Tuesday 29 December 2009

Schedules and changes and uncertainty

One thing about Halley that you can rely on, is that you can't rely on anything. Weather may affect other people's plans elsewhere; here, everything is determined by weather. And sea ice. At the moment, the weather is okay, but the sea ice is thick. And our Russian ship can't get through it.

As you may recall from previous entries, I was retained at Halley to unload this ship, the Igarka. It was due to arrive Christmas Day. But as the arrival got pushed back day after day, they started contingency planning: first getting a replacement for me, then taking me off relief altogether. And now I'm scheduled to possibly fly out tomorrow to...either Rothera or Sky-Blu.

Sky-Blu is where I'll be working from, so that would be preferable. But we might not stop there on the way back. Or, my equipment and helpers from Rothera might not be there yet. I would like to get there as soon as possible - but if I have to pointlessly wait somewhere over New Year's, I'd rather do it at Rothera.

And to top it all off, there are only two flights out of Rothera in mid-late Jan - Jan 14 and Jan 28. Plans to fly to Canada would be spoiled by the latter.

It's all very confusing. But that's life down here - a month of waiting to get in to do three days of work.That's how we roll.

It may be a while before I post again. And who knows where I'll be? I'll be able to narrow it down to one of four continents, at least.

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