Lookin' out my backdoor: What's a pirate's favorite movie? Any one rated "ARRGH!"

Monday, December 14, 2009

What's a pirate's favorite movie? Any one rated "ARRGH!"

ARRGH! Not because I'm feeling particularly buccaneerish . . . I've been battling the McTown Crud, Part III . . . recently H1N1 shots were made available. Everyone should get one, they said. . . even if you aren't feeling well, they said . . . it won't make you sicker, they said . . . they lied, I said . . . ARRGH! . . . after several days of sleep, sweat and chills, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. So I'll 'blog'.

Luckily I took some sightseeing trips the last two weekends. Two weeks ago, I rode 5 or 6 miles towards Cape Evans in a Delta. It took about an hour, one way.

Deltas are the workhorse around here. With the wide balloon tires, they can travel the lightly groomed snow roads on the ice shelf and sea ice. Different configurations allow them to carry passengers or cargo. They just aren't very fast . . . which is a good thing, since they also don't have much for suspensions. . .

The ice caves are located in the side of the ice tongue that sticks into the sea from the glacier down from Mt. Erebus. Waves and glacial movement create openings in the sides, caves. Crystals form on the walls and ceiling.

We couldn't go very far once inside. There are small openings into other areas, but it's best to stay out and just look in. Glaciers sometimes wag their tongues.

Light filters through different layers. I guess this is ice blue. Only about 4-5 of us were allowed in at a time. Once I came out, it turned out some of the locals had shown up.

The policy is, if the wildlife reacts to us in any way, we are to back off. What were we to do when two Adelie penguins decided to join us - run away? We actually watched them come from a couple hundred yards away, making a bee line directly towards us.

I have no idea what was up with this guy. Once he saw the penguins, he pulled off his cold weather gear to reveal the tux. He had the hat in his knapsack. Apparently it was some sort of photo op; there was another person there shooting a lot. The penguins actually started to move away from him. I would have too.

By this time, I was kneeling, taking photos from just a few yards away. These two acted if they were trying to figure out what we were. They were about 18" tall, 24" at the most.

As they kept approaching, I decided to flop onto my stomach for an eye-to-eye shot. This one stopped jsut several feet away and kept watching me. Wish I knew what was going through it's head. Maybe it was wondering what was going through the head of the big red critter lying on it's stomach . . .

Eventually they satisfied their curiousity or whatever and wandered off. We later saw a flock of about 15 off in the distance. These two were probably with that group.

Last weekend's trip was just a short ride over to Scott Base, the New Zealand station. From right out front we could wander onto the ice to check out the pressure ridges. The photos along the side are from that trip.

Daily news and announcements

Sometimes temperatures were listed. The season high of 23 above zero was reached while I was in camp. Since our internet connection was so slow, other important information such as the latest NFL results were posted. Educational improvement was provided by a daily word picked at random from a collection submitted by the camp population. The individual who picked the word had to use it in a sentence. This day's word was fugly. Trust me, that was an easy and relatively . . . innocent one.

Sleeping quarters

Unlike some of the other field camps, these Artic Oven tents were provided to each of us. They are quite a step up from the backpacking tents. At about 6 or 7 feet square and 5 feet high in the center, they are almost roomy. Add a folding cot and a wool blanket for a rug. I saw a couple small shelving units in one and another flamingo outside the door. One fellow had a portable solar panel charging unit hung on the side of his. I didn't see a TV antennae, however. You have to take into consideration, this was home for almost three months for some of these folks. Pretty plush for a deep field camp in Antarctica - even if the temperature was sometimes zero or lower when we were climbing into our sleeping bags.

The cores are kept in storage until there are enough to fill a cargo pallet like the one at the end of the room. The pallet is loaded on a C-130 as close to take-off as possible. The plane is actually cooled as low as possible for the flight. There is a cooler to store cores at McMurdo. From there they are loaded in a refrigerator van and onto the cargo ship. A refrigeration tech goes with them on the trip to California where they will be shipped by truck to the Denver Federal Center. The tech told me that in the past they had used two trucks, just in case one broke down. This trip there will be a truck with two separate refrigeration units in case one fails. There are over 40 projects examining the ice. Some of it is kept in cold storage in Denver as an archive.

McTown and the off-load

Don't ask me to translate McMurdoese - instead of unloading the ship, it's an off load. Instead of setting up and tearing down a camp, it's put in and take-out. Whatever, the ship is at the pier. It's been unloaded and they are slowly getting it reloaded with waste, wornout vehicles, helicopters for the out-going contractor, and - the ice cores. With a little luck, a lot more hard work and good weather, they should be in Denver within a month or so. I had a day off and it was (obviously) beautiful. I hadn't hiked up Ob Hill in a few seasons, so I climbed up and took this picture. After I got down, I remembered why I don't do that more often. Gettin' older ain't for sissies.

"How long does it take?"

From time to time, people have asked me how long it takes to get here. This time I kept track. As it so happens, I think this was the fewest flights I've ever had. For one thing, a stop for a few days of orientation in Denver has been eliminated - unfortunately. Also, in the past when we flew to Sydney, we went to Auckland, NZ and then to Christchurch. And I actually flew from Johnstown instead of Pittsburgh but that didn't eliminate a flight, just cut down on travel time. Here's the breakdown -

I left about 9:30 AM, Sept. 28
Johnstown to Dulles, about 1 hour.
Dulles to Los Angeles, about 5 hours.
Los Angeles to Sydney, about 14 hours.
Sydney to Christchurch, about 5 hours.
Christchurch to McMurdo, about 5 hours.

Including layovers, 31 hours to Sydney, 38 to Christchurch.

We arrived in Christchurch in the afternoon. The next day we received our extreme cold weather gear and sat through some orientation lectures. the next morning we took off for McMurdo about 9AM.

The total from Johnstown to McMurdo was about 80 hours.

A Solid Foundation

These are the footer pads, posts and beams that the floor sections were put on. The pads are 36" squares of 2X6's enclosed in 3/4" plywood. It was all two of us wanted to move them. The posts are sections of 12x12. The beams are 4X8's. It was all bolted together with 1/4" steel angle brackets and 1x2" x 6" lag bolts driven in with impact guns. The floor sections were 2x6's on 12" centers with 3/4" plywood top and bottom. All this for a 12' by 16' shack to house a generator that probably doesn't weight more than 1,000 lbs. Now that's some heavy duty construction.

Seal

On the way back from Canadian, we came across the desicated remains of a sizeable seal. It was the third we found between camp and the Canadian Glacier. There was at the edge of Lake Fryxell and another very close to the side of the glacier. This is miles and miles from McMurdo Sound. No one seems to have an explanation although there is a rumor that when the Navy was running this show, the helo crews might have been having some fun with the scientists by planting these. they went to a lot of trouble if that's the case. And if not, again, why are these seals up here?