I sit in the heated drill console with the powerpacks running flat out. We are again
running pipe to some five hundred meters below
the vessel.
Outside it is well below zero and I look
at my drill crew as they trip in each joint,
every one made up to 30,000 ft lb, the required
torque. Pipe after pipe, length after length the
boys are working hard and not ever a complaint.
We all wonder after all this hard work, how long
we will have, one hour, two, or maybe three if we
are lucky, but things have changed and we have
moved sites to where the ice is less threatening.
We see clear waters and the occasional solitary
iceberg.
This is our chance, it's our time to
prove our worth and we touch mudline. Everything
looks good, the drilling fluid is mixed with a
viscosity of 32 seconds and the mud pumps are
happy to give the 50 litres per minute flow that
I ask for. I start the rotation on the 8.5-inch
hybrid diamond impregnated drill bit that will
give us more borehole clearance. Inside the
borehole assembly the alien core barrel is
protruding by two inches with its own custom-made
diamond impregnated bit. I think this is the
ideal combination for the hard ground we are
trying to steal from the continental shelf.
My mind is now on the drilling, the
bridge can worry about the ice, but we keep in
touch in case we need to abandon the borehole if
a berg passes too near. We will need five minutes
a joint to retrieve the pipe from the ground thus
allowing the vessel to make haste away from the
danger zone and I pray we don't get stuck at this
critical time.
The ship's position is good, the bridge
is happy for us to start drilling and we do.
Slowly one meter, two then three, but this
ancient land will not give up its treasure
easily. We are constantly at loggerheads, skill
and experience against her millions of years of
dormancy, she is now awake and the contest begins.
The first few cores are on deck but with
limited recovery. I feel I can do better so I
turn down the mud pumps to save washing away the
precious sample. Will it work? I'm not 100% sure.
Is the bit staying clean? Do I have the required
up hole velocity to carry the cuttings to the
seabed? These are the questions I ask myself as I
slowly increase the mud flow. I can't afford to
leave behind a drill string at this stage in the
game.
The meters are growing and so are the
core samples on deck, out of the sand and into
more competent ground. I turn up the flush and
add some more bit weight as I start to feel I am
getting the combination just right. The borehole
is clean and the torque is good. Do I have her
beat!
Not yet Scott calls down from the bridge.
There is an iceberg coming our way and guess who
is moving?
This is our second time drilling in
Antarctica and we feel that we have ironed out
most of the problems we faced last year. But, the
challenge continues as soon we will be going back
to iceberg alley to start there, if only for a
few hours at a time.
I am quietly confident with the skill of
the scientists and the experience of the ship's
crew, this time, or next, we will prevail and
conquer this unpredictable territory.
Danny Bennetts
Retrieving core on the helo deck.
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