Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

the rainbow - a ‘Brocken spectre’ in fact. I counted 9 -12 concentric rainbow rings.
There was very little pack ice and then only small stuff - in the southern part of
Marguerite Bay from Nikkelsen Bay to Roberts Ice Piedmont. The fast ice off the
Wordie Ice Shelf was still unbroken, although cracking at the edge. This ice shelf
appeared to be receding, with large internal cracks visible and lenticular areas of
open water in curved lines behind the ice shelf front. At the edge one could see
tabular bergs being formed. I was also pleased to see the Fleming Glacier, about 40
miles long. We flew on past Mount Guernsey and to the field camp at Rendezvous
Rocks about 40 miles east of Mount Edgell.
Dave landed FAQ ahead of us and reported a good surface and we followed suit.
Adrian Almond (Geophysicist) and Simon Hobbs (GA) had broken camp and
already had all their gear on the sledges and the dog teams staked out. While Bert
and Simon loaded their plane FAP, I went with Dave and Adrian in FAQ to ‘tie in’
the gravimeter (to the overall survey) at Spider Nunataks, about 20 miles west. This
was a good demonstration of the use of the Twin-otter, because it would have taken
a sledging party two days at least; it took us about 40 minutes in all. We landed near
the nunatak and walked up to it around the bergschrund. I watched while Adrian
made his gravity reading, and then we moved a depot - a box of man food and 3 Jerri
cans of fuel - to the plane. Then we flew back to the camp. Bert and Simon had
finished their task and flew off, while I stayed to see the rest of the operation. The
sledge was emptied and put in a central position in the aircraft. It was loaded again
in the plane; then the dogs were lifted in and attached to very short traces so they
couldn't fight. Adrian got in and Dave turned up the heating to make the dogs
sleepy. They are very handsome animals and very friendly and likeable. We had an
uneventful flight back, but the weather deteriorated rather than improved. The dogs
were spanned out on arrival and then we had a late lunch. Bert had taken off to fly
to ‘India’ as we arrived.
In the evening I spoke to the base members about the economic crisis, the
Cambridge building and my plans for changes in the structure of the Survey. There
was a discussion. The Biscoe came up on the air and I spoke to Malcolm Phelps about
his plans. He expected to arrive at Adelaide about 8 o’clock on 19 February. The
condition of Morris (a Cook) was deteriorating. Next day was cloudy, overcast with
wind and rain. The swell seemed to have increased too, although the berg
disposition is little changed. Finished a letter to Maureen, wrote to Ian Parker, Frank
Poppleton and Duncan Carse. Barry reported the capture of another of the strange
fish.
The Biscoe arrived about 8.15 am on 19 February as expected and the scow came
in with one load, including the hut for Spartan Cwm. The whole base turned out and
made short work of the unloading. Then I went out in the launch about 10.15 am.
The weather was not very good and there was quite a swell, so Malcolm decided not
to stay to give the Fids a film. The Lindblad Explorer also appeared but didn't stay, so
the lads ashore would be disappointed. Jim and Dave came out for lunch aboard,
and had some trouble with the Gemini engines as they went ashore, so had to return
to the ship. Then the four Fids from the base who were to help with the sealing (for
dog food) came out and we left at 3 pm, ETA Stonington about 8 o’clock. I spoke
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