September 29: Power house engines

Lionel our Station Mechanic, invited me to help out on a service on the  engines in the main power house. He has been kindly  tutoring me  on engine maintenance  to assist in my study towards my Marine Engine Driver Course (MED3).
On this day Lionel taught me how to undertake a valve adjustment.
The engines which power our station are marine diesel engines, and so I am able to complete many of the tasks required of my course here on Station with Lionel.

Valve adjustment. Photo: Lionel Whitehorn

Maintenance on the engines in the power house. Photo: Lionel Whitehorn

September 26: Gadgets Gully

The trades team had been replacing the ladders up Gadgets Gully over several weeks of work. On a beautiful but cold day the boys finished the job and needed extra hands to help carry the old ladders and tool caches back down the Station. I was happy to lend a hand, and take in the beautiful view to be had from up in the gully at the same time. I seem to have scored a lighter load than Justin who is in the distance with a pack and two generators!

Carrying gear down Gadgets Gully. Photo: Rich Youd

September 18: Station BBQ

Even in the sub-Antarctic a BBQ is sometimes called for. On this day we had completed a Search and Rescue training exercise that was run over 5 hours. We celebrated with a BBQ outside of the chippies workshop.

Relaxing by the fire drum. Photo: Jacque Comery

Taste testing. Photo: Jacque Comery

The BBQ skewers. Photo: Jacque Comery

Sitting by the fire. Photo: Jacque Comery

BBQ on the workshop porch> Photo: Jacque Comery

Rugged up for the BBQ. Photo: Jacque Comery

September 11: Boating with Orcas

Another boating day presented. I jammed my injured foot into a dry suit and off we went.
En route to The Nuggets, my crewman Ben shouted out that he had spotted Orcas. We drove along parallel to the coast watching the Orcas out to sea. I am sure that my squeals of excitement could be heard from Station.
Ben and I were confused why Rich in the second IRB was taking photos of us and not the Orcas.
Unbeknownst to us we had an Orca following our boat the whole time!

What an incredible experience to be out in the boats, with the plateau blocking out the sky on one side of us, and the horizon stretching to the east, with no land for thousands of kilometres. To have the Orca pod consider us worthy of investigation was quite the honour.

Thanks Rich Youd for the photos.

Our IRB being followed by the Orca. Photo: Rich Youd

Orca pod frolicking. Photo: Rich Youd

Orca. Photo: Rich Youd

Ben and I oblivious as to our visitor following us. Photo: Rich Youd

Jacque and Ben headed north up the east coast opposite east beach. Photo: Rich Youd

September 9: Boating day

With October resupply creeping ever closer, some time playing around in our IRBs (Inflatable Rescue Boats) after a long winter was well overdue. A beautiful sunny day of light winds gave us the perfect opportunity to get on the water.
A shout out to Justin Chambers for the wonderful pics taken from the Ham Shack, whilst holding down the fort back on Station.

Boating with IRBs in the shadow of the plateau. Photo: Justin Chambers

Jacque and Ben Golden practising approaches in the IRB. Photo: Justin Chambers

Picking a line between the kelp and rocks. Photo: Justin Chambers

Approaching the trailers on landing beach to retrieve the boats. Photo: Justin Chambers

Landing Beach and The Razorback lookout stairs. Photo: Justin Chambers

September 2: Breakfast on the deck at Bauer Bay

Andrea and Rich met up with me last night at Bauer Bay. We awoke met by a stillness, so rare for the west coast. Glorious sunshine, and a gentle breeze welcomed us out onto the porch. Rich cooked an amazing pancake breakfast complete with lashings of tinned butter and maple syrup, and we sat back, coffee in hand to enjoy a very special September morning.

Relaxing morning coffee. Photo: Jacque Comery

August 25: Macca on the move.....

One of the science projects that we support here at Macquarie Island, is Geoscience Australia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) installation.

Below is a time-series of the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) data that has been collected at Macquarie Island since 2001.  The station was established earlier than this, but the latest analysis of data is from 2001 onwards.  GNSS is a fancy way of referring to GPS now days as the data we collect does not just include the US run GPS system, but also satellites systems operated by Russia (GLONASS), Europe (Galileo), China (Beidou) and a Japan (QZSS)

What the time-series shows is the movement of an antenna on an outcrop of rock beside the science building (which is hopefully anchored to bedrock) broken down into three components.  The first plot shows the up-down movement (each dot represents a day).  The second plot shows the north-south movement and the third plot the east-west movement.  The red lines indicate discontinuities in the time-series (such as equipment changes or earthquakes).  For example you can clearly see a displacement in 2004 when the Macquarie Island Ridge earthquake occurred.

From these plots it can be estimated where and how fast Macca is moving:

The current estimate based on the modelling would be approximately 10 mm/year to the east, 30 mm/year to the south and sinking 1 mm/year.  It is important to note that some studies have shown that velocities (movement) of the island is still being influenced by the large earthquakes it has experienced over the last 100 years.

Thanks to Ryan Ruddick at GA for the info.

Checking out the GNSS. Photo: Mark Baker

Trying to work out where the antenna cable should be plugged in. Photo: Mark Baker

August 6: Leopard seal

Our first Leopard seal visitor. Just another beautiful creature taking a break...nothing to support the anthropomorphised view of evil and darkness that we humans so readily accept of many of the top order predators.

Leopard seal. Photo: Jacque Comery

Leopard seal. Photo: Jacque Comery

Leopard seal. Photo: Jacque Comery

Leopard seal. Photo: Jacquie Comery

Sleeping leopard seal. Photo: Jacque Comery

Stretching out. Photo: Jacque Comery

Leopard seal. Photo: Jacque Comery

Jacque photographing the leopard seal. Photo: Andrea Turbett

August 4: Attempted hike to Davis Point

Andrea (our Ranger in Charge) and I planned a trip to Davis Point Hut on the west coast, to collect marine debris and celebrate Andrea's birthday. Faced with an island blanketed in heavy snow from yesterdays blizzard we set out. We punched up the Doctors Track in hip and sometimes waist deep heavy snow. We took turns breaking track swapping every few minutes. The snow was densely packed and heavy like half set cement. When we made it to the top the drifts over the track were so deep we realised that without snowshoes we just were not going to get through... we enjoyed the view, and the much faster trip down, and headed back to VJM, a little defeated, but still pretty chuffed that we even made it to the top of Doctors.

View of station and north head. Photo: Jacque Comery

Snow drifts over the track. Photo: Jacque Comery

View to northwest, the plateau looks like a big melting ice cream. Photo: Jacque Comery

The view past the Razorback towards the Isthmus. Photo: Jacque Comery

The circular track in the foreground is the IPS installation which is no longer there. We lost the mast in the 85 knot wind storm last week.

 

Andrea pushing up through thigh deep snow. Photo: Jacque Comery

 

Me blending in with the track markers. Photo: Andrea Turbett

Jacque and Andrea. We made it to the top at least! Photo: Andrea Turbett.

July 19: Leaving Brother's Point, headed to Station

After a lovely last night, of listening to the wind whistle around the hut, I decided to make an early break for Station, to try and get  up and over the plateau before mid morning winds were expected to  build to around 40 kts (50 kts up on top).
I set off at around 0700hrs, in the very early dawn light and snow. The walk in flat light was pretty, and the snow got deeper as I walked, with some of the drifts getting up around mid-thigh depth at times. The fog closed on just as I got to the last part of my walk, making navigation a challenge, especially as most of the track markers were blown over! A fun surprise was finding penguin footprints up the track almost all the wat up to the plateau. How (and why) those little guys waddle all that way in snow up steep hills on their little short legs is a mystery to me.
A wonderful 3 day solo trip, exploring this beautiful and wild place.



The RAPS unit at sunrise, with The Nuggets in the rear. Photo: Jacque Comery



A snow flurry on the beach, as I am leaving the hut. Photo: Jacque Comery



Giant Petrel footprints in the snow. Photo: Jacque Comery



Sandy Bay Track looking back to Sandy Bay. Photo: Jacque Comery



Sandy Bay track looking up towards 4-Ways track junction. Photo: Jacque Comery

Snow drifts hiding the track markers. Photo: Jacque Comery

 

On the trail home. Photo: Jacque Comery

July 18: Another day at Brother's Point

 Day two at Brother's. I awoke to a splendid day of sunshine and a snow covered beach.  I seized the chance to explore down around the water line, catching glimpses of colour on the black pebbles.
By mid morning though, the cloud and snow rolled in and again I retreated to my spaceship to finish my book, cook some food, do my radio sched with VJM (Station),  and had a nice sit by the light of my candle, just appreciating  how wonderful it is to be able to  sit in a hut, read, eat , sleep and daydream in the sub-Antarctic.

Sitting on the beach at Brother's. Photo: Jacque Comery

Lichen on the rocks. Photo: Jacque Comery

Shell on the beach. Photo: Jacque Comery

Critters. Photo: Jacque Comery

Snow covered beach, looking back to Sandy Bay to the north. Photo: Jacque Comery

Jac vs Giant Petrel. That is the footprint of a very big bird! Photo: Jacque Comery

Daydreaming in the hut at the end of the day.  Photo: Jacque Comery