Monday 12/27/93
Hello Again,I am now at the South Pole, I flew down here this morning. I am scheduled to be here for a few days. Just long enough to look over their software, fix problems and gather input for future modifications. This has been a busy month for me. I spent a week in Christchurch, starting on December 1st. I had a good time despite that it rained five of the seven days I was there. I worked at least a little bit on every day, so I could not play tourist very much. I did do some shopping and flew back to McMurdo with 114 pounds of Christchurch purchased items. That was mostly food items.
The weather down here has been spectacular recently. Christmas day was sunny, warm and windless, without a cloud in the sky. I had a great Christmas this year. The dinner we were served was quite good, and I was with good friends. There was a big party put on by the NSF, and there were numerous parties through out the dorms.
Thursday 1/6/94
New Years was pretty good. The best part was that we got an extra day off. We did for Christmas also, so that made two two day weekends in a row. Quite a luxury for here. The full length weeks will be a real killer after the past two weekends of laziness. The Coast Guard icebreaker came into town a few days ago. It came earlier this year than it did last. The ice is much thinner this year, making it easier going for breaking ice. A few penguins have been seen near town.
Sunday 1/9/94
This weekend we had the annual five mile race, called the Scott's Hut race I did not participate this year, but I think I will next year. Last year I was at the South Pole when it was run. There were over 300 persons entered (the most ever), but most of them just walked the course. There were a few fast runners in it, though. I went for a tour of the icebreaker after watching the race. I knew more about the ship than our tour guide did. I had a volleyball game afterwards. It was the first game of the playoffs. They realigned the two leagues and we squeaked into the tougher of the two. We had to play the number one team in our league for our first match. Needless to say we lost the match, but we beat them in one of the games The matches are best out of three games. It was their first loss of a game this whole season, so that was quite an accomplishment for us. Last weekend we had the 5th annual Icestock, which is a concert put on by local musicians. It lasted all Sunday afternoon. The was incredible that day, and I got sun burned pretty good. Next weekend there is the 7th annual art show, again local talent showing their stuff. Last years was pretty good. Last week there was a congressman from California, named Dornan, here to take a look around. We are supposed to have a congressman from New York visit us sometime soon, also. Our live AFRTS television reception has been nonfunctional for a few weeks now. It doesn't look like it will be again for a while either.
McMurdo has finally dried up and turned gray-brown. The huge mud puddles that used to swallow up vehicles have disappeared, and now the water truck sprays salt water on the roads to keep the dust down. I have not worn my long-johns for quite a while. The weather has been quite warm and I am much more acclimated to the cold this year than I was last. I have worn my parka only when required, such as while on the airplane. This year they issued us really nice medium weight windbreakers and polar fleece jackets. They have been plenty warm for me, but that is most likely true because I do not work outside. I just walk from building to building when I'm not working inside one.
A couple of weeks ago an LC-130 Hercules airplane had a problem when it was taking off from one of the field camps at the Geologists Range glacier. It tried to take off a number of times, but was unsuccessful on eight tries. Those eight tries dug a deep trough in the snow. The trough got so deep that one of the propellers on the port wing hit the snow and came off. It went into the side of the plane and out through the top. The plane spun to the left and the right landing gear/ski buckled under it. No one was hurt during the whole affair. Needless to say, another plane had to go out there to rescue them. A team is out there right now fixing it up enough to fly. A representative from Lockheed (the manufacturer of the aircraft) is there to supervise. One of my roommates went out there to build a shelter for the kitchen and over the side of the plane for when they work on it. They should be done repairing it in another week or so.
Saturday 1/16/94
The wind was pretty strong last night and it blew all of the ice that the icebreaker had broken up out to sea. That means that we have a large area of open water in front of the station. It is quite exquisite, the bright blue contrasting against the white ice around it. Whales and penguins have been seen near town. Most likely they were Minke whales and Adelie penguins.
I am scheduled to leave here on February 17th, but that might move closer to the closing date. They have still not figured out when the station will close for the winter. It depends upon the resupply vessel, the M/V Green Wave. (M/V meaning Merchant Vessel.) It is a little behind schedule will come down here twice. Coming down here season is unusual, so there is no real history to base a timeline upon. It left Port Hueneme, California a few days ago, and will arrive here in a couple of weeks. We will unload it, load it up with all of our trash and items to be removed from the station. It will go to New Zealand where it will unload and load it again. It will return to McMurdo where we will unload and load it again. From here it will sail back to the States. My software will be used to generate reports to be used in the offload and onload of the vessel at each location. The offload of the cargo will use these reports extensively for directing where to take the cargo and ensuring that we have received everything we were supposed to. It will be an hectic time for all of us. Time will be in short supply, so accurate reports from me will speed things up immensely. Right now I am scheduled to leave before the vessel comes back for the second time. That may change depending on how smoothly the first visit goes.
This is my last letter from the Ice for the 1993-94 Summer season. I will send another one when I return to Denver and have a new address. I will take two weeks of vacation when I leave here. I will spend part of in New Zealand and part of it in Southern California. They changed the airline tickets that we get so we cannot exchange them and go to other countries, which is ok since I have not explored New Zealand yet. Bye for now.....
