On 7 May 1915 "Aurora", still holding most of the shore party's equipment and stores, was blown out to sea during a gale and was unable to return. Subsequently, Wild and Ernest Joyce showed considerable resourcefulness in fabricating clothes and equipment from materials left over from Scott's Terra Nova expedition (which had used this base 1910–13). As a morale booster, for the diehard smokers in the party Wild concocted a mixture ("Hut Point Mixture") of tea, coffee, sawdust, sennegrass and dried herbs. In the straitened circumstances in which he party found itself Wild was a universally popular figure – "a cheerful, willing soul" according to Mackintosh.