Propeller problems
November 18th, 2006Well, the Dash-7 did fly in on Tuesday and we did get our mail, which was well worth the wait. Unfortunately, when they came to fly back to Stanley the following day the pilots found that there was a mechanical problem with the Dash’s propellers, all four of them. With only enough parts to mend one of them, the plane’s been grounded. The four Twin Otters have been in Stanley having their skis fitted, and one of them’s gone to Punta Arenas this afternoon to pick up the spare parts. We’re expecting two Otters tomorrow from Stanley and another from Punta on Sunday or Monday. Hopefully the Dash will be in flying condition by Tuesday. To complicate things further, one of the pilots has a lung infection and is unable to fly, so the fourth Otter will have to stay in Stanley until another pilot can go and collect it.
Just as all this drama was unravelling, the Inmarsat phone rang in my office. It was the Lawrence M Gould, the US research ship. They’ve got Antarctic Treaty inspectors on board and they want to make a visit to Rothera. On Sunday. So there’s been lots of running around to sort out all the relevant paperwork and look in the last inspection report to see what we were supposed to have done. The Treaty inspections are mostly concerned with environmental matters – waste disposal and management of environmental incidents (like oil spills) – so it shouldn’t be too onerous. It may, of course, not actually happen, as the Gould may not be able to get here through the sea ice – like most modern research ships it’s “ice strengthened” rather than being an icebreaker.
Our final diversion is another ship – the Kapitan Khlebnikov, which will be bringing us 100-odd tourists to look round the station on Monday or Tuesday. There’s no doubt of the Khlebnikov’s ability to get in here as it’s the world’s largest non-nuclear icebreaker, built for use in the Russian Arctic. When it gets here we may only have 30-odd people on base, so it’ll be all available hands to show the tourists all the scientific work we do and how the base lives, before they all hit the Post Office and clear us out of stamps and teeshirts!
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:06 pm
It sounds like things are defrosting there, and I’m sure it was great to get your mail. I’ve posted you something so you’ll have to let me know if/when it arrives. You’d have laughed if you’d seen the consternation and alarm I caused in the tiny post office round the corner when I told them where the parcel was going!