Next day we got going with certain difficulties, and met Gran and Simpson four miles from Hut Point.  They told us that a large man-hauling party was on its way out from Cape Evans to assist us.  The weather was superb and we all got very sunburnt.  Captain Scott and seven others came up with us at 2 p.m., but both motors were then forging ahead, so they went on to Hut Point without waiting.

Meantime we lunched, and afterwards struck a bad patch of surface which caused us frequent stops.  We reached Hut Point at 8 p.m. after stopping the motors near Cape Armitage, and spent the night in the Hut there, camping with Scott’s party, Meares and Dimitri.

The motor engines were certainly good in moderate temperatures, but our slow advance was due to the chains slipping on hard ice.  Scott was concerned, but he made it quite clear that if we got our loads clear of the Strait between White Island and Ross Isle, he would be more than satisfied.

Meares and Bowers cooked a fine seal fry for us all, and we spent a happy evening at Hut Point.  The Hut, thanks to Meares and Dimitri, was now, for these latitudes, a regular Mayfair dwelling.  The blubber stove was now a bricked-in furnace, with substantial chimney, and hot plates, with cooking space sufficient for our needs, however many, were being accommodated.

On October 27 I woke the cooks at 6.30 a.m., and we breakfasted about 8 o’clock, then went up to the motors off Cape Armitage.  Lashly’s car got away and did about three miles with practically no stop.  Our carburettor continually got cold, and we stopped a good deal.  Eventually about 1 p.m. we passed Lashly’s car and made our way up a gentle slope on to the Barrier, waved to the party, and went on about three-quarters of a mile.

Here we waited for Lashly and Hooper, who came up at 2.30, having had much trouble with their engine, due to overheating, we thought.  When Day’s car glided from the sea ice, over the tide crack and on to the Great Ice Barrier itself, Scott and his party cheered wildly, and Day acknowledged their applause with a boyish smile of triumph.  As soon as Lashly got on to the Barrier, Scott took his party away and they returned to Cape Evans.  It would have been a disappointment to them if they had known that we shortly afterwards heard an ominous rattle, which turned out to be the big end brass of one of the connecting rods churning up—­due to a bad casting.

Luckily we had a spare, which Day and Lashly fitted, while Hooper and I went on with the 10 ft. sledge to Safety Camp.

Here we dug out our provisions according to instructions and brought them back to our camp to avoid further delay in repacking sledges.  We then made Day and Lashly some tea to warm them up.  They worked nobly and had the car ready by 11 p.m.  We pushed on till midnight in our anxiety to acquit ourselves and our motors creditably.  The thermometer showed -19.8 degrees on camping, and temperature fell to -25 degrees during the night.