Message from Joe Cook prior to taking off

Just a quick note to keep you well up to date on our progress out here in KGR. There was some shuffling of the heli timings throughout yesterday afternoon as another group was also expecting to go up the coast today, so we have been shifted back to a 9am lift off for heli 1. Tris, Johan and I will be Team 1, selecting the site rom the air and building the mess tent while the heli returns to fetch the remaining team. Peter Sinclair is coming in with us to film, and will return to KGR on the second heli.

Peter interviewed us all separately this morning about Black and Bloom work, the first video is already available featuring Chris chatting ice algae. Keep your eyes open for more over the coming weeks. Peter’s happy for these to be reposted on our web site.

I think we’ve got things sorted here – two tonnes of kit are sitting in two neat piles in the hangar waiting to go first thing in the am. Everyone is happy and excited and getting along famously – morale is very high. We’ve done rifle training, safety checks, comms checks and science kit checks and everything is good. Tom and Johan are superstars.

Looking forward to speaking from the ice, and champing at the bit to get some good work done!