Header Photo: Late afternoon sun bathes the south-west face of Mount Verne (Photo: Robin Perry)
Relief, March 1960 (continued)
As a prearranged signal Jim M fired a magazine of 45s, but it was fairly obvious that the others would not hear it, so Malcolm and his three dogs went out to fetch them. It was disappointing, the turning back, but I don’t think any of us had allowed ourselves to get excited about relief with the weather as it was. I made a bit of dinner and Jim F hurriedly made a sponge cake and Keith the icing for it. It was the cook’s birthday. After the meal Jim F gave me a haircut and at 9.30pm Malcolm’s birthday cake was produced, but it was not very good. A shade better than my last attempt at sponge cake which had been like india rubber. Little of interest on the ‘Goon Show’ other than learning that the Otter had returned safely.I was not very happy about our weather; nimbostratus seemed to be thickening to the north and the movement of the cloud sheet was from there. Paddy took off on time and it began to snow on us. After informing Paddy about this via Biscoe and Kista Dan I sent the routine weather observation to Stanley and then tuned to the aircraft frequency 4040kHz. The snow became heavier and visibility deteriorated, but Paddy pressed on. So at 4.20pm I had to send
Friday 18 March – It turned colder during the night with a strong NE wind, snow and drift;
a foretaste of autumn. Only Eric Jones came up for the 7am sked. It was bad at Biscoe and no better at 2pm, so Sir called off any activity for today. An hour later there was an improvement at our end, wind dropping and drift ceasing. The temperature had been falling while the wind blew, reaching a minimum
of 21°F (–6°C), but then went up again. After tea the two Jims, Gordon and Keith fed the dogs seal and I went up Flagstaff Hill but saw nothing in particular. Jim M reported the flags and boxes still in position. Sked fixed for tomorrow at 7am. The cloud broke after 10pm with a half-moon rising behind the Gendarme at midnight. Hopes are high for relief tomorrow. Is it possible?
Saturday 19 March – In spite of late night met. duty I got up at 9.30am to see what was developing. The weather here was reasonable: stratocumulus with cirrostratus above. But not so good at the other end apparently. A sked had been arranged for 10am, when Sir Vivian insisted that at least some of Keith’s rocks be brought out on the first flight. It was considered that 1900lb should be the maximum load for this first flight out. After all, they had no idea what the surface we were offering was really like. Ourselves in clothing came to about 1150lb, the mail 56lb and the two boxes from Base W 110lb. Keith’s minimum requirement for rocks was 357lb, leaving about 38lb (17kg) for personal gear per evacuee. Since we had originally banked on about 120lb (54kg) each, some drastic repacking had to be done.
The weather was still not good enough at their end and a further sked was fixed for 2pm. Due to start my cook week tomorrow, I was particularly anxious not to be still on base. The wait for the next sked seemed interminable even though we had lunch in the interval. The weather at base was holding up although the cirrostratus had become altostratus and the sun was disappearing.
The temperature was a touch above freezing. The news was that it had improved in the north and Ron Lord would take off at about 3pm. So we put into operation our procedure for departure; it was agreed that I would stay to do the radio, Jim M and Gordon would go out first and prepare the runway, Jim F and Keith would leave when the flight was well and truly under way, and Malcolm with his three dogs and a sledge would wait for me. This time I could read the plane (Romeo Lima—the pilot’s initials) from about Larrony Island. Around Cape Rey they ran into mist and climbed to 7000ft. There is the odd mountain above that level en route, but Ron said he could see them. During the climb he reported seeing Base W, but thereafter virtually nothing until over Marguerite Bay. Then we saw him flying down the fjord at a fair height, a high-winged monoplane painted the usual polar orange. Ron had some difficulty locating our landing strip, but when he did find it he came down and stopped in a very short distance. I sent a message to Kista Dan announcing safe arrival, and off we went a few minutes after 5pm.
With Pete Forster on this flight was Peter Grimley and Charlie Lefeuvre (radio operator). A doctor would be coming with the next flight. The briefest of handovers. Ron asked me for information on the terrain, the map he had was an old DOS edition, and I was put up front to do a visual navigation over the
glaciers we had crossed on our way to Base W. We did not need much of the runway for taking off, and flew up Bourgeois Fjord, over The Narrows and up the ‘Midland Valley’ of Blaiklock Island, climbing all the way, so that when over the Jones ice shelf we were about the same level as the Blaiklock ridge (4000ft). There was open water right across Bourgeois Fjord and The Narrows, so we could not have sledged that way for some time to come. Visibility became poor over the Heim Glacier so Ron climbed to nearly 8000ft. I got a glimpse of the cliffs of Bartholin Peak, but over Lallemand Fjord the vertical visibility downwards was nil. Somewhere around Hooke Point Ron did a rapid descent to see if any more ground came into view, and eventually I did make out Neb Bluff and ‘Stack Point’, so Ron sent a message to Kista Dan giving our position as Base W although we never saw it. Now he could pick up the ship’s radio beacon, and the mist thinned revealing part of Darbel Bay.
We had crossed the Antarctic Circle. But there was still much low cloud on the mountains and over the Bellingshausen Sea. I changed places with Tom Sumner, the flight engineer, who would try to use the Sarah beacon. Gordon was suffering his chronic travel sickness, Jim M was dozing, the others were trying to see the scenery. We passed Ferin Head and saw Base J looking surprisingly large, but now we had descended a lot.
Open water around and south of Ferin Head gave way to fast ice again, or very large floes, and the weather became very bad; wet snow, which froze on the windscreen, and poor visibility made things very uncomfortable up front. But luckily it cleared just in time for Ron to make out the ships. He came straight in and landed, no fuss. My first view of Kista Dan had been the name and bright red colour flashing past the window just before touchdown. When we stopped, there was John Biscoe on the other side in its usual dull grey. But such a welcome sight!
We all knew almost everyone who came around the plane as we got out and unloaded, but sometimes names were tricky to recall on the spur of the moment. Paddy White was there. We made a bee-line away from Kista Dan to the Biscoe which was nearer, and I got the lads fixed up with cabins. It may not be for very long though, as we were warned some people may have to transfer to the Danish boat. A meal was waiting for us, and then the mail was distributed. I had to go through all the requests from collectors for postmarks, and give the acceptable ones to Howard Chapman who was to go on the next flight. So by the time I was able to look at my own mail it was after midnight, so I did not get very far. Before going to bed I had my first bath for over a year.
Robin Perry – 1958 Met. Detaille, 1959 Met/BC – Horseshoe