By mid-December, the whole DC13 crew has arrived, except for the doctor who will only arrive in January. He ends up being even more delayed because of bad weather on the Antarctica coast, but is the only lucky one who arrives to MZS by boat and therefore sees lots of Antarctic wildlife!
During the summer campaign, I don’t spend much time with the other winter-overers. We are all busy with either our predecessors or summer campaigners who are demonstrating the work we will have to carry out this year. Luckily we have quite a lot of Capa recordings to do at the beginning, as the p.i.’s have hypothesized that major changes could occur as we are getting acclimatized to the new environment. These sessions are a great opportunity to get together and discuss what has been happening, whilst each one of us is doing his private recording.
We also slowly start getting the fire drill team together, and learn all about the different fire codes we have to differentiate to know the precise location of any alarm. The chefs get a day off in the week, and we seize the occasion to put our cooking skills to the test. Knowing that end of year celebrations are fast approaching and that our friends and family are currently enjoying Christmas markets, we decide to bring a little of the festivities here and make “tartiflette” and vin chaud. The mood in the kitchen is very joyful, helped by the fact that we have also opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate Sebastien’s birthday!
Our DC13 team is composed of the following people:
- Laura Caiazzo, atmospheric chemistry and glaciology
- Simone Chicarella, electronics for science
- Aldo Salvatore Clemenza, doctor
- Yuri De Pra, computer science for astronomy
- Alfonso Ferrone, atmospheric science and climate
- Sebastien Jullien-Palletier, electrician
- Didier L’Hote, technical chief
- Simone Marcolin, chef
- Pol Monfort, mechanics
- Alexis Robin, plumber, heating and ventilation systems
- Paul Serre, chemist and glaciology
- Andrea Tosti, IT and radio communications
75 Degrees South 