Mertz glacier, East Antarctica

January 29

Hello from Mertz glacier. The weather on January 28, 2017 turned from bad to worse, so we did not expect much from the next day. You can imagine my surprise waking up in the morning realizing that we stopped for a CTD station and that it will only get better. After I was done sampling (closer to the afternoon) I finally went outside and I saw the sun! and the walls of Mertz glacier! It was such a picture perfect moment, that I couldn’t resist and did my “traditional Antarctic jump” on a heli deck

Helicopter pilots went on an exploration flight around the glacier and soon took the ice core drilling party out to the ice. They returned about 9 PM at night having completed more coring than they expected – what a day they had.
While helicopters were gone, the ship started to deploy our hi-tech submersibles – ROPOS systems. There’s a website written on them ropos.com, I don’t have internet access here, but maybe you can read more from land. The machines are about the size of a small car, they have hydraulic pumps to help them navigate in the water and many-many instruments all over. As they have cameras all over, we were enjoying the streaming video last night during dinner.

A little bit of scientific history. Mertz glacier used to have an extensive tongue grounded several km out into the bay. In 2010 a huge chuck of ice tore off the tongue and a massive iceberg was formed. This changed the geography of the area quite dramatically. Grounded glacier tongue was acting as a barrier for sea ice, leading to extremely old sea ice chunking to the west of it and keeping the polynya further off shore (see map).
Since the collapse of the glacier tongue is so recent, the old map on the screen of our lab computer shows that we have been on top of the glacier for quite a few days now!
What we are interested in studying are the physical, chemical and biological changes in the area that occurred after the collapse of the glacier. We are collecting samples from the ship and with the help of our submarine robots to understand how things have changed since a big chunk of glacier melted.
To get better data right off the edge of the ice, our captain “parked” the icebreaker into the glacier last night. It was really exciting to watch and again the weather was just perfect. All in all we had quite an adventurous day!

Happy birthday to my dedushka

January, 28

Today is a very memorable day for me. First of all, my grandfather and my co-author of this blog would have turned 89. As I mentioned before, unfortunately my grandfather Vitaly died pretty young and I never met him. But what an honor it is for me to cross the Antarctic circle exactly on this birthday and to feel closer to him through our common passion for this tough and beautiful place.

sea ice - this is exactly the scenery I was admiring all day today

This is actually my second time celebrating my gradnfather’s birthday in Antarctica. Back in 2013 I was in McMurdo and I managed to mail my postcards back to my parents on that very day. It was pure coincidence back then, while today I am totally celebrating on purpose.

Today also commemorates the 197th anniversary of Bellinghausen and Lazarev expedition first spotting the continent of Antarctica. What a memorable day for polar research. Our ACE expedition also crossed the polar circle for the first time and everyone one board can now be called polyarnik / “полярник” – a Russian word for polar explorer.

Just as my grandfather in Antarctica, I spent the day mostly working. I was sampling ocean water, launching XBTs, launching radiosonde and sampling for snow. The weather is pretty bad at the moment – the winds are over 20 m/s, it is just below 0C outside, but pretty miserable. Nevertheless as we approached the Mertz glacier almost all of us went outside. We even witnessed a little bit of glacier calving and a few people caught it on camera (I did not). What a way to celebrate my polyarnik-grandfather’s birthday.

So here’s an entry from my dedushka’s diary on this day 57 years ago:

28 января 1960 г. 
32 года… Сегодня мне 32 года! Пожалуй ещё никогда так глубоко и остро не чувствовал я, что уже не очень молод, что так далеко от дома, что так долго ещё не буду там…
Только радиограмма связывает меня сейчас с вами – родные мои люди там на большой земле. А радиограмм сегодня много! Радисты наши замучились, но делают вид, что им очень приятно передавать мне столько синих листочков. Здесь и от родителей, и от Идуси с пацанами, от тёщеньки со свояченицей (полная грёз), от Иосифа с Меннами, от уполномоченной Лены, от Геннадия с Иринкой и Вадима с работы, от Николки с Наташей, от Гринов, от Павла (даже не знаю от которого), от наших с Лазарева, и ещё – ещё… Везде поцелуи, поздравления самые хитроумные пожелания. Спасибо вам, люди!
Все ли вы знаете как приятно ощущать, что тебе помнят? От души желаю всем узнать, почувствовать что это!
В Мирном кипит жизнь. Позавчера, после почти десятидневных усилий, "Обь" пробилась наконец в тяжелейших льдах и подошла к Мирному (Точнее к прилежащем островам Входному и Топарева). В ночь на 26-е началась интенсивная разгрузка. Я когда-нибудь расскажу подробно о том, как происходит разгрузка сотен тонн самых разнообразных предметов, находящихся в громадном чреве корабля, стоящего во льдах припая. 
Для нас это уже вторая разгрузочная страда. Но, если в Лазаревской выгружали 800 тонн и я, занятый своими ледовыми делами, почти не участвовал, то здесь – в полной мере участвую.
Как будто бы зная, что я не могу спать днём, начальство назначило меня (разумеется не одного) в ночную смену. Работаем по выгрузке топлива (авиабензина и соляровое масло) с нуля до 12 дня местного времени (оно как в Красноярске, на четыре часа опережает московское). Конечно ночью гораздо тяжелее работать чем днём, когда тепло и сияет солнце, когда стихает бушующий по ночам резкий ветер – "снос" с материка в сторону моря Дэвиса  (these are called katabatic winds – the same winds that are blowing us off from the monkey island and keeping us inside). Но бригада подобралась отличная – весёлые остроумные неунывающие люди. Быстро сдружились (мы из разных отрядов) приноровились к ворочанью 200 и 300 килограммовых бочек (это целое искусство!). И прекрасно проводим свою смену. Лихо летят по постеленным на снег доскам тяжелые бочки, пустеют приведшие их сани-волокуши, а в промежутках между приходом к месту складирования тракторов хилый фанерный баллок, где мы коротаем время, содрогается от мощного хохота. После очередного случая, рассказанного на своеобразным симпозиуме (он же конвульсиум). Особенно весёлыми историями отличается наш симпатичный доктор – ленинградский хирург Герман Александрович Барашков и каюр-свинарь Петя Кольцов из ленинградской Астории, призванный блюсти завезённых сюда собак и свиней и прозванный нами ректором университета культуры за свои невероятно изощрённые истории из жизни. Здорово сближает людей такая работа, по-настоящему сближает. А когда в полдень остервеневшие от ветра и холода, от борьбы с бочками и голодухи, мокрые от пота и снега, мы весёлой гурьбой вваливаемся все в кают-компанию, оставив свои куртки с капюшоном и защитные очки и прочие шмотки, рассаживаемся за столы и – повара еле успевают подтаскивать обильные блюда. Здесь вообще здорово кормят, а во время разгрузки – особенно обильно и жирно.
После традиционного аврального стопаря (то есть сто грам разведённого по широте спирта) особенно бодро хрустят челюсти, чавкают рты и особенно звонко гремит смех. Шум в это время в нашей тесной кают-компании необычайной, особенно отличается ленинградский геофизик Боря Каменецкий – после скромного стопаря он орёт как укушены.
Вот как раз недавно я вернулся из столовки и, слегка (больше бесполезно – ведь ночью опять смена вахты) умывшись решил по дороге записать в свое письмо-дневник. Мои товарищи по смене после  водки за  обедом, уже наверное крепко спят. Мне также надо потихоньку уснуть (в предыдущие два дня это почти не удавалось), а ещё до этого надо сходить к начальству и поклянчить разрешения получить на складе несколько бутылок вина. Ведь надо угостить товарищей, которые соберутся вечером перед сменой сегодня мне 32! 

Happy 89th birthday, dedushka!

The best cabin on the ship

January, 27

As my second leg is starting to unfold, I decided to invest even more in making my cabin feel like home. I have to say it was already fairly good during the first leg. I have everything I need – a kettle for tea, a coffee machine, some supply of fruits (relatively long-lasting like oranges and apples), chocolate and alcohol.
I restocked on fruits and vegetables in Hobart. And chocolate and alcohol too. And many other things. Well, to be honest my Australian friends made most of the shopping for me – I am so lucky to have such amazing friends, really. They also bought all the necessary missing items, such as cloth hangers, flip flops, Styrofoam cups to make more souvenirs, etc. etc. But the most unexpected present I got was fresh flowers. They definitely brightened up my room. My new roommate is now calling our cabin “the best cabin ever”, she kept saying that people always smile when they walk by:

This picture is a couple of days old, unfortunately fresh flowers did not last long. But they made such a big impact. Thank you my dear friends for such a wonderful gift!

It is amazing how fast my cabin started to feel like home. This is the place I practice yoga, although I have lost my pace unfortunately and I am struggling to get back on track. This is the place, where I invite my “old” and “new” friends for a cup of coffee or a drink. This is the place, where I can hide for a minute during the busy day. Although “hiding” does not work as well, even if I close the door, people can knock or call me on the phone. As I’ve been on this ship long enough, most people know me by name (and know my room and phone # as well). I’m also quite happy that the crew members are finally asking me for help solving some of their issues as well, I feel like I have asked for so many favors already that it is only fair to help them. By the way to most common request they have (which I am yet to fulfill) – teach them to speak English. I probably should prepare some lessons. I have never done this before, but I’m so glad there is interest. Maybe when I finally get some quite time in my cabin…

And thanks to our wonderful data manager/sysadmin team – my cabin is now the place where I can email to update my blog. I am writing this from my couch, as we enter the first sea ice of our journey. It is getting late, and as exciting as it is to be in sea ice – I have to go to bed. I have a really busy day ahead of me tomorrow.

Not to leave you hanging, here’s a few paragraphs from my grandfather’s diary as he arrived to Mirny station for the first time and was settling into his new temporary home. I hope google translate will be an adequate translator for the text. I did add some of my own comments inside (in English and Russian), but I did not get enough time to translate the full journal entry.

30 января 1960 г. Немного о том, как мы устроились здесь, в Мирном. Теперь, после отъезда наших с четвёртой (4 САЭ – экспедиция предшествующая дедовой 5 САЭ) на корабль, я уже перебрался в дом номер пять, где и придётся зимовать. Домов здесь в Мирном около 20. Наш – один из самых лучших. Он в самом центре, рядом с кают-компанией, недалеко от радиорубки и Пентагона (Дом номер 13, где живёт и трудится руководство экспедиции). Правая половина дома занята складом медикаментов и наиболее ответственного продовольствия (н/з), в левый – наша резиденция. Здесь три комнаты. В первой – (смотри вкладку с планом) мы поселили своего мистера Джильберта Дюарта /Gilbert Dewart, the American who wintered over with the 5th SAE and published his diaries from the expedition in a book entitled  “Antarctic comrades” – the book is available on Amazon, for those of you interested/, во второй – наша сейсморазведочная лаборатория, в третьей – мы сами: Лев Боканенко, Володя Максаков и аз. Ребята собственно пока ещё в Лазареве, но надеюсь (и они тоже), что это ненадолго.
Боре Захарову придётся видимо поселиться в соседнем, шестом доме, так как у нас места всего на троих, а лаборатория рядом. В доме нашем (как и всюду в Мирном) все удобства: вода (которую надо правда предварительно натопить из снега), центральное отопление (бойлер с регулируемой температурой, работает от электрической сети), свет (сколько хочешь), уборная в доме (вот её уборка – замена бочки – и есть самое неприятное, что есть в Мирном), телефон (номер 26, с междугородней линией не соединяется). Сейчас в отличие от других дом не занесён по крышу снегом, и мы ходим сюда через дверь (а в другие дома – через люки в крыше). Но зимой и нашу пятёрку занесёт, поэтому уже сейчас я готовлю люк с большой лестницей. Вентиляция в доме вытяжная. Тепло! С Дюартом /Gilbert Dewart/ мы живём дружно (правда слово живём сейчас во время разгрузки не отражает содержание нашего бытия). Работаем мы с ним в одной бригаде. Он – молодой скромный парень – силён как бык. Говорит, что занимается борьбой. Вот закончим разгрузку, начнём возиться в лаборатории. Говорим с ним своеобразно. Договорились так: я ему по-английски, он мне по-русски. И поправляем друг друга. Думаю, что через год подготовим друг друга. Уж я-то его – наверное!
Распорядок дня (все нормальные дни) здесь таков.
Подъем в семь. С 7:30 до 8:30 – завтрак.
Обед с 13 до 14, а с 19:30 до 20:30 ужин.  После ужина - кинофильм.
Кормят как я уже говорил, здорово, сытно, много и просто!
Быт здесь тоже организован. В домах – переносные панцирные кровати с матрасами, приличная скромная мебель. Стенки оклеены обоями. В доме полно всякого хозинвентаря, в котором мы даже не нуждаемся. Два раза в месяц – баня для всего посёлка. Кроме того можно мыться (в частности голову) дома. Вода-та снеговая!
Со стрижкой дела сложнее. Постельное белье и полотенца (последнего у нас в изобилии) будут стирать организовано (есть специальный человек и стиральная машина в бане). Свои шмотки будем стирать сами (тоже можно использовать машину). Нижнего белья здесь выдают столько, что стирать придётся лишь два-три раза за весь год. Здорово, да? 12 пар белья в год. И все шерстяное и шелковое. Одеты мы тепло. Ходим в сапогах и стеганых костюмах с капюшоном, а дополнительно к перечисленному на корабле /Я пока список одежды, выданной на корабле не упоминала, так как на нашем корабле нам ничего не выдают – все свое  / I did not include this part yet, since I did not receive any clothes from me ship, but somewhere earlier in the diary there was a list/ получили ещё кожаные костюмы, пуховые куртки и брюки (Система КАЭ), унты, меховые рукавицы и прочую мелочь. В поход дадут ещё меховые кожаные костюмы, оленьи рубахи, штормовки, меховые спальные мешки… Словом здесь не замерзнешь!
Сегодня ночью, вернее под утро (часов в шесть) разгрузку пришлось прервать: сильнейший ветер (до 29 м секунду) оторвал судно от припая и трактора не могут подойти вплотную к борту. Ждали мы ждали своих бочек и к семи вернулись в кают-компанию, позавтракали и разошлись до следующей смены. Дневная (с 12 часов) уже работала. 
Мы снова выходим с нуля, если погода не ухудшится. А пока отдохнём, приведём в порядок хозяйство. Надо натопить воды, вымыть пол и спать – спать…

XBTs

January 25

Yesterday night (January 25) I launched my first XBT - a temperature probe that you "fire" into the ocean from a funny looking gun. I had quite a few spectators, so it was a little intimidating. The launch was a success, however.
Here's a picture of me measuring the temperature profile:

Basically you release a probe from the ship's deck as free fall and as soon as it touches the water it starts measuring. There's a tiny wire connecting the probe to the gun I'm holding - this is how the signal is being transmitted. The wire is so thin, I couldn't see it with a naked eye and I was worried I lost the probe. But my gun kept making spooling sounds, so that was a good sign. At the end someone went inside and confirmed that we do get data on the computer. That's how we knew it was a success!

The probe I had is X-7, going to 760m depth (then the wire breaks and the probe is lost, but the data is already at our computer). People on the ship, especially the crew, are telling me that I'm the biggest polluter - I launch radiosondes, SOCCOM floats and now XBTs. But I have to say it is a lot of fun to see vertical profiles of the air and ocean, especially when it's instantaneously available

I launched another one at 6 AM in the morning on January 26 (Still January 25 UTC time) - I was by myself, not a single sole even to look at the screen inside to see if it worked properly. Such a contrast from last night.
I'm proud to say that I managed and got another profile. Now if only I had more time to sleep in between all this exciting measurements I'm making ;)

Acid spill

January 24

Today we hit the roughest sea so far. I am actually not a good judge of whether this storm is worse than the one we hit right after leaving Cape Town. I got sick the first day of leg 1, but I am doing ok today. I think being at sea for a while is definitely helping - we have quite a few people down now. I even had to call the doctor for some of them and help to translate. Not that there is much a doctor can do - the sea will no stop rolling after the doctor's orders.
We did have some unexpected action today though. I was sitting in the CTD dry lab working on my data, when someone told me that there was an acid spill in the wet lab (next door) and suggested I call the bridge and also get the hell out of there. I called the bridge and asked them for help.
It turned out there was a 3L 40% concentration glass bottle of muriatic acid (HCl) on a shelf. It was not secured as well as it should have been, it was in a carton pocket behind a glass in a cabinet. However, someone opened the glass of the cabinet unknowingly and the 3L bottle somehow managed to escape the carton box and crash on to the floor. Did I say we have been rolling a lot?
Anyhow, after I called he bridge and told them that the situation is serious, I was really surprised at their reaction. At least 8 people showed up, they brought respirators with compressed air and two guys (boatswain and Seaman) went in to clean up the spill.

They also brought baking soda to neutralize it, we opened the doors to ventilate and in 20 minutes the worst was over. After it was relatively safe to come in, our chief scientist, one other PI and I spent some time cleaning the rest of the room to make sure it is workable.
I am really grateful to the crew for reacting so fast and for willing to face dangerous situation without any hesitation. They are my heroes!

Leg two started abruptly

January 23

I had the most relaxing long weekend with my friends in Hobart. We arrived on Thursday the 19th in the morning. Everyone was scaring us with impossible customs, but we managed to go through them very quickly and I was able to get off the ship before my friends’ plane touched down. I met up with my colleague Irina, we went to Customs house – a pub that our long colleague Neale showed to us years ago. My Melbourne friends showed up pretty soon and it was the happiest reunion.
Although I had internet and phone, I decided to stay off my blog to have a complete break from any activities I was doing on board. Sorry everyone, I won’t be updating on wonderful eucalyptus smells, I will jump right on to leg two activities.

We were scheduled to leave on Sunday, January 22, although the time kept changing (which gave me more time with friends and I am really grateful). We finally left just short of midnight, almost on Monday the 23rd. As we were leaving port our ship was directed by an Australian pilot. Half an hour later a small boat came to pick up the pilot and off we went.

As we were late leaving port, we were pushing our luck with getting on time to Macquarie island. On the morning of January 23rd it was first decided to steam as fast as possible to the first island, sacrificing all the marine projects on board. However, the forecast was not favorable to be able to land/do any work around Macquarie island.  So mid-morning on Monday with the help of marine science teams we changed our plans from sacrificing the marine part to catching the good weather and getting some data. We decided to do a CTD station to 1km, together with a trace metal rosette sampling, bongo nets for zoo and phytoplankton and micro plastics nets. Considering this was the first marine station for the new group of scientists, we were really efficient. Actually the fact that we as a new group could convince the chiefs to do a CTD station rather suddenly impressed me the most. We managed to do a station before meeting and deciding on the role of each individual, which is once again quite impressive. Also, I’m happy to report that Irina and I sampled a complete 1km profile, turned on all our en route instruments, and started the underway sampling. I even managed to take a picture of Irina sampling from the Niskin bottles – as you can see the weather is quite nice and we sampled outdoors.

On top of coordinating some of the marine team efforts, I spent my day helping many other projects, particularly new people on board. As flattering as it to have a reputation of a “nice person, who will help you”, it is a pretty tiresome job. Anyhow, I am glad I can help. And I am also proud to say I am learning to say “no”. Today I draw the line on non-science request for chores around the ship, I could only do so much.

There is one more thing I wanted to mention to keep this post from being work-only. It feels so weird to be on a ship with a lot of new people! We got so used to seeing same people every day and now there’s a whole new group of people, who gets lost around the ship. I guess the crew feels that way each time they start a new cruise…

Anticipation

January 18

We are due to arrive in Hobart around 8 AM tomorrow morning. I spent most of the day today packing and labeling our cargo, that will be taken off in Hobart on route back to the US (leftovers and samples from the SOCCOM flow deployment). We are also offloading salt samples to be processed by our colleagues in Australia (huge thanks!!!) since we couldn't get the Autosal on board to work properly. It was a busy day full of anticipation.
Many people are leaving after this first leg and new scientists are getting on board. People are packing, preparing to say good bye, getting excited to go home and sad to leave new friends. I think I have the best of both worlds - I am not leaving, but I have my bestest friends flying to Hobart to meet me. I am way more excited than if I were to go home now :).

My grandfather never visited Australia, but he did stop at the Australian Antarctic station Mawson. It was interesting to read his diaries, full of very similar emotions. Excitement, anticipation, a bit of sadness and a flow of many-many thought rushing through his head all at once. Since dedushka already put his on paper - I will share :)

From 9.01.1960 entry:
Подходим к австралийской станции Моусон (Mawson), расположенной в бухте Холбмейка (Holme Bay). Уже сейчас в бинокль видны вдалеке по курсу тёмные цепочки гор, а вокруг судна айсберги, айсберги, айсберги. Их здесь сотни. Глубины моря резко сокращается, от 3 - 4 тысяч м до сотни – полутораста и даже до 50 м. Судно идёт медленно: опасно сесть на подводную скалу. Следим за показателями эхолотов особенно тщательно. 

Здесь мелко. Громадные айсберги, возвышающейся над уровнем моря на 2-3 десятка метров сидят на дне, поэтому они недвижимы. "кладбище Слонов" назвал капитан Дубинин это место. И действительно эти громады напоминает гигантских животных, спящих в воде.
Фотографируем. Целые стойки фотографов любителей носится по настройкам и переводят плёнку.
А берег все ближе. Вот уже и припайный лёд. В прошлом году “Обь” вплотную подошла к станции, а нынче миль за пять встречается довольно мощный припай. Начали пробиваться через него. Дело идёт медленно: лёд хоть и не очень толстый, но прочный и плохо поддается. А времени мало, недостает и горючего, надо торопиться в Мирный, куда ещё восьмого уже пришла “Кооперация”, вышедшая из Ленинграда двумя неделями раньше. Там ждут нас.
Решили снова разгружаться вертолётом. Теперь это быстро пойдёт – станция близко.
Вечером стало известно, что самолёт Ил-14 после захода на большой высоте над нами проследовал из Лазарева в Мирный без посадки здесь. На борту Короткевич ... и письма от оставшихся в Лазареве ребят. Не везёт!
Сегодня получили от них телеграмму: 15-го собираются выйти в маршрут к югу от шельфа. Готовят аппаратуру в балке. Запрашивает данные гравиметра, на котором будут работать. Послал им ответную. 
Меня записали на завтра в первую разгружены разгрузочную бригаду в Моусон. Ну что ж, я не возражаю осмотреть станцию, хотя после Сиовы и собирался скромничать и не выскакивать наперёд батьки. 
Утро вечера мудренее!

This station impressed him the most, he even drew a little plan, showing work and living quarters on Mawson.

From 10.01.1960 diary entry:
Что же сказать о Моусоне? Если Сиова мне понравилось, то австралийской станцией я восхищен. Да, да! Я не преувеличиваю и не преклонист. Просто восхищен и только!
Здесь все продумано и сделано на совесть. Станция отлично расположена в великолепном месте на берегу живописной бухты. Домики её окаймляют восточную оконечность бухты. В центре посёлка – столовая, кают-компания, радиорубка с почтовой конторой, жилые помещения, штаб станции, капитальная уборная. 
Ближе к берегу бухты - склад продовольствия (отдельно по видам), материалов, в сторонке – горючее, дальше стоянка транспорта, электростанция, ангар для самолётов.
Совершенно отдельно от всех этих построек научный городок с отдельными павильонами для каждого вида исследований. Большое впечатление производит автоматические регистрирующие приборы для записи метеорологических, ионосферных, актинометрических данных, а также большая установка для изучения космических лучей (также автоматическая и очень неплохо сделанная). Большинство приборов английские и американские. Очень хорошее снаряжение (шторм костюмы обувь и прочее). 
К сожалению, почти никого из зимовщиков на станции не застали: Истосковавшихся за 14 месяцев пребывания здесь (их ледокол "Тала Дан" придёт недели через три) они с радостью приняли приглашение посетить "Обь", и все отбыли туда вертолётом. Долго ходили мы как неприкаянные по опустевший чужой станции, стесняюсь заходить в домике и лаборатории без хозяев и уж совсем было собирались убираться восвояси, когда встретили двух австралийцев. Один из них – ихний электросварщик дежурил, а другой -  геолог Стинер недавно проснулся после ночного дежурства и посему любезно согласился показать нам станцию. Собралась огромная куча наших и под предводительством этого милого скромного человека (в качестве переводчика – аз многогрешен) мы обошли всю станцию с уже более подробным её осмотром.
Очень понравилось! Не видел я ещё Мирного, может быть он в тысячу раз лучше (сомневаюсь только что-то). Но даже наши видавшие виды участники нескольких экспедиций восхищены некоторыми моментами из встреченного здесь на Моусоне.
Мне лично очень понравилось, что у каждого здесь – отдельная каюта, хоть и маленькая, но своя. Это очень важно иметь возможность побыть одному, отдохнуть как тебе хочется от шума, разговоров, курева, света, водки и всего чем могут злоупотреблять соседи. 
Маленькая, но очень рационально расположенная клетушка, которая выглядит приблизительно вот так:

Домики очень прочные, снаружи обиты дюралем. В каждом – шесть-семь таких каюток, душевая, прихожая, где оставляет верхнюю одежду и рабочую обувь. Чисто, светло и тепло. Мебель кровать, шкаф, стулья – деревянные, полированные.
Хорошая кают-компания (Club – как здесь его называют). Много хороших книг, масса журналов с полуголыми дамами разнообразных мастей, отличная радиола, пластинки, скрипка, банджо, настольные и настенные игры, стойка – музей с выставленными здесь бутылками, распитыми в этой кают-компании. Среди них пять наших – столичная, шампанское, коньяк, аштарак, кагор.
Удобная столовая современном электрокамбузом. Система обслуживания – самая демократичная. Все зимовщики, включая начальника мистера Бичервайзе поочерёдно дежурят – подают на стол, моют посуду, помогают коку, убирают столовую и кают-компанию. В домиках – дежурят и следят за чистотой сами жильцы. Никакой прислуги. Стирают тоже сами с помощью машины и какого-то хитрого экстракта. 
Интересная деталь: в стороне посёлка на горушке – крест на красном каменном цоколе. Все наши люди уверенным, что это памятник погибшим здесь австралийцам. Просят – спроси у них сколько человек там погибло (у нас в мирном – два полярника). Спрашивает деликатно – когда поставили этот памятник. Смеется. Это не памятник, это церковь, говорит. Оказывается, на станции один француз – кок Люсьен Поль. Он католик и выстроил себе молельню. Остальные – поклонники англиканской церкви обходится чтением библии у себя в каютах. Поль не слишком злоупотребляет религией, и вообще он весёлый человек – любитель приключений. По профессии он какой-то дорожник, приехал сюда посмотреть свет и первое время так кормил своих товарищей, что они хотели утопить его. До сих пор Поля вышучивают.
Вообще Весёлые ребята… Когда мы, насмотревшись вдоволь и обменявшись спичечными и папиросными коробками, мелкими монетами и адресами, вернулись на свой ship – здесь царило веселье.
Австралийцев накачали столичной так, что они по их собственному выражению стали похожи на папуасов. Массу забавных шуток вытворяли и особенно неистово, когда увидели наших уборщиц и буфетчиц – ведь они больше года видели женщин только на картинках и во сне. Что тут творилось!
От судна на станцию уходит последний вертолёт. Он заберёт хохочущую, шумную, размахивающую конечностями ораву обратно в Моусон и доставит на судно наших "экскурсантов " со станции. Они должны привезти проштемпелеванные австралийской печатью конверты и марки.
Интересно, чем все это кончится для австралийцев. Ведь у них на станции не пьют и вдруг такое море водки. Как желчно заметил встретивший нас на станции геолог – (он видимо страстно жалел, что проспал время отъезда на судно, а может – идейный): - Я это хорошо знаю, говорит, что ничем добрым это не кончится. После каждого пира бывает похмелье!

Back to 2017:
We changed time for four or five hours in the past week, I don't even remember. Waking up early has been a challenge. Yet, I am fully awake at 6 AM and I watched Akademik Tryoshnikov pull up the Australian flag. It is really happening!!! I can't wait to see my friends!!!

Pump watch

January 16

One of the most ridiculous activities we have to do on the ship is called "pump watch". I think I mentioned it before in passing, but since I do it every day I felt like it deserved a separate post.
A lot of oceanography sampling we make comes from inline water supply - there is a hole in the bottle of the ship, followed by a pump that brings water all the way to the main deck level and containers upstairs. Unfortunately, this inline water intake was not in the original design of the ship, so the crew had to improvise. The hole was made at 4.5 m below the water line, so in high roll situations the pump gets air, rather than water. This air can ruin some of the instruments we have connected to the line, but most importantly the air can destroy our precious pump. There is no alarm system, so all scientists literally sit in the lab and "watch the pump". If the water stops flowing, we simply stop the pump and restart it again.

Here is a picture of Tiger and Lily - Jenny's  son's stuffed animals on pump duty. You can see the two buttons on the wall - green and red. The red one stops the pump and the green one starts it up again.

We have been extremely lucky over the last few days to have non-marine groups come and volunteer their time for the pump watch. It really means a lot, makes us feel like we are working together, even though the task is a bit ridiculous. However, we will probably not have the luxury of other people's time during the beginnings of the upcoming legs - people will be busy sorting their own projects and solving their own problems. So unless we find a creative solution - we will be stuck with many more "pump watch" hours per person.

The most annoying shifts you can get are the 3 and 4 AM ones. In general night shifts are less desirable. I have one midnight shift every second day and a mid day shift on an alternating day. I have to say that the midnight one is much better than the 3 AM one, plus I get to check my messages after I am done watching the pump at 1 AM and I am more likely to get a text message trough than during the day. 

Before I finish this whiny post I want to send my cheers to the crew of Akademik Tryoshnikov. They did not design the ship to be so awkward, the hole for inline pump was put in later and without much thought. But the crew installed a new pump for us in Cape Town and there were kind enough to get a PVC hose from the pump to the lab. The hose is awkwardly laying around the corridors, but it works. Also, the crew were really accommodating to us when we decided to insulate the hose, disconnected it and connected back without any fuss. They also split the flow coming up with regulators on the fly, etc. etc.

Day off!

January 15

Today I took a day off. Well, half a day, but it was so amazing already. I woke up around 9:30 and went to translate for the doctor. "We" had quite a few patients lined up, so it took about two hours total. I guess people are feeling the stress of being on the ship, working non-stop and such. And just to reassure my friends and family - I am doing ok.
In the afternoon I went to the boot camp class. I wrote about it a few days ago, when I was jealously observing people on heli deck  doing exercise. The weather wasn't perfect, but manageable. It felt so great to be outside, run around the deck and do the circuit training in the hangar. I will probably pay for it tomorrow, but it was totally worth it! After the training was over I went to the ship's sauna. The sauna on Akademik Tryoshnikov is probably the best room of all. You almost forget you are on the ship while sweating in the sauna, but then the ship starts rocking and you remember :). There is also a cold water bucket one can drop on their head to cool off. What a great experience! Just what was needed to warm up and re-energize.
After the sauna and the tea, I went to see a girl we med-evaced from Marion island. Besides being in pain, she is on this foreign ship, doesn't know most of us and primarily stuck in bed. So we chatted and painted our nails - celebrating my first day off in over a month - a perfect girl's night in! I hope she will be all right soon.

Meanwhile the sun showed up and I went on heli deck to enjoy a few minutes of the sun and show off my freshly painted nails.

Showing off my nails

Masha, Holly and Pau relaxing in the afternoon sun on the helideck

I then rushed to the PI meeting, where we discussed our current and upcoming plans, realized how little we know about future customs procedures in Australia and the work mode got turned on again. I spent the rest of the night figuring out the details for the upcoming cargo shipment. My plan is to prepare everything in advance, so I can relax in Hobart. I hope the plan works!

I have a few busy days of writing report and organizing cargo ahead of me. Wish me luck :)

1.5 km CTD cast

January 14

One of the advantages of deep CTD casts - an ability to make souvenir styrofoam cups. We design normal size white cups, tie it to the rosette going down to a significant depth and they get compressed by pressure. Here's an example of the cups I designed the other day, when we did a 1500 m cast as a SOCCOM float calibration.

I drew different activities we do on board  - launching radiosondes, doing oceanographic stations with a rosette and plankton nets we drag after a slow moving ship to collect plankton and microplastics samples.

We one had only a few cups this time, I am hoping to stock up in Hobart and design more souvenirs during the upcoming legs of the ACE.

Early Aurora observations

January 13

This is a paragraphs from my grandfather's journal:
Из дедовых дневников:
Наблюдения за полярными сияниями ведутся здесь двумя путями: визуальные и фото регистрация сияния специальной очень хитрой камерой - это делает здесь Борис Моисеев - очень молодой ещё парень, но уже дважды зимовавший на дрейфующей станции  северный полюс СП-6. Вторым способом ведутся наблюдения за "авророй" при помощи радиолокатора, регистрирующего отражения от сияний, и определяющего таким образом их высоту и конфигурацию. Занимается здесь этим Андрей Таранов - радиоинженер, окончивший ленинградское арктическое морское училище. Работает он в паре с ионосферистом Толей Евсеечевым, проводящим при помощи весьма громоздкой бандуры вертикальные зондирования ионосферы. Владимир Дмитриевич Сафронов проводит регистрацию космических лучей. Тоже только регистрацию - отрабатывать данные здесь не представляется возможным - одному это не под силу.

/*A note from Masha in 2017:*/
We observed Auroras two nights in a row on the January 10-11 and January 11-12. We do not have any active observations of auroras or ionosphere from the ship, so we purely enjoyed the view. 

Aurora australis (11 September 2005) as captured by NASA's IMAGE satellite (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=6226)

It was really interesting for me to read about observations they held in 1960. During the International Geophysical Year in 1957-58 first coordinated observations of auroras were performed. This is how scientist discovered that auroras happen simultaneously in both hemispheres, consequently they were related to solar activity in upper layers of the atmosphere /ionosphere. When solar wind and magnetic plasma precipitate to upper atmosphere the energy of charged particles is lost. The resulting ionization emits light of varying color depending on altitude and solar activity. (more in wiki)

Schematic of Earth's magnetosphere (Original bitmap from NASA. SVG rendering by Aaron Kaase.)

Another thing that surprised me - my grandfather describes that there was a person spending not one, but two winters (!) on the ice floe - the drifting station North Pole. This program started in 1930s in the Soviet Russia and is still running. There were some interruptions during the WWII and in the 1990s, but the idea is the same. A crew of several scientists are deployed on the sea ice floe in the Arctic. They establish a camp and make daily observations. It used to be a rather lengthy expedition. However, recently, due to the decrease of the sea ice extent in the Arctic, the North Pole drifting stations can barely survive one season. Ice floes deteriorate rapidly, making the sea ice camps a rather dangerous and short expeditions.

Северный Полюс-6 (photo from https://www.yakutskhistory.net/%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B5-%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%B8/%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8F%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F-%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%8F-%D1%81%D0%BF-6/)

Aurora Australis

January 12

I was working on getting data off my atmospheric sensors, when someone yelled "aurora". I went outside and here it was - a magnificent green alien light. It was changing fast. I went downstairs to the lab and a few cabins to tell more people. Soon about twenty of us gathered up to share the experience. It wasn't the brightest aurora I saw, but it was quite spectacular. Mostly green, although an occasional weak white and weak red beam made guest appearances. We stayed observing for about half an hour as the sky was getting more and more obscured by clouds. Many members of our expedition saw an aurora for the first time - it was really nice to share that experience with them. 
I did not even attempt to take pictures, but here are a couple taken by Florian, the EPFL photographer on board.

It is easy to forget how lucky I am

January 11

It was a really busy day for me today, we did a deep 1.5 km cast to calibrate the SOCCOM floats we launched in the afternoon. The oceanography work took old day and we all were really tired.
After that I spent half the night sorting our samples to prepare for future shipment. As our legs come to the final week, we are planning for the next leg, getting organized and reorganized. I am also hoping to do all cargo reshuffling while still at sea, so that I will enjoy my two days in Hobart with my friends, rather than working on the ship.
In any case, there have been only a few occasions I was able to go outside and enjoy being at sea. Fully comprehend how unique my experience is and how I should cherish these moments as they will pass by really fast.
So since I am up at night and I was able to sent a few pictures back home - you can enjoy with me:

Here's a picture of me on main deck passing by. We have a few journalists/photographers on board and I asked one of them to take a picture of me. I have to say this is my favorite picture from this cruise to day.

We are changing clocks rather frequently on this journey to keep up with the current time zone. In the next week we will advance forward one hour every second day. But this also means that we are somewhat in tune with the solar day. So every night after dinner (if not working, haha) you can go on helo deck and enjoy the sunset.

I also end up staying up through the night on more occasions than I probably should. So this is a picture of the rising sun I captured a few days ago.
Having little to no clouds have been such a bliss of the last couple of days! Amazing!

Физкульт-привет! / Heli deck boot camp

January 10
I can't believe how lucky we are to be sailing in this atypically nice weather. We have seen the sun for four days in a row (January 7 through 10), which is just amazing. And I am hoping tomorrow (January 11) will also be nice.
As we are steaming off to Hobart without any more island stops, many teams on the ship officially finished their field work for the leg. Some others are still collecting data from atmosphere and ocean. So with some spare time in hand and exceptional weather one of the BAS scientist started a boot camp on the heli deck (weather permitting). Unfortunately I haven't quite made it to a class yet, since there is always something for me to do in the middle of the day. But as I was attempting to sample the first hail event on the upper deck, I shot this picture of the boot campers exercising:

I also have to admit that hail sampling was unsuccessful, it was a fluke of an event that lasted a couple of minutes tops. By the time I got all my gear from the freezer, the hail stopped and the sun came back. It wasn't even that cold - you can see people exercising in shorts and t-shirts with an occasional sweater outside.

Exercising on a ship isn't easy. A lot of times there is too much to do. The gym has very limited equipment, and it becomes dangerous when the ship rolls. Heli deck is just about the only large flat space available. Many Russian crew members walk laps on heli deck, weather permitting. I have to applaud their patience and consistency. I personally try to do my yoga as regularly as possible. An occasional game of table tennis is the only add on I managed to do so far. I wish I was more organized about my fitness. Maybe I will manage to do the boot camp tomorrow, but once again too many things are planned for me...

Calm waters of the Southern Ocean

January 9

Today we had exceptionally good weather, the sun was shining, there was almost no wind and almost no swell. If we are lucky, we will continue to travel in this anticyclone for a while and enjoy this weather. However, we need to keep up the speed.

 Since the weather was so good, we spent a lot of hours doing oceanographic work - performed the first successful deep CTD and trace metal rosette cast, launched bongo nets to look for microplastics and identify new species of plankton.

I realize that I have pictures of many other people working and no pictures of me working, since I am too busy for the camera.
I recently learned how to clean the rosette, so today it was my job to tidy up after the casts and make sure we do not collect salt and rust on the frame and the delicate instruments. Draining the rosette is quite awkward as it is kept inside and I did not want to flood the room, so I drained niskin bottles into a bucket first. This is why the whole job takes longer than it should, but I have to say it was rather meditative to clean up.
Due to direct sunlight and low winds my atmospheric sensors on the uppermost deck recorded very warm temperatures. I am hoping that whenever it snows, the temperature will be more realistic. Otherwise, we might need to completely rethink the system and put the instruments somewhere else on the ship. This will be a job for Hobart, which I am hoping to outsource, since I want to take a much needed day off the ship. People, who are getting off after Leg 1 (at Hobart) are counting down the days, I have a lot to go, but I am looking forward to seeing my dear friends, who are flying to meet me in Hobart. Thank you so much!!! Can't wait to see you all ♡ !