Every expedition marks a new beginning after the departure of the previous leader. For, now the team is led by a different leader. And we too, marked the beginning of 37th ISEA. New team, new energy and budding friendships. I had a new female companion, our doctor, Dr. Sejal who is here with her doctor husband. The new team was busy with their handover but we made friends and went out together with whatever time we had.

And just after a few days, it was my birthday. There were no ingredients for a regular cake, so I had a cake made of coconut and chocolate prepared by Dr. Sejal for the midnight and an atta cake by our summer chef Mr. Robin for the party. I was amidst many people but honestly, we were all still part friends and part strangers. I did feel a void of not having any of my family or friends, whom I could hug in joy or misery, and I haven't made great friends with anyone here yet. But then, I was in Antarctica and down the line, we would be friends, the ones I laugh, fight and be crazy with, ones that I would remember and smile when I thought of Antarctica. I got gifts from Maitri and we celebrated in regular party style of Bharati i.e. cake, starters and food, alcohol, music, singing, dance and shayari. And then a bunch of us just sat and talked and that was it. My colleagues took over my shift so I could be at the party. This is mostly how we celebrated birthdays and anniversaries, with evening party followed by music and dance.

Team AGEOS-37ISEA

Snowpetrels' naturall nest

Slide Tracks

They made a satellite and radome on cake

Can you find a snowpetrel here?

Our first snowman

Sun Halo, the best I could capture with my phone

PC: Rajesh Dabral

Midnight birthday celebration

Away in a world far away, the voyage team landed at Capetown, the ship has been loaded with cargo and started on voyage to Bharati station with the voyage team. Now, even we were waiting for the ship to bring fresh food. The voyage would take around 10-12 days given normal sea and fast ice conditions. Within a week, we had Christmas coming. So preparations started with making christmas tree and lounge decoration, followed by getting our own Bharati Santa (Our chef Mr.Jitender), followed by midnight gift distribution by Santa. That is still one of the most eventful midnight celebrations we had. The celebrations followed with songs, food, music and dance while we (AGEOS team) unfortunately couldn't participate in the evening celebration due to a technical issue. And another week ahead, was new year 2018. And we welcomed 2018 with a celebration. Food, drinks, music and dance were default in all our celebrations. As we welcomed the new year in station, the voyage team was somewhere in the middle of ocean.

PC: Dr.Nidhin

They did it wonderfully

Not so ghostly Ghost in Bharati

PC: Dr.Sukumar

Video by Dr.Sejal

PC: Dr.John

Myself as bharati ghost

PC: Dr.Sukumar

Video by Dr.Sejal

Santa with the tree by Dr.Sejal

Thats how bright our new year welcome
at midnight was

PC: Dr.Sukumar

Walk with Santa

Scuva by Dr.Sukumar

We had more such celebrations in the following days and a few visits from Russian, Chinese and Australian friends. In the meanwhile, we had 3 more members to join us, one from NRSC and 2 from ViaSat for the antenna installation activities. The Russian and Chinese vessels have arrived already but were stuck. The vessels need to break the fast ice and make path for them to move ahead. The icebergs stuck in frozen sea forced the vessels to take an iceberg free route and the fast ice is still thick. We could watch their helicopters carryout sorties from the ship to station that were kilometers apart. We wondered how our ship would arrive in such conditions. Our ship had to face the same conditions as the Russian and Chinese, it has arrived but stuck. So our first sortie had to be carried from a few km through Kamov.

First day sorties create a different vibe in the station. When the heli lifted off with sortie, we were lining up for shramdaan at the station. There were scientific instruments, station relevant spares, antenna relevant cargo, food and other utilities, fuel and everything we would need for the year to come. Photography enthusiasts captured the moments when the heli arrived with a thrust that caused strong ripples in the not frozen anymore lake and blew up the soil in the eyes of whoever dared to see it with open eyes. It dropped the containers/net at the signaled location and left for another sortie. There at the ship, the voyage team had their shramdaan, unloading from the containers and placing the items into the net, preparing the next sortie. While, parallelly, the station members were busy in their shramdaan unloading from the net, so the empty net can be sent back when the next sortie arrives. The activity goes on for as long as we have sorties. Why not shift containers directly u ask? There is a weight limit the heli can carry among other factors. The voyage leaders are aware of the first priority equipment to be sent and it is an unsaid fact that the station members would be waiting for fresh food. If not all, atleast some of it is almost always sent on the first day. And after long, when vegetables fill the kitchen and dining with fresh delicious smell, its no less than a celebration for the members. And the tired teams (both station and voyage) would take proper rest and gear up for another day of sorties.

Kamov and Squirrel by Dr.Nidhin

Video by Dr.Sukumar

Republic Day 2018 @Bharati
(PC: I dont remember)

He had no idea what was happening behind
PC: Dr.Sukumar

PC: Dr.Sukumar

PC: Rajesh Dabral

Dr.Sukumar with squirrel

Republic day special
PC: Dr.Sukumar

PC: Dr.Priyankar

Snowman on sea

Sun Halo by Dr.Priyankar

ISRO/ECIL team

PC: Dr.Sukumar

With the doctor couple
(The first Indian couple of Indian Antarctic Programme)

Amidst all the sorties, the voyage team was parallelly working to arrive closer to the island through the fast ice. And summer teams waited for the heli to get the maximum field work done. The teams were not allowed to travel on the frozen sea since the ships were arriving which would unstabilize fast ice and pose risk. Another heli, The Squirrel as it is called, came to help the teams in their field work while the kamov carried out sorties.

The voyage team included members from NCAOR, NIV, WII, NHO, DEAL, SAC, NRSC, ECIL (Sorry if I missed any). To accelerate antenna installation activities, the relevant team has been shifted to station from the ship and 2 36ISEA members bound to return by voyage shifted to the ship. The preparations for republic day begun. Invitations to neighboring stations, preparation of menu and sweets before the day, planning the decoration and scheduling the event, preparing the flag post and arranging the station including shramdaan to clean the station. Unfortunately, the Russian and Chinese members had other celebrations on the exact day and wouldn't come. Only few members of the voyage have been to the station but Republic day was celebrated by the entire team together. That's the first time we met the entire voyage team. Voyage only provides limited communication for the members as satellite phone and single voyage mail for the entire team. So once the ship arrived, the members who came from the ship would bring mobiles of the voyage team so the messages could be received which the members would read when they get their mobiles back on ship. They would try to respond the messages through mail or by typing in messages to be sent on connecting to internet or assign the task to a friend. Even having such conditions, the members involved in celebrations keeping the phones aside whenever they had to pay attention. The celebrations started with flag hoisting and photography, followed by sweets. There were some scheduled events in the lounge, followed by lunch. And then the voyage team left for the ship.

This is the chapter that made me smile more than the previous ones...We will meet next week with another chapter of new experiences.