Sunday 28^th March

We are writing this week's newsletter moored alongside the BAS base at Rothera, on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, surrounded by the most spectacular scenery and wildlife. It has been an eventful week.

Science-wise, the week has been very successful. We have completed our section across Drake Passage, 45 stations from continent to continent. These are closely spaced, and have excellent lowered ADCP data to give us in situ current profiles. Team Nuts (Richard, Lucy and Dave) have measured every bottle for nitrates, phosphates, silicates and dissolved oxygen. Team CFCs (Alison, Fiona and Sally) are now achieving high quality data and have a good section across the southern Drake Passage where this data set will be most interesting. The CTD data have been calibrated and the quality of the data looks good. We have made initial comparisons with the Roether data from the same section 10 years ago. Hopefully within the next few days we'll be able to send back some preliminary results to put on the Web.

One major success of the week has been getting the liquid nitrogen generator to release its supply. We knew it was working (well the flashing lights indicated so) but the outlet appeared to be frozen up. Alison spearheaded a thankless campaign of aiming a hot air gun at the outlet for hours on end. She then announced that she'd sleep on it (rather uncomfortable we thought …) and it would work in the morning. It didn't, but the following day Simon, our deck engineer, tried again and practically fell over in astonishment because the outlet siphon just slid out effortlessly ! Since then the generator dragon has been behaving, much to our relief, because that would have been the end of our CFC measurements. We still thank our lucky stars that Lucy got the two dewars filled in the Falklands, which gave us enough to complete Drake Passage.

Socially, the high spot of the week has been "These Rough Notes", a collection of slides and readings from diaries, to document Scott's disasterous expedition to the South Pole. This was organised by Mark, who showed slides of various people and their original drawings. John read Cherry-Garrard, the Mate Rob was Bowers, Crispin read Wilson, Elaine was Kathleen Scott and Richard read Scott. It was very moving, and particularly apt as we pitched and rolled our way towards Antarctica. Other entertainment on board tends to revolve around the bar, and frequently involves noisy games of Trivial Pursuit. We also get a daily news bulletin printed out by the radio officer. We have followed the Pinochet trial with close interest, not least because Oli and Uli were planning to fly home via Lan Chile to Punta Arenas but will now probably have to return with us via Brize Norton. We were most relieved to have safely left Chilean waters before this week's ruling, since it would have been too late to rescind their permission for us to work in their waters.

However the high spot for all of us this week has been Antarctica itself. It is almost impossible to find words for how spectacular the scenery is. We left off the section on Friday morning and arrived in Rothera on Saturday after lunch, a welcome break from the hard work of the last week. The weather deteriorated during Friday, and we had snow, several inches. We enjoyed making substantial snowmen and snow penguins, and having snowball fights, on the aft deck. Visibility was poor, so we took a route outside of the islands which dot the coastline, and steamed quickly south. It was windy overnight, and the sea was rough - one of the worst nights so far for sleeping, as the ship was pitching and lurching. However we woke on Saturday to a clearing sky and the wind was dropping. Soon we saw our first glimpses of mountains in the distance. Then we could make out snow covered peaks, glaciers, crags, ice bergs. Science, data analysis and sample preparation were soon forgotten as the scientists excitedly went out on deck, up to the bridge or the monkey island, to absorb the views. Cameras were clicking incessantly. The mountains are so steep and high, it feels as though we are sailing through the Alps, but the valleys are filled with sea. There are no trees, but the beauty is in the crags and rocks, the colours of the ice, the sharp pinnacles. Sorry, but you'll just have to wait until you see the photographs, to get an inkling of how amazing it is.

The main source of angst this week has been the CTD cable. During our deep stations across Drake Passage, the cable kept getting turns in it, and becoming kinked. We had to stop every few stations, and deploy the cable with just a set of weights on it, lowered down to the sea bed to let the cable de-stress itself. This was getting time consuming, so the decision was taken to replace the cable with a new one. There are two main parts to this - getting the old cable off, and putting the new one on. All the scientists were roped in to help with the former job, by keeping the wire under tension as we walked it off the winch drum and into the hold where it was coiled in a figure of eight by the crew. When you realise that the cable is some 5 km long, you can see how much walking up and down the ship this involved. This task was completed during our steam south to Rothera on Friday.

The purpose of the trip to Rothera was to drop off aircraft fuel there, to be used next spring. On arrival the de-fuelling began, together with the longer task of winding the new CTD cable onto the winch drum. This was done by the winch, so there was nothing the scientists could help with. We were welcomed onto the base and allowed to explore. There are 22 BAS people overwintering at Rothera, a few scientists but mostly support personnel. They were extremely helpful and went to great efforts to show us their home. They took us up Reptile Ridge on Snocats or skidoos, where we had fantastic views over the bays. We were extremely lucky with the weather, which was windless and sunny. The wildlife at Rothera was the other marvel. We walked round the nearby headland along the rocky shore, and saw Crabeater seals, Weddell seals, Fur seals, and dozens of Adelie penguins. They were all so fearless. Uli sat still and wiggled his fingers in the snow, and one penguin came to peck his fingers out of curiosity ! The Skuas were also fearless but in a nasty way - one or two people were attacked by them - they dive-bomb people's heads which is frightening.

By Saturday evening the CTD cable was well on the way to being spooled on, but there was bad news when we woke on Sunday morning expecting to be sailing at 9 am. The cable spooling had become uneven after 3.6 km (due to a slightly greater wire thickness), and it was necessary to unspool it and start again. All of the scientists were required again, and many base members came to help too. Our task was to turn by hand the drum onto which the cable was being wound. This was like a giant cotton reel, suspended on the aft deck. With 4 or more people at a time, we just managed to keep it turning, taking turns of a few minutes each from 8.30 until 11.30, to the strains of a range of music from the 'chain gang song' to the teletubbies ! It was exhausting, and our arms and backs ached. The drum weighed 5 tonnes. There were rumours that the wire change had been concocted by Karen as a team building exercise … entirely unfounded!

At lunchtime the cable was off again, and the painstaking task of winding it back on began again. This time the ship's side managed to avoid the uneven lie of the cable, and they succeeded in getting the cable on smoothly (we hope). Our unexpected extra day at Rothera was spent in a variety of ways. Many people walked, photographed and enjoyed the scenery and the wildlife. Some went for boats trips in the bay to collect water samples for oxygen isotope analysis. In the evening we learnt that the cable was on again, and we sailed at 10 pm. The base people gave us a spectacular send-off, with flares and fireworks. Hard to believe that they will be there for 5 months with no means of getting out. Lizzy was very envious of them, and indeed there were rumours that she had hidden in a cupboard on Rothera as a stowaway ! Finishing this week's newsletter, we are now steaming northwards from Rothera, to rejoin our section at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Karen and Dave

Penguin joke of the fortnight.

Why don't polar bears eat penguins ? Because they can't get the wrappers off.

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