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Victoria University Antarctic Research Expedition Science and Logistics Reports 1993-94: VUWAE 38

Event Diary

Event Diary

NOVEMBER
5 - Flight to Mcmurdo cancelled @0600 hrs.
6 - Boomerang, 6.5 hours in C141.
7 - Pyne, Rennie, Singh to Scott Base (5.5 hrs), 2 days behind schedule.
8 - Antarctic Field Training. Rennie and Singh on full 2 day course. Pyne at icefall in the morning. Helo ice recommaissance with Ross Powell (SI70) to Granite Harbour in late afternoon. Planties pullout 2 cantago sledges and the OSKAM-1 sledge.
9 - Pyne checked field equipment allocation. Checked that the Hanger door could be raised for assembly of the vibracorer with Dave Lucas (engineering manager). Planties moved equipment near the helo pad for cargo train assembly. Rennie and Singh returned from AFT.
10 - Assembled deployment frame and winch for mounting to OSKAM sledge. Condition 1 in late afternoon. Leslie to Scott base in afternoon, also 2 days behind schedule. Event briefing @ 1515.
11 - Completed mounting to OSKAM-1 in garage cold porch, required drilling holes for foot pad and removing a welded cross guide for the "Ditch Witch". D5 in the garage overnight for servicing.
12 - Started loading vibracorer batteries in the Garage cold porch and moved vibracorer frame to the hanger to assemble feet and struts. Fitted Magellan GPS to Nodwell and recovered equipment from the university container.
13 - Continued assembly of vibracorer in the Hanger. Leslie on AFT course.
14 - Completed vibracorer assembly and charged batteries. Leslie completed AFT course. Began loading cargo train sledges.
15 - Moved vibracorer from the Hanger and continued loading sledges.
16 - ASA personnel with the Reed drill drilled 3 holes south west of Scott Base for testing the Vibracorer and the SI70 ROV. One meter of snow cover on the sea ice made the clearing of the hole frustrating and time consuming. SI70 tested their ROV.page break
17 - Deployed vibracorer just below the water surface. Winch required a packer plate fitted under the upper capstan pulley to help stop the rope overlapping when unwinding. Cold day and wind caused freezing of the air compensation regulators. Minor leak on chuck swagelok QC fitting. Deployed to 30m and systems ran OK via computer. On recovery hydraulic reservoir compensator had leaked letting 6-10 mm of water into the bottom of reservoir. Thawed, dried and reassembled the Motor/reservoir in the garage. Lifted vibracorer and winch on Cantago sledge for transport.
18 - Lowered deployment frame for transport and completed sledge packing. K042 (Pyne. Rennie, Singh, Leslie, Morgan and Ridgen) departed Scott Base at 1430. S170 with 2 Nodwell vehicles (T.Rex and Valdez) travelling with K042. Stopped north of the Daily Islands at 2230 to camp for the night; 77°49.334′S, 165°06.987′E. Ice thickness 1.78 m. Broke 2 Nodwell grousers (6 bolt holes, as per T.Rex.)
19 - Requested 3 new grousers (from Mcmurdo). At 1330 water pump on Noddy leaking; 77°35.914′S, 164°22.662′E, Informed Scott Base. Continued with Noddy towed by US Nodwell (Valdez) to 77°30′S, 163°59.6′E where Helo arrived with replacement water pump, Operations manager Neville Jones and #2 mechanic Gus McAllister. D5 and cargo train, and S170 continued to fuel cache offshore of Gneiss Pt. Noddy escorted by skidoo continued after repairs. Camped at fuel cache; 77°24.285′S, 163°50.76′E.
20 - Powell arrived by helo after ROV and electronics was under-slung to Cape Roberts. Left fuel cache at 1100. Arrive north bay at Cape Roberts 2145 hrs and camped on the sea ice. Ice conditions were rougher than "normal" from Gneiss Pt. to C.Roberts.
21 - Downloaded data from Tide Guage/Met installation. Unloaded K053 cargo at C. Roberts with Nodwell. Erected the deployment frame on the sledge for towing and dropped of bridging timbers. Packed up and moved with S170 to mid harbour site at; 76°56.6311′S, 162°48.1164′E.
22 - Drilled 6 holes with Noddy and T.Rex. T.Rex has a hydraulic leak, Noddy has a PTO-gearbox noise and loss of hydraulic power due to overheating after drilling 2-3 600 mm diameter holes. Drilling holes was slower than it should be. K191 surveyor John West arrived by Helo and #1 mechanic Jeremy Ridgen (JR) returned to Scott Base. MacKay Glacier Tongue (MGT) survey started by K191.
23 - S170 deployed the ROV in the hole. MGT survey continued. Requested fittings to replace leaking QC fittings on vibracorer chuck and Alpine II bogey brackets which arrived by helo in late afternoon with #1 mechanic JR. Drained oil in Noddy to check gearbox and fitted parts to the Alpine II skidoos.page break
24 - Cloudy, 5 knts from the south cooled in the afternoon. S170 departed for the MGT at midday. Set up vibracorer over the hole and lowered below the water surface. Leak in 1st stage air regulator so returned to surface exposing the 2nd stage regulator which froze and let in water to the sight tube on reimmersion. Pulled corer completely out of the hole and dismantled air system for cleaning and drying in the Wannigan. Reassembled air system. K191 and JR left for Scott Base by Helo in mid afternoon. Redeployed vibracorer when winch rope parted a few metres below the surface at about 1550 hrs. Vibracorer free-fell to the sea floor 350 m depth. Communicated with SENZREP about loss of corer and possible recovery. Asked if he could pass on to P. Barrett. To S170 MGT camp by skidoo to ask for help with the ROV to find the Vibracorer. Returned to camp at 2230 hrs.
25 - S170 returned to the vibracorer site at midday. Viewed the vibracorer on a 25°? slope in 356 m on the first deployment of the ROV. Deployed the ROV a 2nd time with the winch line attached and releasing hook from the 2 tonne chain hoist. Couldn't manoeuvre the ROV properly and didn't see the corer. The ROV camera tilt and sonar was not working correctly.
26 - Fixed ROV camera tilt and sonar, added small floats to the winch rope to compensate for the weight in water. ROV still couldn't manoeuvre and couldn't swim down slope to the sonar contact which was probably the corer. The winch rope and ROV umbilical became twisted and this dive and further recovery attempts abandoned.
27 - Blasted a ROV dive hole for S170 at the MGT off Cuff Cape. The ICI Powergell SX explosive was not detonating properly with Red Chord. Dismantled the deployment frame and winch and packed on sledges for transport. Moved camp to the south side of MGT; 76°59.0278′S, 162°25.05222′E to make another hole for S170.
28 - Made a ROV hole by drilling 4 holes with the Noddy and blasted the central ice plug and cleared the hole of platelet ice.
Started the next hole in a crack in front of the MGT.
29 - Completed the 2nd ROV hole, packed camp and returned to Cape Roberts via the vibracorer site to pick up the deployment frame and winch sledges.
30 - Worked on Tide Gauge/ Met. installation, temporarily connected replacement transducer to check CR10 datalogger and AVW1. Used underwater video camera to check if the tide transducer cage was still in place and attempted to free the old transducer with isopropyl alcohol. All K042 travelled to Ice edge offshore of C.Roberts to measure ice thickness.
DECEMBER
1 - Itemised Polar Haven floor panels and bearers cached at C. Roberts for Neville Jones. K042 departed C. Roberts at 1045 hrs. Refuelled at catch of Gneiss Pt. and picked up empty fuel drums. Camped at 2300 hrs offshore Butter Pt. 77°41.2147′S, 164°42.3301′E.
2 - Left camp site at 0910 hrs arriving the Daily Island 59 about 1200 hrs. Arrived Scott Base at 1700 hrs and pulled sledges up the hanger transition.page break
3 - Returned cleaned field equipment and packed science equipment for RTNZ. Singh to Razorback Island until mid-afternoon. Debrief in late afternoon. Prepared winch and rope in the evening.
4 - Rennie and Leslie RTNZ 0630 hrs. Pyne and Singh pack equipment and Sign cleaned NZ1. Pyne on Helo ice reconn. for S170 return to McMurdo (1200-1700 hrs). Pyne and Jones identify drilling equipment in the ballpark at McMurdo.
5 - Finish cleaning equipment and return to University container. Pyne and Singh RTNZ 2100 hrs.