12th March, 2009
Well day 4 on the island, and by now everyone is starting to feel tired and everything you do is a struggle, getting up in the morning is difficult, but everyone is so happy.
Even though doing the littlest thing can take so much no one is down or wanting to give up, in 4 days we have put up 3 wind turbines in some pretty bad weather, cleaned out the e-base and felt a lot colder than we have ever felt before.
I mean what an achievement 4 days 3 turbines, back in the UK this would be good but out here it’s amazing, and I’m so proud to be working with such a strong team. Everyone just gets on with what they have to do, and this helps us all get through this. And we are all so proud to be doing this and I hope everyone at home is enjoying watching what we are doing.
Russell
npower/2041
11th March, 2009
Some things run smoothly and some things don’t. This seems all the more poignant in Antarctica.
Yesterday we were blessed with our first full day in Bellingshausen and along with it, our first true success. The construction and installation of wind turbine number 1. We have christened her Paula after the UK greatest long distance runner and marathon world record holder, Paula Radcliffe. And boy does our Paula run well too! She is in it for the long haul. We have all been awestruck by her strength and speed, spinning against the incredible skyline of Bellinghausen. It therefore seemed fairly appropriate that we name turbine number 2 Kelly in honour of our other great UK runner, Kelly Holmes. We hoped she would bring us such good fortune.
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11th March, 2009
Download Creating clean energy
Music thanks to Audio Network
11th March, 2009
I can’t remember a day when I have worked so hard. We were up at 06:30 and after a breakfast of porridge and tinned fruit we started putting the first turbine up.
Things were going pretty well, the rest of team got on with getting the tower and ground anchors ready, and I fitted the blades to the hub and assembled the turbine. The ground anchors that we were using to hold the guy wires for the turbine tower drove in worrying easily, and when we put the turbine up and raised the tower for the first time, they started to pull out. What a nightmare – this turbine needed to stay up through an Antarctic winter, and as it was it probably wouldn’t survive the week.
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10th March, 2009
Download The mission begins
Music thanks to Audio Network
