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Hello again... This week has been very busy so I'm a bit late in sending Part 2 - but as they say, better late than never!
When we arrived back on base the second Hagg which we had been using (known as the Blue Hagg) immediately departed to Auster to help the Yellow Hagg rescue. Finding the Yellow Hagg was not a problem since the Hagg's carry Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) navigation aids. The coordinates of the Yellow Hagg were read out over the radio to the SAR team in the Blue Hagg, and then programmed into the SAR team's GPs Their GPs then set them on a direct route to the stricken Yellow Hagg..
The problem here was that some of the door seals were not quite as good as they should be and water began leaking in very quickly. The internal bilge pump was not able to cope with the water, so water had to be frantically extracted using any available containers! Once the SAR team arrived a petrol powered pump was used to keep the water out. Hagglunds would have to be one of the few land vehicles with bilge pumps! The sea ice where the Hagg had gone through was only 20cm thick - very thin for this time of year, and usually not even thick enough to walk on! After 8 hours and half a dozen attempts, the Yellow Hagg finally made it out of the soft patch of sea ice onto firmer "ground", and then back to Mawson station for a well earned rest for the rescuers. That night I slept on station - but left all my equipment ready for departure the next morning to finish our field training.
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