did Hagg training around a caned course................................................

Cliff showing me how "GENERAL TRADES" do it...............................

Now we come to last night think a picture would sum it up better.

Your looking from Casey Station towards Wiles the old American Station (you can see the old ray dome and a hut) at ice burgs stuck grounded....................

Its tuff with views like that every day/night to look at as we are only getting maybe an hour or so of twilight......................

Well that's all i got for you this week, be good till next time.


Michael


P.S............."Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will...but remember it didn't work for the rabbit."
                    R.E. Shay