Weather

Although our arrival was delayed by chronic bad weather, it improved rapidly on the day of our put-in, and remained good thereafter. Only one day of our time on Erebus was unworkable, although Dr Shimizu often found the crater to be obscured by fume and cloud. After descending from the summit, the view into the crater on TV was clearer than I had seen before. The two flights I made with telecom technicians to repair BOMB seismic station were both in perfect calm weather, although increasing low cloud around McMurdo during the first one saw us snatched from BOMB before we had opened the cases.

We were very lucky compared with the S-081 advance party on Erebus, who had problems de-icing and starting their skiddoos almost every time they used them.