I can’t believe the season here is wrapping up to a close. It still feels like I was just preparing to leave to come on the Antarctic adventure and now I only have 9 more sleeps here. You can see it in the town, as everyone has a certain level of excitement getting ready to take off, there is lots of talk of travel plans, returning next season and the unlimited availability of fresh fruits and veggies when ever we want once we get to Christchurch.
As the season comes to a close some exciting things happen to the community, The Icebreaker, The Oden, made it to McMurdo about a three weeks ago. The Icebreaker, as the name indicates is sent ahead of the fuel tanker and the cargo ship to break up the Ross Sea Ice Shelf that extends about 60 miles from McMurdo to the open water. The path it creates allows for and easier entry for the boats to offload at the Station’s Ice Pier. It was pretty amazing to watch the boat creep up on the ice and make its way through the solid sheet.
The fuel tanker arrived and unloaded a ridiculous amount of gas in about 4 days. It is a huge ship and it took 24 gallons per mile of sea travel to get down here. It was pretty crazy to watch the ship grow in size as the fuel was offloaded. It will ride a lot higher in the water on the trip home.
The Cargo ship should arrive today and then the true craziness begins as the vessel is offloaded and the new supplies are taken around station. There will be intense activity for the week with forklifts, flat beds, and people moving around trying to logistically offload the ship. After the goods are on land we will reload the ship with McMurdo’s Retro-ed Items and waste to be taken back to California.
Luckily Ryan and I get to stay out of most of that craziness as our priorities becomes to closeout field camps. The Carp shop sends out a crew once the scientist have completed their season’s data collection to break down the rack tents, Jamesways and other materials at the camp. Depending on the camp location, the materials will be loaded up in an airplane or helicopter and flown back to McMurdo, or left if the camp is returning next year and the items will not be buried too deeply by the blowing wind and snow some of the larger items may stay.
WAIS Divide – Good attempts were made to reach WAIS Divide but Forrest and I did not make it. We got to load the Hurk, C-130, before we were told the flight was not going to happen. I was scheduled to go to to help take down the camp but due to weather and mechanical issues and the delay we were pulled from the trip. But I have had the opportunity to do quite a few cool projects in the shop.
Stairs -- Danny Saxon and I worked to build these bomber stairs. We had been asked to build them rugged so we used used timber framing techniques with heavy duty lags and some very think timbers. I think they will hold shape for quite a few years to come. I have had a lot of fun learning from him this season he has been a great mentor and friend.
Key and Pager Box – The ultimate need to support the science efforts came through last week (Just kidding). Mr., Murray and I came across the project to build a fancy box to hold keys and pagers. We used a variety of wood, Mahogany, Oak and cedar. It was pretty nice. (I will try to get a picture soon)
Road Signs - My latest specialty has come to be sign maker. Road signs. Absolutely No Pedestrians… Pretty sweet!
Penguins – Probably my latest highlight was for teh close of the season has been my trip to take down the Cape Royds camp. This camp is set up to study the Penguin rookery! I had the opportunity to increase the Penguin count from 1 alive and 1 dead to…. Lots and lots of waddling little guys. These are Adele’s Penguins and you can see this years chicks that are fairly good size and fluffy gray.
Cape Royds is also where Ernest Shackleton built a hut that was used in his 1907 expeditions. It was amazing to walk around the hut and see all the remains from the voyage. Most are in pretty good shape considering the amount of time they have been exposed to the elements down here.
Speaker - There are a few grants for Artist to come to Antarctica for various projects. I attend a Sunday Night lecture series and was very impressed with one of this years artists Michael Bartalos. You may recognize his work that is currently being used by the US post office as the Latin Jazz Stamp
Travel plans next - Looks like Ryan and I will be leaving the Ice on February 11 and headed to Christchurch. We plan on camping, hiking the Banks Pennisula, traveling to Wanika and the west coast before heading to a retreat center on the North Island. We plan on heading home by March 17 to attend to some issues that have occurred due to frozen pipes.
