The food situation here is obviously fairly grim. This morning's Corn Flakes had a use-by date of 1999, meaning they probably arrived in 1996 with very first traverse. However, since they've been deep-frozen ever since one assumes they are still edible.

Suze is still not quite on top of things yet, and wisely is taking as much rest as possible while she acclimatizes.

Jon and I set to work in the AASTINO. The second instrument, SUMMIT, appears to be working just fine. We'll check the data it is producing to see that they make sense, and then pull it off the roof to install a new filter.

The problem with the computer crash seems to be a very serious one. Not only did it crash (which it shouldn't) but it didn't restart (which it should). Since I do not like computers one little byte and they like me even less, I will happily leave it to Jon, and Michael Ashley back in Sydney, to sort this one out.

After lunch was the Sunday meeting of the whole Station. We announced that we would soon start up the acoustic radar (SODAR), and were pleased to find that the announcement was not greeted with too much dismay. The SODAR makes a fairly loud singing sound a bit like a noisy bird, but fortunately most people do not find it too offensive.

Then it was time to fire up the two Stirling engines that power and heat our AASTINO, and decide which we would return to Christchurch for refurbishment, and which we would leave here for a further winter. We started with Nancy, the engine that had suddenly and mysteriously stopped last May. As soon as she cranked over, she started making an appalling noise like a tumble drier half full of rocks. We switched her off again - fast. Clearly something big and heavy has broken inside and sadly, this explains why she stopped in May.

Starting Jimmie was almost as dramatic, as he went into a mode where he backfired with huge pops and bangs, each one lifting the cover of the combustion chamber a few millimetres and shaking the whole engine. Maybe we should have bled the fuel lines after all. However on a second start attempt he performed flawlessly. So, Jimmie stays, Nancy goes.

I unpacked our crates that had been sitting all winter and found several of them completely full of snow. This is despite having quite well-fitting lids. "Snow" on the Antarctic plateau is actually tiny ice crystals, which can get into anything, and usually do.

We also came up with a good theory for why the other Stirling engine, Jimmie, stopped early on in the season. It appears that water has dripped from the roof into his control panel, as evidenced by burn marks around the connector. So, this might be an easy one to fix.

An AASTINO with a Stirling engine running is a very happy place to be. First, it's nice and warm - basically as warm as you want it to be. (Jon tried 30 C for a while, but eventually decided that was too toasty even for him.) Secondly, it's a great feeling to be completely independent of Station power. With engines fired up and a valid SIM card in the Iridium, the AASTINO could be operating anywhere on the
surface of the earth.

I climbed onto the AASTINO roof to check for snow in the wrong places (there wasn't any) and also because it's fun.

Finally we made big lists of things to do, and alarmed ourselves at how much we have to get through in the next week and a bit.
- John