All expeditions have their problems of day to day living or logistics. This section deals with the logistics and problems of running our camp and carrying out our operations.
Nobody likes living on top of each other and as it was not required for us to back pack our load, it was decided to have one tent per person. Two spare tents were also taken and used for storage space. Several different types of tent were used: Ridge Pole (1), 'A' Frame (3), Hoop (1), Domes (3), neither with any great advantage over the other.
Three large heavy duty canvas tents were taken for work duties. A dry tent, for storing the photographic/electrical/first aid/tools/spares etc and with a work bench, for use of the laptop computer and other surveying work. A wet tent, an old bell tent - known colloquially as the 'Diving Bell', for use for storing dive kit and for changing into our dry suits. A mess tent, for the storage, preparation and consumption of our food. Thankfully, the local community were able to supply us with a number of old plywood doors that we used for flooring in these tents.
Of the above, only the dry tent was originally a single tent, the other two being cobbled together from a selection of modified tent components. For the diving bell, all that was needed was to produce a central pole, (in fact two were produced in case one broke - the replacement was not needed). The mess tent required considerably more fabrication and the notes to remind us in the field read like something from a MFI instruction sheet:
Uprights (two poles each), shorter poles at the bottom. Poles go through top of tent, where they are capped, in order, first by a wooden 'disc' (hopefully keeps out the rain), then the appropriate wooden block, * then the ridge pole & the canvas loop. Ridge (seven poles), goes through the loops on outside of tent and rests in the grooves in the appropriate wooden block. * The ridge does not protrude an equal distance at each end of the tent. The end poles have two sets of holes; at one end the upright joins at the outer hole [end A], whilst at the other end, the upright joins at the inner hole [end B]. Central pole has 'central' hole at one end (should be closer to end A). * Wooden blocks, these rest on top of the uprights, and with the aid of a nail and groove, support the ridge, each is individually crafted! and suits a particular position thus: the smallest fits onto the middle upright, the one with the more central nail hole fits 'end B', whist the one with the asymmetrical nail hole fits 'end A' with the longer end pointing inwards (towards the tent)!!
Most of the low terrain in the fjord, was either extremely bouldery or hummocky and either marshy or covered in dense shrubbery, only a relatively small area was deemed to be suitable for the campsite, being fairly flat, dry and shrub free. Never the less, the ground was far from perfect, being thin and rubbly.
To overcome the low purchase on the pegs offered by the poor soil, and to try and ensure that the tents would stand up to the occasional severe gusts of wind experienced, it was necessary to weigh down every peg with a boulder. Wherever possible, heavy duty (1cm in diameter x 30cm long), steel pegs were used. These were loaned to us by the Danish Navy. Furthermore, the three large work tents were also lashed down. The mess tent was further ballasted by food stored in the side pockets.
Despite our efforts, the extreme winds that we experienced during the early hours of the First of August, flattened our tallest tent - the 'Diving Bell' - albeit with no damage. The same winds also shredded the fly sheet and then broke the frame of one of the Force Tens! and also tore some of the canvas webbing supporting the mess tent.
At the end of our stay, all the boulders that had been gathered from the surrounding area for the purpose of supporting the tents, were built into a cairn as a monument to our efforts, this cairn stood approximately 1.5m tall!
Due to the ubiquitous biting mosquitoes, it was necessary to use netting impregnated in DEET (Diethyl Toluamide) on all tent openings. Similarly, expedition members usually wore personal netting over their heads when outside, and always had to wear insect repellent.
Obviously water supply is a vital part of any expedition. Not knowing exactly what to expect, we assumed the worst - glacial outwash streams with a high proportion of rock flour, requiring a lot of filtering effort before it can be used. One member who had previous expedition experience in the Karakorums, recalled spending most of his time on water filtering duties. However, whilst we did come across such streams in the Narsarsuaq region emitting directly from the glaciers, we were rewarded in the Ikka area, in that the water running off the ice sheet, was crystal clear.
As far as the need for water purification was concerned, we acted on local advice, (in the field), which was, that we didn't need it. This can be considered with the knowledge that there was no farming (animal or otherwise) or indeed human habitation on or around any of the watersheds draining into our fjord.
So, though we went prepared with Millbanks bags and ceramic pots for sediment filtration, and bottles of concentrated iodine solution, for purification, we ended up using none of it, and all with no ill effects.
Collecting water involved a boat trip down the fjord to one of several streams, depending on the amount of discharge. As discharge dropped, so the streams became little more than boulder beds and obtaining water involved first building a small dam, so that the water containers could be fully immersed in the pool that quickly built up behind.
The total capacity of the containers to hand amounted to 155 litres (10 l x 3 + 25 l x 5), this sounds a lot, but it was needed to be replenished approximately every two days. This works out at about 13 litres per person per day - covering all camp duties, washing cooking and drinking.
With water so readily available, water was not limited for washing purposes, even so some brave souls took it upon themselves to wash in the in the fjord itself, soap not a problem due to the top layer of 'fresh' water. One person even decided to go the whole hog and opt for running water, standing under a waterfall - just like the adverts but minus the tropical paradise.
Those who decided to wash their clothes, were rewarded by a ingenious bit of lateral thinking, involving the compressor which was standing on a pallet for stability and which produced a lot of vibration when under load charging our diving cylinders. By standing one of our plastic barrels on the pallet, with hot water and clothes thrown in, so to speak, we produced our own washing machine.
The expedition used environmentally friendly detergents / washing-up liquids, wherever possible.
The expedition used a portable loo - basically a seat over a bucket. This was set away from the camp, to avoid the attentions of any roaming Arctic Foxes. The bucket required about 5 litres of water, to which was added a (biodegradable) disinfectant in powder form. It was necessary to empty the bucket approximately every two days, the contents being emptied into a pre dug pit and then covered by a thin layer of soil. This process was repeated until the pit was almost full and the sods replaced. The shallow nature of the soil necessitated that several pits needed to be dug in the four weeks that we were in the fjord.
Great care was taken to ensure that no rubbish was left behind. Any unwanted packaging etc was burned in a shallow pit, which was back filled on our departure. Similarly perishable waste was also buried in a series of shallow soakaways. All cans, were flattened and stored until departure in one of our air tight barrels, they were then shipped back to the local community dump - it is used as infill at an old mine working.
Being an expedition with a large proportion of technical devices, meant that we needed a sources of electrical power. Being remote, meant that all such power supplies, needed to be from rechargeable sources (batteries). Recharging was made possible by means of a small generator - supplied to us at cost by Honda.
Most of our devices - portable laptop computer & printer, hand-held radios, diving torches, video camera and surveying equipment, came with their own specialized batteries. In the case of our portable stereo, GPS/echo sounder unit and fluorescent light, we supplied the power by means of a heavy duty 12 Volt car battery. This battery which we 'waterproofed' (using black plastic bin liners), was 'housed' in an old beer crate, to enable it to be easily moved between its day job - with the GPS - and its night job - with light and music. The battery was also used as a means of recharging some of our rechargeable batteries.
Undertaking an expedition to take advantage of the arctic summer and its long periods of daylight was obviously a large benefit. Nevertheless, lighting was required when working in the evenings inside the mess tent.
Lighting for the mess tent was provided by means of a portable fluorescent tube connected to our car battery. Lighting inside personal tents when required, was obtained by torch or more effectively by nightlite style candles. A paraffin lamp was also taken to provide lighting in the event of a failure with the electrical lighting, but not used.
Fuel in the form of petrol was required for the generator, compressor and boat engines, this obviously could not be shipped and had to be obtained from the local community.
In total we used about 175 litres of fuel. We were fortunate in inheriting some of this fuel from the preceding danish expedition. Never the less fuel wasn't as expensive as we first thought it might be, at approximately 50p per litre.
For cooking we relied on a small (two ring) gas stove connected to a gas cylinder, which we supplemented when necessary, with a second gas cylinder with a single ring directly attached. This second cylinder / ring was also used as a space heater, in the mess tent on most evenings.
In total we consumed three moderately large cylinders of gas (water capacities of about 50 litres), the last cylinder running out literally on the last morning, so that breakfast had to be cooked on the embers of the last rubbish fire.
As an experiment, more than anything else we made an attempt to build a bread oven. This was constructed by building a small stone-lined pit covered by a beehive-like stone/soil roof. A fire was lit inside and allowed to reduce down to embers. The dough (in a small container) was then placed in a preheated heavy enamel cooking pot over the embers and then oven entrance closed up.
In all we experimented three times with the oven, all with a limited edible success. Our third attempt produced something akin to quite good unleavened bread. Our lack of total success was put down not to a lack in the oven design, more a lack in our basic baking skills.
The planning phase of the expedition anticipated a high calorific diet, arising from reasonably active work in cool and windy conditions on land, together with shorter periods on and underwater, of fairly strenuous activity in colder conditions. The goal was to provide reasonable protein needs, backed up by large quantities of carbohydrate for the main meals, together with satisfying a regular demand for hot drinks and snack foods during the day. As the quality of food would impinge heavily on morale, the expedition was prepared to invest more money than the absolute minimum required to meet these goals.
In addition, we were aware that an active work schedule would not leave a great deal of time for cooking and other camp duties. Ease of cooking was therefore a consideration when purchasing foodstuffs.
Lack of information as to whether purchases could be made and at what price, from the nearest store, obliged us to ship the food out in advance with the equipment. Given that we had a commitment to ship a certain volume of goods to Greenland anyway, it is unlikely that local purchasing would have saved a significant amount of freight costs. We later discovered that local purchasing would have been possible, at prices not too far removed from UK ones. As the expedition was static throughout its stay at the fjord, weight and bulk of food were not material factors, so tinned foods were included. Lack of weight and volume considerations allowed a reasonable selection of cooking utensils and crockery to be included.
A list of quantities of food was drawn up with the assistance of Mrs Seaman (an SRN), with our circumstances in mind, and purchases were made in bulk from a discount warehouse. Approaches to supermarkets for support in kind prior to this purchase were promising, but nothing materialized. Volumes were calculated with a large safety margin and allowances for wastage (10%) and visitors (5%). In the event these were a little too generous and the resulting surplus was handed to the Royal Danish Navy on departure.
The pattern of meals tended to be 3 hot meals a day, with the main meal in the evenings. Consumption was always at least twice the recommended portion size, and calorie consumption was roughly estimated at 6000 / day. No one appeared to put on any weight - in fact if anything, weight was lost. The less popular foodstuffs were consumed last, leading to a bean based diet for the final week. This apart, the foodstuffs left over were mainly those requiring significant preparation and / or forward planning to use, such as pulses.
It was hoped that the diet could be supplemented with fish and bread, but our success in both these areas was rather poor. Some fresh food items were purchased from or donated by the Navy. Some foodstuffs were kept cool by digging a barrel into the permafrost. The only losses arose from rain entering the dried foodstuffs during our big storm.
Approximately five days worth of freeze dried food was purchased for the beginning and end of the expedition, supplemented with local purchases. These were mainly consumed on the 50km hike between Narsarsuaq and Narsaq at the beginning of the expedition and were of the 'Raven' and 'Peak' brands. These were all palatable, if not scrummy (the desserts), save for the 'Peaks' Steak Rossini, which was universally acclaimed as the most disgusting dried food members had ever experienced.
For a boat we used a 14 foot inflatable, powered in the main by a 25HP outboard engine. We also took with us an auxiliary 5HP engine. This combination was fine for our needs and often used to transport four divers and a non diving cox.
Our boat was our only source of transport and was often needed throughout the day for a variety of functions. To enable it to always be on hand with a minimal amount of fuss, an anchorage system was devised, so that the boat could be retrieved and moored by one person. This was doubly important, not only for convenience or urgency in an emergency, but also to minermize damage that could be caused when dragging it over the rock and shingle beach in the event of it being stranded by an outgoing tide.
A pulley system was set up, between a large boulder on the shore and a boulder and anchor on the seabed in deep (4m) water [see diagram], such that when the boat was needed it could be pulled ashore using one line and when finished with, could be moored again by connecting it to the system and pulling on the other line. The lines could be 'locked in place'.
Tents & Campsite 
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