7 May 2017
Saturday 6th of May 2017

Saturday evening group picture. From left to right: J.P., Sverrir, Bo, H.C., Grant, Dennis, Steffen, Sarah, Sepp, Camilla, Maria, Jens Christian, Iben, Christian, Trevor, Motohiro, Kenji, Hans Christian and Bruno.

The first real Saturday evening and weekend at EGRIP 2017

Saturday morning began dramatically. At breakfast, the main generator stopped. The problem was located to the fuel injector pump. At high loads, the frequency dropped below allowed values. We were in touch with the company and via their instruction, we managed to adjust the frequency, i.e. the RPM of the diesel so that it didn’t stop. This adjustment took some time, and in the meantime, we rigged the backup generator to power the main dome and crucial experiments. The trenches were dark, and people got an extra-long coffee break. At Noon the problem was fixed and the main generator has been running fine the rest of the weekend.

Saturday evening was celebrated in a fully functional camp. We have running water, heating, and from Friday night all have internet access. Saturday evening meal was prepared by Camilla, Maria and Iben: Rolls with salmon, Greenland lamb, vegetables and Svalbard cake for dessert. It was a lovely evening and talk continued into the night. Sunday, we began late; but still we managed to get many things done. As the wind was not strong for once, we built two weatherports while work continued in the drill trench.

What we did Saturday and Sunday:

  1. Repaired snowblower and located the problem with poorly running snowmobiles. The problem was caused by a drum of bad gasoline.
  2. All in camp now have web access.
  3. Work in the drilling trench.
  4. Fixing problem with main generator stop Saturday morning.
  5. Rigging backup generator to power main dome and water isotope station.
  6. Mounting radar on top of cuppola.
  7. Web camera now active. Check: http://alice.egrip.camp/
  8. Building WP 3 (10 x 10, Stapi) and WP 4 (12 x 12)
  9. Mounting new saw in extraction cabin.
  10. Work on radar connection and software and camp server and camp LAN.
  11. Snow sampling.
  12. Japanese snow experiments in progress.

Weather in the weekend: Mostly thin overcast, moderate to strong wind. Temp. -6° C to -17° C. Wind: 8 kt to 19 kt from SW. Visibility: To horizon. Saturday was warm and windy.

FL, J.P. Steffensen

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