So tiring

We got up early ready for a day in the field (it's moving day - always a hard day to digging), and were about to head out, but a fog bank came in and we were put into Condition 2 - no off station travel. At least I could have more coffee.

Eventually, we made it to the rig, lowered the drill, and disassembled the tent. You may recall the Science team helped dig in our anchors. They were not there to help them dig them out again. Delia isn't tall, but still......

Delia in a hole

The tend came down nicely and the rig moved easily, but Delia found the only slope in the whole of the ice sheet, so the drill was nowhere near level. There are ways to level the drill, but they are very labor intensive. Delia now needs to scale the rig to get onboard.

With the drill level, we started raising the tower when our winch battery died.....it never rains (ever actually), but it pours. We plugged in a new battery charger, had lunch, and then had enough power to raise the tower (which went really well).

The wind was now blowing, so making sure the drill was level was a real challenge, but we managed to get it done (with more manual winching of jacks). Very tired by this point.

Drilling the first 10 meters involves lost of parts, so despite our tired bodies, we did the first 10 m. Naturally, the drill worked beautifully, but rest is required. We will drill more tomorrow.

For one more thing for the day, we left the Master Switch on the Pisten Bully on, draining it's battery. Only some well coordinately power cycling managed to bring it back to life allowing us to return to station (we have a snow mobile, so we could have made it back. Best not to need to ask for a jump start though).

The rig ready to move. Delia is heading up to drive

An Igloo and Sauna on Station. Not your traditional Igloo, but apparently it is too cold and the snow isn't sticky enough

A fog bank rolling in

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