Winter Solstice - Midwinter at Mawson

Mid Winter Preparations.

Mawson mid-winter preparations are in full swing. The traditional mid-winter Olympics competition kicked off on Saturday the 18th June 2011 with volleyball and volleyball soccer competitions and in the evening a trivial pursuit contest.

 

Mid-winter dinner menu.

Scotty the chef has been busy preparing for the 10 course banquet, and an extra slushy has been rostered on to assist in the week leading up to the 21st June.

Cutting the hole (Chris Wilson)

Removing the cut sea ice. (Chris Wilson)

RMIT van, container and pool.

Swimming pool with ice forming on the surface.

Team 'dieso' has been setting up the aquatic centre for the mid-winter swim. The work involved cutting the swimming hole but leaving about 20cm to remove on the morning of the swim. Cutting was done with a chain saw and blocks removed by the JCB fork lift vehicle. The end result - an aquatic centre boasting a 3m x 3m pool to an estimated depth of 10m, 1.5m sea ice walls, a small container for an undressing room, an outdoor spar pool and a heated RMIT accommodation van used for dressing after the swim. You would have to go a long way to find better facilities.


The Interment.
The interment ceremony for Phil Law and his wife Nellie was conducted on Sunday 19th June 2011. Phil was the first director of The Antarctic Division and under his stewardship the first Australian antarctic base was established at Mawson in 1954.

Interment service. (Chris Wilson)

Four cairns on West Arm

The Nella Dan, the Danish resupply ship that resupplied Australian antarctic bases for more than 25 years, was named in honour of Nellie Law. The ashes of Phil and Nell Law were placed in a cairn on West Arm overlooking Horseshoe Harbour alongside three ANARE men who have died while at Mawson.
A setting full moon, a stiff SW breeze and a mid-winter mackerel sky with a blaze of pink, orange and yellow provided the backdrop to the short service. ABC link, AAD link.

Mackerel sky, setting moon and a stiff breeze.

Cairn for Phil and Nellie Law.

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Mid Winters Day.

Mid winters twilight

Mid-winters day arrived with an amazing aurora display followed by a clear sky except for some high cloud on the northern horizon that made for a great orange pink twilight sky. A video conference with other stations was held at 10:00 Mawson time, followed by a special brunch and then to the sea ice for a swim.

Leopard Seal watch

Air temperature was around -19 degrees C wind 5-10kts and relative humidity at 70%. The water was much warmer than air temperature at about -2 degrees C. The pool was set up with a ladder and non-slip mats, the doctor was on hand if there was a problem and a large hot water spar was parked a short distance away to warm up after the swim. Two expeditioners swept the pool surface regularly to stop the ice forming on the top and one expeditioner roped up each swimmer so that they could be pulled out if required.

Sweeping the ice from the surface.
Swim photographs (Ian Phillips)

BoM weather data for Midwinter.

Spa (Ian Phillips)

A couple of hardy souls went back for a second and third swim. After the swim that was very invigorating it was tidy up and back to the Red Shed to prepare for the mid-winter dinner.

The Dinner
Midwinters dinner at Antarctic bases rivals Christmas dinner by way of importance and preparation.Great effort is put into the menu and the chef prepares weeks ahead of the day to ensure the dinner is of the highest standard. The table was set with appropriate cutlery, crockery and a decorative ice axe.

Mid Winter table

Pre dinner drinks in the mess at 3pm before the 10 course banquet commenced at 4pm, the last course was delivered around 9pm.

Official midwinter photograph (Ian Phillip)

First course.

Scotty prepares the first course.

 To add to the occasion, the station web cam was set up in the mess all day so that friends and family at home could get a sense of what was happening during the day. From the comings and goings at breakfast, brunch and the setting of the dinner table, pre-dinner drinks and dinner were captured and displayed on the Internet each 2 minutes.  

Setting (Ian Phillips)

The Dinner (Ian Phillips)

Ice Axe.

Decorative Ice Axe (Ian Phillips)

At mid winter gifts are often exchanged, however it was decided early in the organisation of mid winter activities at Mawson that a communal gift would be given. The gift, made at the station by expeditioners was a decorative ice axe with the name of each expeditioner carved on the handle. Over the past few months on Saturday afternoons the Deiso's workshop has been a hive of activity as the ice axes were being fabricated.

After dinner Rolf presented a retrospective slide show of Mawson in 1962 when his father John, wintered as an Electrician. It was interesting to note that problems encountered in 1962 are experienced in 2011 and the quality of good photographic slides compares well with the best of todays digital photographs. After Rolf's presentation the unnamed Mawson Band led by Tom put on a concert at the bar. It was a fitting conclusion to the midwinter program and what had been a great day. Of course the party continued into the night.

Mawson Band (Ian Phillips)