Random thoughts

The other day, I was walking home from band practice and looked up into the sky. A skua flying overhead surprised me....not because I hadn't seen the large predatory gull-type birds before, but because I realized how uncommon it is to see other life forms here.

Skuas aren't very welcome by most McMurdo residents; they dive bomb anyone carrying unwrapped food and are particulary attracted to the blue cafeteria trays.

In other news...the Pole Traverse mission departed McMurdo on 11/11 at 11 AM. They are driving a tracked bulldozer-type vehicle across from here to the South Pole in order to (eventually) create a permanent surface route. They probe for crevasses and fill them in with snow along the nearly 1000 mile proposed route. After the route has been flagged (with bamboo poles and red or green flag), we will start sending cargo to the Pole by vehicle. This will free up the aircraft currently running these routes to support more trips to support scientists in field camps.

The Traverse Convoy - complete with living and dining units, scientific equipment and machines to blast enough snow to fill crevasses along the way.



It has been very warm lately - which has brought more snowfall than I've ever seen. McMurdo isn't a terribly attractive place, especially as the snow melts and the volcanic and rocky surfaces of the land become exposed - so the snowfall was a welcome respite from the dirt and rubble.

Scenes From Antarctica

Scott Base: The home of the Antarctic New Zealand Programme. There are about 60 people at their base, which is 1.6 miles (3 kms) away. The base bar is open to Americans on Thursday evenings and the store is open throughout the week. Notice the pressure ridges beyond.



Ice Town: The collection of movable buildings on the sea ice that support operations on the ice runway.



Reflections on the Sea Ice make it seem like we are looking out over open water.



Evening Hike

Food

Food – the subject of intense interest, bitter complaining, and, occasionally, great joy. The dining hall (commonly known as the galley) is open 24 hours a day for coffee, kool aid type juice (lovingly referred to as “bug juice”), peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and breakfast cereal. There are 4 set meal times throughout the work day: breakfast, lunch, dinner and midrats (military speak for “midnight rations” – the main midday meal for night shift workers).

Food is served cafeteria-style with a “take what you want, eat what you take” philosophy. Every meal has hot food available and amongst the hot items, there is always one vegetarian option. The galley staff tries their best to make their limited selection of ingredients into interesting and palatable meals. However, meals tend to end up being monochromatic with lots of meat and potatoes. The chicken is the most disappointing - though they dress it up with fancy names, sauces and seasonings, it remains stringy and dry.

The highlights of the meals are the freshly baked breads and desserts. Wednesday is cookie day and Fridays are pizza lunch days. Sunday brunch is a big meal complete with Belgian waffles, eggs made to order, roast, baked brie, and whatever freshies arrived the day before by plane.

Freshies are the most sought-after items from the galley. Since aircraft from Christchurch only arrive 4 days per week and hold space is primarily reserved for science cargo, we don’t have a steady supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. We have green salads, oranges, kiwis, bananas and apples about once or twice per week and on Sundays. Hoarding is common and I must admit that we have our own small stash. There is a greenhouse on the station, but it is only small and can only be considered as an additional source of freshies. However it is a popular place to be, because of all the green and the nice smells (and in winter time for the light).

In between freshie deliveries, fruit comes from a can. When things get grim, jello counts as the fruit of the day.

During lunches, we have a sandwich bar which offers a choice of luncheon meats, cheeses, pickles, onions and, often, lettuce and tomato – all on homemade breads. It’s a popular alternative to some of the more sickly looking warm options. On a few nights a week, we have the option of purchasing burgers and fries at the bar for a change of scenery.

On Saturday evenings, we are permitted to bring wine and beer into the galley to enjoy with our evening meal. This is always a great opportunity to meet new people as they scour the room for a corkscrew.

The gastronomic highlights of the season are Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. The galley staff goes all-out to decorate and bake incredible feasts. Volunteers are recruited from the community to help chop and bake beforehand and to wash dishes during the festivities. The entire community gets an extra day off during each of those weeks and there are extra parties and concerts.

When people need the pleasure of cooking or baking for themselves, they can put in a food request for the ingredients to bake cakes or cookies or to make pizza or other dishes in Hut 10. Hut 10 is a fully furnished stand-alone “home” designed to accommodate visiting dignitaries and important persons (eg. Senators voting on funding for the National Science Foundation) complete with plumbing, heating, carpeting, full kitchen and bedrooms. It is really interesting how you realize how much you miss the comforts and coziness of home when you get inside.

The Community

One of the biggest reasons that people return year after year is not the pay, the location or the work. It’s the community. We have an incredible group of dedicated, adventurous, well-traveled, creative and interesting people working here.

Some statistics about the participants:
Average age: 38 (which makes us youngsters!)
Approximately 34% female
Minorities: 5% (the program is still largely made up of white males, but that is
slowly changing)
Raytheon employees originally from foreign countries: At least 11
Countries represented: New Zealand (lots of Kiwis from the neighboring New Zealand base have married Americans and now work for our base), Australia, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Netherlands (Michiel), Thailand, Poland, Russia, Switzerland and maybe others……
Countries doing science projects, support or transitting through McMurdo: Italy,
France, South Africa, Germany, Canada and probably others.

One of the most talked about statistics this year is the percentage of first-timers (the famous Fingees), a whopping 68%. In the opinion of old-timers and returnees, this is a very bad sign of the discontent that many have with the Program, the bureaucracy and the rules.

Fortunately, many find creative ways to deal with the plethora of new rules and regulations that stem from any small incident. For example, last week, someone came directly from the gym to the cafeteria in his sleeveless shirt and was seen dripping sweat into the lettuce bowl. Very gross, indeed, but what resulted was not a one-to-one counseling with the offending person, but a brand new Dress Code for the galley, which stated that no one is permitted to wear shoes without socks (thus no dress shoes for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners), no pajamas and no sleeveless shirts. When the Polies (people working at the South Pole Station) saw the PowerPoint presentation that someone put several hours into in order to explain the new policy, they responded with their own poster showing the new Pole galley dress code of “Assless Chaps” on Thursdays.

The creativity is really what keeps many of us returning despite the silly rules and bureaucracy. There is an annual art gallery, craft show and Women’s Soiree (an event showcasing women performers – belly dancers, singers, musicians, etc.) as well as an outdoor music festival on New Year’s Eve known as Ice Stock. There are dozens of musicians playing all varieties of music and some years, there is enough thespian interest to put on a play.

Not all members of the community share in the creative spirit, however, and there are plenty whose imagination go only as far as watching movies and getting drunk in the bar. I hate to generalize, but they tend to be the guys operating and maintaining heavy equipment and the members of the Air National Guard who fly the LC-130 Hercules aircraft. For them (and a surprising number of other members of the community), the biggest frustration is that Food Services didn’t order enough hard alcohol and supplies must be rationed. Wine and beer are sold regularly at the station store, but hard alcohol is sold only on Sundays.

Antarctic Science

Since we are here supporting scientific research, our blog wouldn't be complete without a posting on the kinds of projects being conducted. The average worker doesn't get to hear enough about what's going on around us, but the NSF does try to promote different projects by hosting science lectures on Wedensdays and Sundays. Additionally, if you have the time and motivation, the science lab building is filled with displays and data. Tours of the labs and the aquarium are given on Sunday afternoons. Michiel went on a tour last weekend and had an excellent opportunity to touch sea spiders, starfish and other sea creatures housed in the aquarium tanks.

Antarctic Octopus


There is quite a bit of marine biology work being conducted here which require dive shacks (little huts with heaters located such that they sit on top of a hole cut into the sea ice) and dive tenders (regular people who help the divers get themselves and their equipment in and out of the holes in the sea ice). Dive tending is considered a "boondoggle" or morale trip and the opportunity is offered by supervisors to individuals in all departments. Some of the marine biologists are studying the anti-freeze in the blood of certain Antarctic fish and looking at other applications for similar man-made materials.

Other science parties are studying meteorites and life forms (microbes) in the dry valleys, penguins (Emperors and adelies), Weddell Seals, activity in the active Erebus Volcano, and the atmosphere (the hole in the ozone layer (which is located largely above where we are located). I believe the greatest proportion of the work right now is focused on global warming. There are many science groups working in different locations on the continent using ice core sampling techniques, sonar, radar and other technologies to measure the thickness of the ice and compare it to historical data.

One of the science lectures focused on the catastrophic break up of an ice sheet on the other size of the continent. The before and after photos were astounding and particularly worrying because up til now, the melting of glaciers in every other part of the world has been balanced out by the increase in the ice sheet on Antarctica (as the earth warms, the temperature in Antarctica also warms and becomes more amenable for snowfall. When more snow falls in these regions, glaciers increase in size. When the temperature is too low, there isn't enough moisture in the air for snow to fall - which explains why Antarctica is the highest, coldest and DRYEST continent on earth.)

For monitoring weather conditions, scientists send up huge long-distance balloons carrying monitoring equipment that record atmospheric conditions. Here's a photo of one of the balloons that was launched this season.

There's so much going on here in science that it's difficult to discuss or even understand it all. If you would like more info, check out the US Antarctic Program website: www.usap.gov