The summer has now officially come to an end now that the last visitors we will see for quite some time have been and gone. These came in the form of two ships, we had the RRS Ernest Shackleton here at the end of March and the RVIB Nathaniel. B. Palmer here at the start of April.
The Shackleton was the last of our own ships to visit Rothera, she conducted ‘last call’, bringing in cargo and supplies for the long winter as well as the last two members of our winter team. She also loaded our cargo and wastes to take north to the Falklands or all the way to the UK.
The weather turned in the days leading to the ships arrival and we had a lot of early snow on station which covered the depot lines of cargo, neatly arranged on the wharf ready for loading and made it very difficult to get the large vehicles and trailers full of delivered cargo up the hill and into the base.
Shackleton at the wharf as the weather deteriorates.
Here's the 2010 winter team – the first picture of all of us together, taken on the Shackleton just before we sat down for a meal together. With the departure of the Shackleton there is now only the wintering team of twenty two left on station.
The Palmer was an unusual visitor for us at this stage in the season, normally once last call has taken place we wont see any other visitors until the aircraft return in October. This season though a team of American scientists have been working out of Rothera on the Avery plateau and the ice cores they sent back have been stored in freezers on base. The scientists left Rothera some time back and only the ice cores remained to be picked up by their science vessel.
Palmer at the wharf
With the departure of the Palmer we wont have any visitors to base until the aircraft return some time in October, so now we can settle down as a winter team and enjoy the peace and quiet on base after the busy summer season.
