Apprent-ICE 2016 Blog #2

The past week we have been making the most of the fine weather and working big hours on the HFC project. We have managed to finish all of the structural steel, landed all the pre-cast concrete floor components and we are now making steady progress on preparing and installing the wall cladding (PIR Panel).

Outside of work I have been just as busy. This week I have managed to go on a FAM trip up Castle Rock, take a landing craft out into the Ross Sea and board the HMS Protector; a large Royal Navy vessel which turned out to have a lack of defence capability so I didn’t find the name very fitting, however the tour was awesome! We have also had a cruise ship in the bay, and I have been involved in driving the passengers over from McMurdo to Scott Base so they could have a tour of how we operate. I have found this very interesting as I have been taking to people from different backgrounds from all over the world.

A team of us from Scott Base went across to McMurdo on Wednesday night and took part in social trivia. Unfortunately for us, most of the questions were American based but we managed to overcome our reputation of coming last and gained enough points to stay ahead of one other team!!

We have had two fire alarms this last week with the first at one o'clock in the morning turning out to be a faulty sensor and the second being more serious. Just as we were about to walk out the door for Sunday brunch an electrical fire in a light in one of the sleeping quarters caught on fire. Luckily the fire crew that were on duty were well prepared and had the situation under control in no time. The McMurdo fire brigade turned up just in case the situation got out of hand.