The big issue with the ship being so far away from Mawson, was that the helicopters could not even sling-load cargo to Mawson unless they were closer. In fact they would not even fly if it was more than 100 miles away, and the ship did drift in the ice to almost 100 miles out! Sling-loading would have allowed 1000kg of cargo to be carried on each helicopter flight, but as all cargo needed to fly internally, there was an issue with space and a maximum load of 350kg. We were told that we may not receive all our personal cargo and possibly none of our alcohol! Eeeck! At least the station has a brewery (the ‘Nunatak Brewery’, no less!) which turns out some pretty good beer, and our station brew master was determined to come up with the goods.
The first priority was people, getting us to Mawson and the previous Mawson team to the ship, then food and essentials like medical, then everything else came after. The back of the ship was stacked high with shipping containers with our cargo, containing everything from our personal stuff, food, building materials, medical, machinery and all the stuff needed for various projects and repairs on station to keep things operational. It was a massive juggling game to access various containers to pull out priority cargo, move aside non-priority cargo, with cranes moving stuff around in a space that was full! Why containers were not packed in order of priority is beyond comprehension, especially considering our fly-off situation was a real possibility that was considered and planned for (although not planned out fully it seems!). I mean we had two helicopters picked up from Davis Station, de-bladed and packed into containers on the ship, plus 5 helicopter pilots/mechanics for the job. But with lists of hundreds of cargo items and boxes all randomly packed together, stuff was pulled out, shoved into spaces and other containers in the search of specific items. I saw boxes of fresh veggies and fruit for Mawson being taken away to the ship’s galley - oh how I knew I’d miss those fresh foods!
But pretty soon we were whisked off in those little helicopters to Mawson Station donning dry suits and life jackets, a requirement for flying over water (as well as carrying a life raft that took up quite a bit of space in the heli). It was an exciting day and we had fantastic weather and views. It was mesmerising flying over the sea ice, seeing older ice floes jammed together like lots of little islands, and the newly forming ice in translucent, geometric sheets, as well as large icebergs that have broken off the glaciers and now adrift at sea. It was a 50 minute flight to the station, and as we approached, I sucked in the scene of the islands up and down the coast (where the penguin rookeries are that we will hopefully visit), and the Framnes Mountains up on the plateau behind station. The station looked so small (but then it is the smallest of the three Australian Antarctic stations) nestled on a small rocky shore. It was exciting to finally set foot on the station.
