13 June 2008

An unusual guest and hot summer weather

Seagull

This poor seagull was found behind some timbers.

Construction of the main dome continues. Today we finished the dome spherical structure. We are now tightening all the bolts to make it a perfect shape. Tomorrow we will mount the top cupola, and the structure is completed. The drill trench excavation goes fine. Depth is now 5.7 m, and we hope to finish this task tomorrow.

The weather today has really brought change. Summer has arrived. We had thick clouds, very poor contrast, snow and hot temperatures. This year’s temperature record -2.6 C. Such weather creates problems of a different kind. Even the small amount of solar radiation we got caused the snow to melt on any non-white surface, also the snow becomes really heavy and sticky.

We also found a poor little visitor today. A seagull was found near our cargo. It is so weak, it will hardly survive the night.

What we have done today:

  1. Blowing drill trench, now 5.7 m deep.
  2. Frame of dome structure almost finished, only cupola needs to be mounted.
  3. Making snow hill around main dome.
  4. Tightening bolts on dome structure until 23.00L.

Weather: Morning, blue sky, -10 C, 12 knots from S. Visibility: unrestricted. Beginning of afternoon: Thick clouds and snow, -2.6 C “hot!”, 10 knots from S and SW, Visibility: 1 mile.

FL, J.P. Steffensen

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