Sunday January 19th.

This hot weather continues, and apart from one or two grounded bergs, there's not a piece of ice visible in the bay. Of course it's very pleasant to go outside in, etc, but it means that the spring program is held up as there is no way of getting to the advanced Base.

Brownie and Andrew did some skiing on a slope near here, but it was steep and they seem to have descended the slope in a sitting position most of the time and also managed to break one of the Tilleys. It's been a bad day for the lamps, for the other Tilley had its mantle broken twice, and now the Primus lamp has suddenly refused to work any longer.

A new departure in the tailoring line. Using my trousers as a pattern with David's help I put a patch on the seat of his; a different colour and it's terrific to look at, only he doesn't realise it. The greatest success up to now!

Monday 20th to Wednesday 22nd January

The seamstress department has been busy with heavy canvas work in the last few days, and the bedroom had been turned into Tyneside and we are all engaged building an experimental boat. The foundation is a Nansen sledge, and John and David made an ingenious but simple attachment to increase the volume so that the boat has a bigger capacity when its canvas (three sleeping bag covers sewn together) is roped round it. To-day (Wed), we gave it a trial; we floated it in North Bay, and then Andrew, David, John and I sat on it and paddled it round the point thus meeting the tide. It leaked very slightly, but really proved itself a great success and it takes only a few minutes to put together. Andrew and I have been busy making dog harnesses too; the big Singer is a brute, and the time when it works well is but a small fraction of the time spent in trying to get it to work.

At 12.30 on Tuesday after receiving the met. Bear Island said "Please have you heard that your king died last night at 1 o'clock. We are feeling with you in the great grief which has hit your country, old man." Very sad and sudden news, but we couldn't have received it in a nicer manner. If we had heard it for the first time from the chief announcer in the evening in his superior self-important voice it would have been terrible, but those Bear Island fellows are absolute friends over the wireless and though we've never seen one another, the fact of our being in much the same position makes us feel that we have very much in common. Later we spent some time trying to word, to the best of our ability, a telegram of sympathy to the Queen.

Thursday 23 - Friday 24th January

Last two days have been International Days and so nothing out of the usual has happened. This time my night companion was David and never before has time passed so quickly and pleasantly - in conversation most of the time for though he started reading and I writing met. records we always soon broke off to talk. During the intervals we tried "half-pound cake. I made an experimental model which hardly rose and was very soggy; it consisted of ½lb flour, ½lb raisins, ½lb currants, ½lb peel, ½lb sugar, baking powder and ½lb beer. Tasted terrific, but we suffered subsequently.

To-day my leg is admitted by Andrew to be quite all right, and I bicycled to the ice-cap in the evening.

The others are justifiably getting fed up with this hot weather. The bay is now as it was in September. There's only 5 more days of dog food and it's impossible for the bay to freeze in much less than a fortnight even if the warm spell suddenly stops. I have now left off pants again, and it's not cold going out only in shirt and flannel trousers with many holes in them. January in 80⁰N.

John Wright

John is pricelessly funny, and says he has come here to get cold and live in temperatures of -20℉; none of us quite knows whether to believe him or not, but he is probably sincere. John is in his element in the Arctic; I've hardly met him in England and can't imagine him there: a born explorer, I should say, and certainly an ideal man for an expedition like this; he is probably the most capable of us all scientifically - a keen critic of bad workmanship on the part of manufacturers, and an excellent companion in the house. On his previous visits to the base he has been inclined to be lazy and do practically nothing but read, but now having work of his own he has completely woken up and is a great man of action. He sees what needs to be done and does it without fuss or bother. Capable he is, but not one of these annoyingly efficient people; delightfully untidy and vague about things that concern him alone and he can never remember where he put things, but he never annoys you by losing your things. A great reader when in the mood, he is in a typical position now - one third of the way through a big book, in an armchair in front of the fire, with his tongue hanging out. He is our expert in polar history.