Report 2 February - Team B on board Pelagic at Bellingshausen Base - King George Island

Tuesday,February 2nd, 23.55pm

Sunny day, started misty and ended up with a whistling and icy wind around the Pelagic. This is getting kind of a night job. Every day we get up early, work at Bellingshausen, doing interviews, taking pictures and so on. Some of us visit other nearby stations and we all return to Pelagic by Zodiac just shortly before dinner at about 8 pm.

After some good glasses of wine (that we sometimes get from base-commanders) -today Uruguayan, we set ourselves to writing our diaries and these reports, until our eyes and minds give up.

This evening we celebrated our skipper Hamish Laird's birthday. We offered him a surprise party, with birthday songs,a tasty lamb meal, Scottish whisky and a delicious chocolate cake. Yes,we even have an oven on the Pelagic. Soon, when all the rolls we brought from Ushuaia are gone, we will even start to bake our own bread aboard this ship.

Today Heather and Kirsten interviewed the new chief of Bellingshausen, Oleg Sakharov. He will start his work as chief in March, when the present base-commander Doctor Konstantin, leaves for Russia. Oleg is an inspiring person. He is very positive about cleaning up Bellingshausen, although it will take another few years of hard work. He has a lot of experience in this field of work, because he worked together with the Germans on another clean-up project in Antarctica. He hopes there will be enough funding to finance the tools and machines (tractors, compressors, lorries and a crane) they need to do the work properly.

Bellingshausen

At the crack of dawn Troy and Adrian went to the Uruguayan station Artigas. There they met with Robert Terra, the base-commander and his doctor Rosanna Borgato. Artigas is an amazingly small station, which is well organised and seems to be very environmentally friendly. It is tucked away between the hills of King George Island and at present eleven people are working there. Troy and Adrian enjoyed the happy ethos in the camp. They feel there is something very special about Uruguayans and their conscientious way of working.

The scientists researching at the station keep in contact with their homeland. Every Friday a radio programme is being broadcasted from Artigas and schoolchildren can call in to ask questions about life on Antarctica. For us working for Mission Antarctica, their is no better example of people working in a positive future-orientated way with concern for education and the environment. They bring their country to the ice by this radio programme. We will try to establish an internet-connection with the people working there. One of our major tasks has been achieved today by surveying the bay and the tankfarm. It turned out to be a 'cracking' piece of teamwork. Aye Yours Team B.

Kirsten Kuipers