After arriving at Lake E, I promised Addie Holland and Kristina Brady that I would go out with them to the rig for the night shift one night. I kept postponing this until they were about ready to give up on me. Finally last night everything seemed to work for my schedule.... well everything except for sleep. I was supposed to get back to camp early yesterday so that I could get a nap before dinner and catch the 7:30 crew change bus to the rig. Unfotunately, I never saw the afternoon nap...We were optimistic when we arrived because the day shift started a successful run of coring with the new small diameter pipe. Unfortunately, a bent drill pipe made our first job of the night "tripping-out" the pipe. When over 450 meters of pipe need to be raised to the surface, that takes a while!
We chatted and I took advantage of the twilight hours to watch the sun set. The sun is now setting in the North West! In just a few months, the sun will not set here at Lake E!
Sunset from my first time on the night shift.
After the bent pipe was removed and the tools cleaned, the pipe was tripped back down hole. This time allowed me for another brief photo-safari to see the rig at night.
The Lake El'gygytgyn drill rig at night
Once the pipe was back down hole, we started to drill. Unfortunately, we were not able to retrieve the core and coring tool at the end of the three-meter long shot. After trying everything, the drillers could think of, the decided that they must pull all the pipe...AGAIN! Two times in one night! By this point, around 2 AM, my lack of sleep had caught up with me and I found a remarkably comfortable box!
Working (?) on the night shift without an afternoon nap.
When all of the pipe was tripped out of the hole, I was back on my feet helping to try and remove the coring tool from the drill bit. As it turned out, a small grease fitting had broken and jammed between the core tool and drill assembly. This was successfully removed, replacement parts were found in the equipment container and we had a small section of very soupy sediment to collect.
Addie recording properties of a sediment core
Kristina Brady removing sediment from the bottom of the drill tool.
After hours of work for very little return, we started once again to trip pipe back down the hole. By now, the sun was peeking over the North East horizon.
Sunrise over the lake E drill rig.
A little while later, we all were happy to see the day shift bus coming... after shift change, I rode the bus back to camp and fell into bed!
CORE, CORE, CORE...After sleeping in the morning, I got up at 11:30 am and decided to once again join my friends on the day shift. I took the lunch bus out to the rig and we have been pulling up core like crazy! This has been the most successful shift in weeks!
P.S. Great news coming tomorrow!
T-Mart ... from Lake E in Siberia