So far so good. Progress yesterday (Sunday 16th) was slow: little over one mile achieved but through very rough ice. The radio comms on Sunday was "Loud & Clear" and it appeared that all were in good spirits. Much to the delight of our enthusiastic man (Nobby) in charge of film footage the ladies reported that his video cam corder was working well inspite of the temperatures. Progress today (Monday 17th) as monitored by the coded satellite transmission was better, they achieved 3 miles northwards - their positon as of tonight is therefore 83deg14minN, 74deg20minW. The temperature was a comfortable ("if you like that sort of thing") -34C. Rather them than me. Four miles over two days may not sound like a lot, but believe you me it is during the early stages of the expedition when the ice conditions and the temperatures are at their worst. You may be interested to know of the good luck messages given to the women by the base team for sticking into their log books:
GOOD LUCK PENGUIN ALPHA Geoff says: "Look after yourself" Mike says: "No heroics, just grind it out" Gary & Diane say: "Don't be turkeys" Nobby says: "I don't care what you do just get it on celluloid" Morag says: "Or jhj erj ekjke fk k efjk, Jimmy" Pen says: "It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings" For the uninitiated: Gary & Diane are our landlords and Resolute's if not the world's no.1 people (except for the women relayers of course). They cooked a huge farewell turkey the night before kickoff. Well as for Morag she's Scottish - very Scottish. The important thing I hope you will gather from the majority of the above is just to keep going - it ain't a race. That's all folks. Team Bravo arrive tomorrow on Canadian Airlines, a very welcome sponsor to the expedition. MIKE |