BRRR...Prepping For A Cold (Indian) Republic Day!

Tomorrow we celebrate the Republic Day in the morning with flag hoisting at 11.30 am. Our both the leaders (of the 26th and 27th expeditions) are stranded at the ship due to inclement weather which is worse around ship. The ship is in the grip of a blizzard. Here too, the weather is quite cold and windy with maximum wind gust crossing 50 knots and minimum wind chill at -30 C. Both the leaders had gone there to finalize arrangements for its sailing to Larsmann Hill. The leader of the 26th Team must be ruing his decision to go to the ship. He misses his chance to hoist the Tricolor on a Republic Day in Antarctica. Last year he set foot on Antarctica in February only. Though he has wintered here earlier but not as the leader. With this much cold, it will be quite difficult to file in outside for 15 minutes till the flag hoisting and photographic sessions. We all will have to muster all our courage and patriotic fervour in not looking distressed esp. in front of guests. We are getting guests as usual from the Russian station, Novo air base and the couple from the White Desert Safari tourist agency. Camera operations with thick gloves become a difficult task and without gloves the hands get painful within a minute. Normally the transfer of command between the two leaders takes place on the Republic Day. But now his tenure gets extended.