AntarcticDoctor

Here it is – the official S47 team photo.  This is a copy of the image that will hang forever at the base alongside the 46 previous SANAE teams,  one or two oddities (such as the Borga field team, etc), and hopefully many new and brilliant teams long into the future.  There we are, with SANAE IV in the background:

Standing L->R:  Gerhard Laubscher (Electronic Engineer),  Saziso Nginda (Electrical Engineer), Llewellyn Kriedemann (HF Radar Engineer).  Sitting L->R:   Neels Fourie (Diesel Mechanic and Deputy Leader), Ross Hofmeyr (Doctor and Leader), Anton van Zyl (Mechanical Engineer), Richard Duncan (Diesel Mechanic), Santjie du Toit (Meteorologist), Morgan O’Kennedy (Cosmic Ray Engineer).

Click on the image for a large view.  For comparison, here is a scan of the team photo of SANAE 2, who overwintered in 1961 (I prefer this one to S1, as S2’s photo has a dog…)

In a few days we go back to the ship and sail for South Africa. I’ll miss this crowd.

Was out to take a final team photograph a little before sunset this evening (around 21h00) and snapped off this panorama from the northern buttress looking back towards the base.   Click on the image for full size.

Yes, it’s been quiet here on the blog, but not due to my untimely demise (no matter what some people wish for, I have thus far resisted joining the Choir Invisible).  Rather, we have been very busy.  Most recently, we made a 6-day foray to the coast to assess conditions, equipment, and depot containers.  I’ll try to write something of our experiences, but here are some photos to whet the appetite:

Challengers heading northwards towards the coast.

A pair of Skuas on the ice shelf at Blaskimen Bukta.

Morgan in the old ramp cut into the ice shelf, with a large polynia (area of open water in the pack ice) visible behind.

Composite satellite image of the sea ice conditions north of Queen Maud Land, courtesy of the University of Bremen Institute of Environmental Physics.  The approxiomate edge of the ice shelf is marked in green.  The polynia visible in the previous photo can be seen at 70S 3W.