AS we recover here, so does the drill team on teh Ice.
howdy, so yesterday was to be a day off for us all, however, events happened, and we needed to do critical maintenance on both the top sheave and the transfer cradle, both damaged due to use. I volunteered to help, so we removed the main sheave, ( a 42 inch dia 1 1/2 inch thick grooved plate the cable is routed around, and replaced the bearings on it as they had begun to fail. I also did some blacksmithing, I had bent the transfer cradle several days ago and another worker then redid my bend day before yesterday, this due to the electronic stops on the transfer cradle being set incorrectly, so we had to straighten and strengthen it, I did my magic and it came out almost perfect…. but it was a long day, and I now have to work 10 days without a day off, having used up my “sunday off”…. but we now can continue to drill at high speed, with the bad sheave bearings, we reduced trip speeds up and down the hole to 60% speed, slowing us considerably….
900 meters deep right now….we started at 581 when I got here..(when was that? so loooooong ago, time seems to have stopped, wais seems a bill murray ”groundhog day” movie of sorts) and still in brittle ice. I can stand in the core handlers side of the Arch, and if it is quiet, (when the refrigerators and air handlers are shut off) hear the Ice we have already drilled that is sitting in aluminium channels waiting for additional core science work, popping every now and then, due to internal pressure overcoming the atmospheric pressure and temps…. so we are deep into brittle ice now, should be through it around 1300 meters or so.. at our rate of drilling, we might see 1400 meters when we stop for the year….I think my flight out of Wais is 23-25 jan…. but I do not know…… besides, plane schedules are not ontime here…. we have seen “no plane” times of 10 days or more here….
not much else, hope everybody is well and healthy and please drive carefully…