A cloudy day that turned into clear skies and beautiful vistas mark Day 07 of the Pisces One Expedition. This morning's breakfast was oatmeal and coffee. After breakfast Anthony had to do some "real" work for his employers back home while the others cleaned up the kitchen area. A clean HAB is a Happy HAB and as the sign over the kitchen stove says, "Please Note: This HAB is NOT Self-Cleaning".

When all was done I sent up today's mandatory all hands EVA briefing for a motorised EVA that was going beyond normal walking range from the HAB.

EVA Seven was assigned to explore new ground to the north and west of the Hab's Landing location. Chief Engineer Kevin Saka was appointed EVA Commander with our 2IC Adam as EVA vice and our Crew Doctor-HSO Felipe as EVA Scientist.

After mapping out their route, calculating waypoints and back bearings and distances to the HAB as a secondary check, I reviewed safety protocols and with Adam made a quick check of the latest on-line weather radar and satellite images. My assessment of the weather outlook was excellent so I gave Kevin a GO for EVA Seven with an authorization to revise and extend as the EVA Cmdr saw fit.

EVA departure was delayed by a visit from our local native Martian and MDRS support staff in the form of Don Foutz who had delivered a "Care" package for Anthony. Smelled like cake. Wonder if it has anything to do with my 50th birthday next Wednesday. Conspiracy theory.

With Don's departure Anthony took over at this point as today's HABcom and Air Lock Control and he got the team suited up and out the door in about 55 minutes.

Then Anthony and I turned our attention to housekeeping duties that fell within our specialty. Anthony, super Chef extraordinaire, decide to stock take the kitchen as well as getting the daily bread made (see Anthony's report) and like any old soldier, an unclean home bugs me. So I tackled more cleaning up of the downstairs and by the time I was done we could actually see the floor in the North (engineering) Air Lock for the first time since we arrived last Sunday. Took a sledge hammer to get the mud dislodged but it worked. More rubbish from the refit was cleared and bagged for the returning EVA'ers to haul off to the Engineering Area.

As an icing on the cake, Anthony assisted me with extending the range of the webcam and as a result the return of the EVA team and their de-suiting was broadcast live over the Internet.

Supper this evening was an adventure to say the least. Have you ever had dinner in one of those theme restaurants with nice classical music, a built in water fall and dim lighting? Please see Anthony's Supper Report for details of Crew 35 paying homage to an MDRS time honoured tradition (and I had high hopes that we would be the first MDRS crew to get through it's rotation without this mishap occurring) (sheepish grin). Apart from all the excitement, we enjoyed a wonderful feast by the best Chef to ever grace this station (a cuisine that was both light and filling, with bread that was so delicate and tasty it would never be mistaken for Geo lab specimens) sorry I'm telling our favourite cook's story.

Thus we were regaled with stories of Kevin and the adventure his team had in the canyons to the north of us before turning our attentions to the evening's activities.

We are losing two team members tomorrow, so this evening would be devoted to job handover activities. HSO was transferred from Felipe to Adam and Chief Engineer was transferred from Kevin to Anthony. As a part of the transfer, Kevin took Anthony out to do the mandated every 4th day oil change on the China Special electricity generator.

So we powered the HAB down and Kevin and Anthony went off to change the oil. But the quiet soon became a deafening roar and then I heard a cool calm Anthony calling on the radio "Could we get an extra flashlight down here please? We can not see what is broken on the generator." (da, da, da, dum!)

Kevin did an expert job of improvising while I handed command temporarily over to Adam, and with Felipe, bounced, jolted and flew our way into Hanksville for the necessary spare parts. Don had what we wanted as well as the new back up starter for the generators. Our departure back to the HAB was delayed by the appearance of the baby Martians (Don's little girl and her friend) who wanted to meet the Earthlings. When we got back around 21:10, Hugh messaged Don that he and Felipe were back safely and thus our evening adventure was over. Not quite yet ......

Hugh suddenly leaped from his chair, grabbed a glass jar of pens, dumped them on the desk and roared across the HAB to trap what was possibly a Hobo Spider scurring up the wall at near light speed. Anthony got a photo of it before Hugh took it outside and fired it into the Grand Canal (the water filled ditch between engineering and the HAB).

(sigh) (anything else) Yup, Mission Support is online asking where are the reports? I hope the above will explain that we've been a tad busy this evening and reports had to be delayed while other more important things distracted us. For Felipe and Kevin their last evening at MDRS certainly will be one to be remembered.

Well it's now 22:49, so I guess that I am early for a change. Sorry Julie but we have been as busy as beavers since we got here and the hectic pace has not let up. We will select photos for transmission shortly as we are professionals and we always select the very best of photos to represent our mission.

So as a bright orange Moon rises in the east, the crew of the Pisces One Expedition bids you all good night and God speed from analogue Mars at the Mars Desert Research Station.