Day 17
S82 56' 17.52", W80 29' 29.04"
///carmine.tombstone.butting
Dog's Mobile Disco and The International Space Station
“Hi good evening everyone, it’s Lou reporting in now from Day 17 of the expedition.
So we’ve been skiing now for 17 days straight without a rest, and we’re definitely beginning to feel it; it’s been quite a slog, you know, pushing out 10 hours, every single day, of skiing. We stop for short breaks during that time, every 90 minutes or so. But we never sit down, we’re on our feet and stood up the whole time. It takes its toll. But we managed to grind out another 15 nautical miles. We’re pleased with that. And we’re camped now, just short of crossing South 83 degrees. We’re four miles away. So mid-morning tomorrow, we’re hoping to get across 83, which is another great milestone.
I should title this blog Dog’s Mobile Disco And The International Space Station. Which sounds really unusual, so I should explain! Martin’s nickname is Dog; I’ve been using all different permutations of that: Deputy Dog, and Husky Dog, and Dog Tired, and been having loads of fun with that. And the Mobile Disco bit – he’s not had much luck with his technical equipment on this trip. The first thing to play up was his headphones, and every time he plugs his headphones into his mobile to listen to some music on the move, for some reason, it makes the phone go into loudspeaker mode. And it was absolutely driving him insane on the first parts of the journey, and there was lots of cursing and swearing. But now it’s become a standing joke. Every time he pulls up next to me as we’re skiing along, he’s just got this music blaring out from his jacket. I’m now asking him if he does bookings for kids’ parties and Bar Mitzvahs. So he’s now known as Dog’s Mobile Disco.
The International Space Station bit is the solar panel that he’s got; which is around the size of the solar panels that are on the International Space Station, and probably weighs about the same as well. And it’s not working very well, despite its size! He can’t charge the satphone off it. He has it out on his pulk all day long, trying to charge equipment but it just doesn’t seem to work. And then he spends all morning and every evening trying to angle it inside the tent and just try and get a bit of juice into his tech kit. Bless him, he’s not had much luck with the technical equipment on this trip. I’ve got a panel, and we’re using that for the critical kit so we’re ok. But definitely some comedy value to be had with Dog’s technical equipment on this trip. I’m sure we’ll be laughing about it for years to come.
And tonight we’ve got quite an exciting event; we’ve got a solar eclipse! Unfortunately it’s at half four in the morning our time. Which is not ideal. Yeah, half four, 0434 I think it’s going to be tomorrow morning, we’re going to get a full solar eclipse out here. It’ll be the first time, certainly from my many trips to Antarctica, that I’ll have ever seen darkness in Antarctica, so we’re really looking forward to that, and we’re going to try and get some photos and video of what will definitely be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us. That’s something to look forward to. And we’ll be out, back on the trail tomorrow morning first thing, and let’s go and crack South 83.
That’s all for this evening.
Onwards”
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