Today, winds started to pick up already an hour or two after breakfast, and thus the solar panel work had to be aborted just as Charlotte was ready to put the second panel up – it was simply too cold to be working in an exposed position on the dome, with -40C wind chill, and also the panel started to be difficult to handle in the wind. Hence, Rahul and Charlotte had to get the panel inside again, and wait for better weather conditions to proceed, while making more detailed plans for the setup. Work on the surface was also more challenging, but progress was made with the power cabling to the drill tent, and Sepp finished up the cook’s freezer, so that it is now ready to store all our frozen food. In the drill tent, Kevin and James inspected the bore hole casing, to figure out its exact inclination, as to better determine the positioning of the inclined trench that needs to be cut for our tiltable drill tower. The setup in the drillers workshop also progressed with Julien further organizing tools etc. In and around camp Tom continued levelling snowdrifts using a Pistenbully, and also pumped fuel to the empty tank near the generator from a fuller tank near the apron. With the cold and windy conditions outside, it was a pleasure going indoors with Anders preparing nice warm meals for us, and again a splendid dessert after dinner.
What we did this Tuesday:
- Groomed and leveled in and around camp.
- Deflated balloon in the trench for the cook’s freezer and excavated and entrance.
- Made new cable well 6m away from existing cable well and connected the two with a tunnel.
- Made trench for cable tunnel from new well to drill tent and inflated tunnel balloon.
- Organized tools etc. in drillers workshop.
- Inspected upper part of bore hole casing.
- Pumped fuel from tank near the apron to tank at the generator.
Weather: Clear conditions with some low-level snow drift forming as the day progressed. Temp from -34C to -26C. Wind increasing from 5 kts to 17kts and turning from W to NNW during the day.
FL, Bo Vinther
