Resupply and fixing Options

[Robert_Oddo]

Today we spent much of our day fixing some things that malfunctioned either during the winter or during the time we were here. You have to be pretty much self sufficient up here. When things break we have a lot of pipe clamps, cable ties, duct tape, and electrical tape to fix them. No Wal-Mart open 24 hours to get something!! We rig a lot of things up to get them working. When the electronic equipment or data loggers go down, we try to email the customer support people from the manufacturers to get a quick fix. Sometimes it works. One of our GPS units went down the other day and we emailed customer support and they were able to walk us through a fix. On the other hand a balance broke and customer support said that we must bring it in for service. Oh well, we will have to wait on that one. We do get supplies every once in a while. Delivery can sometimes actually be spectacular. We got a call the other day that a delivery was coming and at about 9:00pm at night (it was sunny!!) this big Norwegian Coast Guard Boat comes steaming down the fiord. We were watching it with binoculars and all of a sudden a super zodiac was dropped from it as it was moving and this boat came zooming in to our little pier. The boat was orange, going about 70 mph and had 4 people in it clad in orange survival suits, helmets and all kinds of fancy gear. They steamed up to our dock, handed us a big box and zoomed back to their ship that slowed but never stopped. It beat federal express delivery, but this package took three weeks to come from the states, express mail.

Every three or four days we do get some food supplies that come up from Longyearbyen. Some times we can call ahead of time and get this guy that comes in on a small zodiac to bring us something we need. But a lot of times the deliveries come late because of high seas.


In the afternoon, some folks went out coring in the lake and others did some stream profiles. I spent some time with Carlos and Steve fixing the weather station. On our way back from the lake out of the corner of my eye, I saw this white thing moving across the tundra. Right away, I stopped everyone, got guns ready and got out the binoculars to check it out. It was this white foam blowing across the tundra. Everyone laughed and we moved on!! No bear encounter, just foam.


There are no trees to lean the ladder against. So guess who is the tree??


our fixed station