Over the past few days we have been resupplying the station with fuel. This involves connecting a hose line from the tanks aboard the ship moored in Kista Straight, which then runs on the water and up over West Arm, across the sea ice still in Horseshoe Harbour, then into the pipes which plumb into the station fuel farm.
I assisted in the West Arm setup, hauling lines and connecting up the hoses, and then in later shifts monitoring the connection points during pumping, to ensure there is no leakage into the environment during operations. After both pumping days we safely and successfully transferred the target amount of diesel to station.
Tomorrow morning marks my first week back aboard the Aurora, and I’ve settled in fine. Right now we’re pretty much down to round-tripping staff, watercraft, scientists, and resupply personnel on board, making meal times a pretty quiet affair, especially when the boaties are off ship and out on the water. That should change in the next few days as more Mawson folks finish up on station and transfer across, and we’ll be a full house again once we get back to Davis station for summer retrieval. I’m definitely enjoying the avocado and mandarins though!
