I am packing today. My name has appeared on the C-17 PAX manifest. I have to "bag-drag" tomorrow and then fly the next day. It has been a long time I have been here in some ways and short in others. It is confusing when I think about it. Also on my day off today I will be trying 14.243 MHz to contact North America. I have heard the band might be open 6 PM east coast time. I have not made a North American contact in the time I have been down here, so far.
I looked at the correolis effects here and at pole. There is a pronounced clockwise swirl in the sink at pole. Here at McMurdo (I suspect because of the sink design) it is not so pronounced. We have different fixtures at Pole and McMurdo (like everything else).
I went to Mt. Bird yesterday to uninstall our seasonal cross-banded VHF/UHF repeater. That appears to be my last mission on the ice. We saw some orcas, seals and penguins on the ride out there. I was reflective on what has changed with me doing this job for the last 4 months. I am certainly a lot less intimidated in piloting a helo myself. I may try it up in Syracuse. Controls are somewhat backwards compared to a fixed wing. There have been other changes too. Flying this coming year will be fun. I got a lot of great advice from a friend here on the ice.
It will be impossible for me to sum this experience up in a paragraph or two. I am not sure it can be summed up. I am waiting for some huge answers to come to me--nothing. Not much is coming to me in the way of answers. Not yet anyway. I definately have been enlightened. I believe there will be some culmination at some point and I still have a lot of success coming my way.
The photos show Cape Evans from the air (see the hut) and the open water that was all ice 9 feet + thick along the north shore of Ross Island a few months back. It is a big difference between October and February.
The other picture shows two hovercrafts that were launched off the Spirit of Enderby. The Spirit of Enderby is basically a Russian work boat turned into a high priced tourist ship for the Antarctic. It can't make it all the way into town. The ice is still a little too tight for a ship like the Enderby. The tours of McMurdo were cancelled becuase of the timing/logistics of getting passengers ashore in the hovercrafts. I took the picture with a long lens from the helo pad. The guy stood there for about 5 minutes in this position. The helo techs, pilots, and I were laughing at him... "He looks like he has come to either rescue or conquer all of us in town." Take your pick. We are all tired.
I went to New Harbor yesterday. The temperatures were in the 40s I bet. It didn't seem at all like Antarctica. It was quite a treat. I drank some water coming off the glacier. The Spirit of Enderby, a cruise ship, is bringing ashore passengers via their hovercrafts this morning at McMurdo. I was scheduled to be a tour guide, but I am scheduled to fly to Mt. Bird this morning.
I am surprised at how routine these trips are out to the field now. They are always a thrill but, it is fun when you know the pilots well and it all makes a better time for everybody. There is always fun conversation over the intercom.
It is hard to believe I will be on the C-17 in 3 days on my way home. It is interesting to note that the distance between McMurdo and Christchurch is approximately the same distance between NYC and Los Angeles. Of course, getting to New Zealand is the first leg of a long trip. I do have to spend a night in New Zealand. It is required. The scheduling between international, local, and ice (military) flights appropriately needs some elasticity.
Today I am headed to the New Harbor camp on the other side of McMurdo sound to "pull out." New Harbor is often used to study seals and other diving efforts. We bring the radio equipment back into heated space for the the winter. Experience has shown that temps below -40 will negatively impact unpowered electronic devices. So we don't let much gear sit outside in the winter.
I am getting ready to come home. Bonnie and I are planning on staying low for a while. I am hearing more discussion about favorite foods and the "hummmms" that support a claim of a particular food being a favorite. I am looking forward to dill pickles, iceburg lettuce, bananas, tomatoes and some other stuff yet unidentified.
The picture of the seal was taken from the public domain shared drive here. I took the picture of the 9-meter satellite dish at Pole and the unusual lichen that can sometimes found in the dry valleys.
It is difficult to comprehend that I will be leaving in 5 days. I have three missions to complete and I have to finish up other stuff around here. Folks are starting to say goodbye. We are exchanging personal email addresses and talking more about plans off the ice. A lot of folks travel in the off season. I know people who are going the following places for extended periods of time: New Guinea, Indonesia, Africa, China, Mongolia, Tibet, Cook Islands, South America and others. It all appears to come to an end quite abruptly. I am a little apprehensive about being off the ice with all the traffic, advertisements, chaos and everything. I have not seen or heard a radio or television commercial in 4 months. I have not seen the night sky or the sun or plant life in the same time. It is hard to decide what I need to do before I am suddenly in New Zealand.
I have a feeling that my taxi driver in Christchurch will be an individual named Derrick. It was weird; when I was there 4 months ago it always turned out that he was my driver as I had to shuttle between my hotel and the USAP facility 4 or 5 times. He is a native looking kind of middle aged man with large sideburns, glasses and New Zealand cottny way of speaking. I am concerned about the traffic. I have heard stories of folks getting hit by cars just as they get off the ice, because of disorientation, excitement and cars on the weird side of the road.
I really missed the 24 hour internet access at pole. You get so accustomed to things. Although the connections are slow I can get quick answers to questions.
This picture was at pole. I like it because it is a good ol' Rochester Thermometer.
More folks are coming in from the field. ITASE is done for the year and those folks are back. ANDRILL is all wrapped up. The Meteorite hunters are done and they gave a presentation last night. We collected about 700 hundred meteorites this year. The Antartician meteorites are generally the most pristine on the planet. It is fun to catch up with these folks as they all come back into town after meeting them earlier in the season. Everyone learns something.
I am hearing a lot of "Where have you been Charlie?" I was out of town for a week on a business trip to Pole.
This is a hallway in the new South Pole Station.
Being back in McMurdo is more of a sensory treat than I expected. I can only imagine what New Zealand will be like. I have my Ice flight on January 30th. It is all subject to change, delays and equipment failures.
I have a lot to do in this last week.
I made freinds with an ex-senior chief from the navy and he said when he left some of the ships he was on he couldn't look back. There have been a lot of people who have left impressions on me here. Almost all of these impressions were generously shared experiences of which I am grateful.
I just arrived at McMurdo. It was agreat flight on the LC-130. They call us "Talking Cargo". The air is so dense here. There is dirt (Well.. volcanic ashhh Hummm)it is above zero and there is humidity. What else could you want. It didn't seem like such a difference on the way out. The big city lights of McMurdo are really something to the Polies. It is good to be here. I am going to have a beer. I already had my first shower in a week... How nice.
I found the geographic pole a great place to meditate. Not that I meditate a lot. I just noticed that when I get in these deep thinking spells, I am mediating. I just didn't know what it was called. The pole was awesome!
Today I am supposed to leave the pole at 11:30 AM. Delays and flight changes are common. It is all part of the deal. They announce to the whole station when a plane takes off from McMurdo, when it gets to the last checkpoint and when it lands. So it is pretty easy to be there when you need to get on. All the LC-130s (hercs) unload and load hot at Pole. They do not shut the engines off. I have to say it is the first time I got off a running airplane. It is windy and there are a lot of fumes with those 4 big turboprops.
I still have a lot to do when I get back to McMurdo. The first thing is to take a shower. Showers are restricted to 2 minutes twice a week at pole. At McMurdo I can take as long as I want, but conservation is encouraged. In the deep field camps showers are basically impossible. It is so dry it really doesn't become a real problem.
I got this picture yesterday on my way out to the RF building. It is a piece of the C-130 that crashed here in the 1970s. They are digging it up so they can make the skiway longer.
