Race night and relief training

We are making steady progress south (click for current position) and we have been told that we will be arriving sometime around wednesday. So in the last few days we have started the preparations for the relief. This involves going over the skills we learnt in Cambridge at conference. We have been split into appropriately named groups. I of course find myself in the whales group. Maybe people are starting to notice the bulge in my belly. I could have been a skua or a penguin or even a seal. The food on board is really good..... Anyway we are relearning lots of things.

First aid training in the wet labs. Ian one of the steel erectors gets splinted up.

Another thing that I have been doing is making a dummy battery for my camera out of teflon. The idea is to make a battery shaped thing with connections and a wire coming out to which I can connect the real battery. Batteries don't like the cold and this way I can keep the real battery nice and warm next to my body and can still provide power to the camera. I have carved the battery. When I get to Halley I will make the rest and show you.

On the arts and crafts side I have also made a top hat out of cardboard for the Race night that we had last night. This was an event where we placed bets on horses (that raced around the floor of the red room dictated by the movements of a big wheel) for charity. I think we raised about £800 for leukemia research.

In top hats for race night on the shack. Me with Bob the Genny Mech in the background.

Tomorrow we have the day off which will be good. I think there is a samba band practice which I might go to.

Have another crazy elephant seal.

Elephant seal opens wide. They actually make a sort of farting sound as they do this in order to scare you away. Photo courtesy of Craig Wearmouth one of the heavy plant operators.