Waking life, Antarctica
10/04/2025
Artefact conservation programme manager Lizzie Meek reveals the noisy neighbours that can only be found in a few select places on Earth.
“Good morning! How did you sleep?”
"Yawn… not great, actually.”
“Yup, me neither.”
We’ve been talking about sleep a lot this season due to our lack of it. In an Antarctic summer season, sleep is often affected by 24-hour daylight, which interrupts your natural circadian rhythm and makes you feel like you’ve just had a quadruple-shot espresso even at 2am.
A crew member works at an iceberg (UKAHT/Michael Duff)
Or it could be the cold keeping you awake – maybe your hat fell off during the night, or your sleeping mat is a little thin. The original 1957 inhabitants of Blaiklock Island Refuge were kept awake by the incessant dripping of condensation from the roof above them where they lay in their bunks in the poorly insulated hut: the moisture from cooking and breathing froze on the ceiling then thawed and dripped.
A bunk at Blaiklock Island Refuge (UKAHT/Michael Duff)
Our sleep challenge this season isn’t any of the above - we are in the shoulder season, March, with plenty of hours of darkness. We have a warm bunk on our support vessel – the Ocean Tramp – so no need for a hat. Our problem is actually the neighbours!
We have many visitors in the night, and the thump scrape bash of an iceberg knocking against the hull next to your ear is an instant wake-up call.
Lizzie at work at Blaiklock (UKAHT/Michael Duff)
The crew have picked the best anchorages possible to shelter us from the larger bergs, but even a smaller – say a one-cubic-foot chunk of ice makes quite a racket. Most bergy bits scrape their way along the side of the boat and drift away, but some of the larger ones have needed people to get out of bed and fend them off.
Lizzie was working closely with the artefacts at Blaiklock (UKAHT/Michael Duff)
There were also many rocky nights from the wave swell and quite a few 4am starts to meet the tide and weather conditions. Our boat support crew were amazing and used to it. For us conservator-landlubbers, it’s brought us a new game – guess the size of the iceberg from the noise on the hull – and an added appreciation for the solid little Blaiklock Island Refuge, which, although it dripped, wasn’t bothered by icy visitors in the night.
Lizzie Meek, Artefact Conservation Programme Manager
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