Take Over

Day 14; February 5, 2009; Vesleskaervet, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica
Average Daily Temperature: 19.4˚ F
Average Daily Wind Speed: 22.15 mph
Feels Like: -13.82˚ F

My alarm sounded, startling me out of a deep sleep. The foreign noise alerted me to the fact that it was 6:30am and time to get ready for our journey to Grunahogna—the gorgeous rock mountain 40 kilometers away that I see from my studio window here. I was elated to be going on a new adventure. Travel within Antarctica is never without a particular mission, due to the incredible expense. Given the $9000 per hour flight cost while airborne, our scheduled helicopter flight to Grunahogna this morning was not a scenic tour. Though we would indeed be graced by exquisite close-up views of the area’s many nunataks during our quick, low-flying flight, the day’s goal was to retrieve a snow accumulation flag that ITASC had placed there 2 years ago.

Groggy and puffy-eyed, I quickly dressed into my warm gear, made sure all my camera equipment was in my backpack, and grabbed my sleeping bag, which we were required to bring on any flight away from the base in the event of an emergency landing or a surprise storm. Walking into the dinning room, where I was to meet Thomas, Alfons and 1stborn for our flight, I looked out the window and stopped in my tracks. White-out conditions, fierce wind, and snow flurries. We wouldn’t be going anywhere.

Although the mild storm didn’t last beyond lunch, and the afternoon was gorgeous, our flight was canceled for that day. Normally, we would have just flown in the afternoon the minute the conditions turned favorable. But today was “Take Over,” and so starting at Noon, the base was on a sort of holiday.

Take Over is the name used to mark the time in the year when the team who has just spent the entire winter at the base (a 14 month duration, from December to the following February) hands the base over to the team who has just arrived and will now stay here through the next winter. Those who have “wintered over” as it is called, and those who are about to “winter over” go through a very formal process where the one team, SANAE 47 (the name refers to the fact that they are the 47th expedition team from South Africa) literally signs the duties and the responsibility for the base over to the next expedition team, SANAE 48, who arrived here on the boat in early January. But before the formalities of the paperwork are performed, there are games to be played and championships to be won.

The tournaments had actually begun last night, with the first rounds of darts, pool and ping pong (or table tennis) causing a happy cacophony to arise from the bar and game room most of the night. Somehow, I had been signed up for pool, and after dinner, I heard my name being called for next game up. I enjoy pool tremendously, however I am not endowed with a fantastic ability for geometry, having always been much more proficient at algebra. Unfortunately, imaginary numbers do little to assuage the need to deliver a pool ball into a corner pocket, and alas I found myself feeling exactly as I did before a geometry exam: intensely apprehensive. Despite the horrendous game I played, I actually won, owing to the fact that my opponent managed to sink the white ball whilst he was sinking the black ball. Et voila! I believe I am the only winner of a pool game in the history of pool that managed to win with every one of my pool balls still on the table! Mortified, and yet winner, I would have to endure yet another game.

Games resumed after lunch today, and with the stormy weather having finally calmed, the out-of-doors boot toss and tug-of-war commenced, lasting until early evening. Cocktails were then at 7pm, with the formal six-course meal at 8pm. Throughout the wonderful meal, which included some traditional South African foods, the team leaders from SANAE 47 got up to share their reflections, stories and gratitude for the year’s trials and successful research, and acknowledged the hardships they had endured over their isolated winter stay.

There are only 10 or so members on a team each expedition year, so it is a very small group of people who brave the whole 14 months. During the harsh winter, they are completely cut off from the rest of the world because there are no flights in or out of Antarctica. It is not until December, the start of the research season, that the boat brings the rest of the people who make up the now 76 researchers, scientists, engineers and administration staff that populate the base during the three months of summer. But harsh weather is just around the corner again, and so as early as next week, everyone who is not wintering over, including me, will begin to pack up and return to the ship and depart to Cape Town.

During the talks, Ross Hofmeyr, who is the Team Leader for SANAE 47, spoke affectingly about his team and their intense and fulfilling year. His words were so moving, that I found tears welling in my eyes when he gave us long pause by finishing with this quote from Sir Ernest Shackleton:

We have pierced the veneer of outside things.
We have suffered and triumphed,
grovelled down yet grasped at glory,
grown bigger in the bigness of the whole.
We have seen God in all his splendor,
heard the text that Nature renders,
We have reached the naked soul of man.

Before dessert was the official signing over of the base, and then everyone rushed back to the game room for what would become a late night of dancing and the final rounds of the championships. As you might imagine, I was defeated in my second game in the pool tournament. Yet after the championship was finally claimed, and the pool table once again open for additional folly, I was actually challenged to another game! By some mathematical anomaly, I thereafter held the table for four straight hours! It was as if suddenly, points, lines and surfaces emerged from the unknown and I was able to actually sink my pool balls, even accomplishing some fancier moves. Finally releasing the table to a true master, I realized it was way too late. Yet the festivities had everyone in the party spirit, and as I walked down the corridor back to my room, I could still hear laughter and the curious din of Afrikaans and Zulu echoing throughout the hallways.

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