Monday October 31, 2011

The wind was blowing like mad when I woke up this morning. Dannie and Hilary were supposed to fly back to their field camp this morning but when I talked to Nick and Matt (helo techs) they were pretty certain that no one would be flying unless the weather got much better. Sure enough, when Dannie and Hilary got to the helo pad their flight was canceled for the day. Since the weather was so bad, our team also stayed in and I ran my experiment on a new species, Gymnodraco acuticeps, also known as a dragonfish. It went really well and I seem to be getting my procedures down really well.

This cartoon was going around to a lot of people on station and I thought it was pretty funny. Since hand brakes don’t work very well in extreme cold (they tend to break), here we need to chock all of the pickups incase the micobrake fails. After a seal accident two weeks ago, this cartoon is even more appropriate.

Some of Isaac’s “science" as he calls it.

Henry Kaiser has been taking pictures of people using an infrared filter. Here are a few pictures he took of me.

Walking home from the lab. This is what -38F wind-chill looks like. No wonder the helos didn’t fly today! Normally from this view, I can see Mt. Discovery all the way across the sound!

I will be running another experiment tomorrow and it doesn't look like the weather is going to clear up any time soon. Just another amazing day here at McMurdo. I still have to remind myself where I am when I look across the frozen Ross sea to Mt. Discovery and the Royal Society Mt. Range and see glaciers. I go fishing on the frozen ocean many times a week. It hasn't worn off yet and I doubt it will anytime soon!

Sunday October 30, 2011

Today was another really big day. I had to be up early for the last time point for my experiment that I started the day before. Then, I went to help my friends Hilary and Dannie on their dive. Hilary needed to complete her checkout dive and was diving in a new dry suit. I had never seen people dive under the ice before so it was a really cool experience. Being the dive tender made it extra interesting because I learned some cool thing about the dry suits and the weights and the gear that they use!

Dannie helping Hilary out of her dry suit!

Then we went fishing. We took Sandwich’s boyfriend Brian with us. He was a huge help when we were drilling holes because he is so tall and he caught a few fish, which was really fun to watch!

The Fata Morgana was out in full force again today. If you look to the left and right of the pickup truck, all of the images that look like cliffs are really mirages! The kept growing and transforming! It was incredible!

Another day in paradise!

Saturday October 29, 2011

Today was a really fun day. We had a lab day today so I ran another one of my experiments. I am getting quite quick at setting the whole thing up. During the day, we saw some really incredible mirages across the sound. The images are called Fata Morgana. They form when dense, cold layer is below a much warmer layer. The light passes through and is bent in ways that create optical illusions. While it is difficult to describe in the picture, if you look to the left of the chimney, you will see what appear to be dark squares at the base of the mountain. They are not actually there. Throughout the day they got even more intense!

Later in the day, Dr. Hofmann gave a small talk to a group of people at an aquarium in Long Beach, CA. The band Condition Fun played before and after Dr. Hofmann spoke. You can see Sandwich singing and Isaac playing the bass.

Then it was time for our Halloween costume party. I dressed up as “Spider-man wearing a penguin costume.” Sandwich had these amazing fish costumes that her, Isaac and Brad wore for the party. They won best group costume!

Our friend Paul dressed up as a Condition Fun groupie! Here is Sandwich autographing his “In a Pickle” t-shirt. This shirt was made after Sandwich wrote a song called “In a Pickle” about the fork-lifts here at McMurdo.

We all had a great time.

Friday October 28, 2011

It is probably getting a bit old for me to keep saying it, but I guess my vocabulary is just not expansive enough for me to express my emotions any other way. WOW! I don't know if I can say that any one day down here has been the greatest day because they are all so unique, different and magical. However, if I had to make a list of the best days so far today would be very high on that list! Get ready for a lot of pictures!

We Brad, Marissa, Sandwich and I piled into the PB to go fishing. When Brad and Marissa went to pick up or lunches, they also came back with some hot and fresh grilled cheese sandwiches! How can you have a bad day when you start it by riding in the back of a PB with a hot, fresh grilled cheese sandwich!?!?

Here is Sandwich eating her sandwich!

Here are some more sandwiches, and my new gloves! I forgot to mention that yesterday at the party, my friend Nick (one of the helo techs that I took fishing) wanted to give me a thank you gift for taking him fishing. He got me some amazing gloves! I was so excited and wore them almost all day today!

During our morning commute, we had to profile several cracks. After we profiled our last crack, Sandwich and I were in the back ready to just relax for about another 30 minutes before we got to Inaccessible Island. However, off in the distance, we spotted some Emperor Penguins! We stopped the PB and got out to take some pictures. We were not prepared at all for what happened next. The penguins started to waddle, walk and glide on their bellies were coming right at us. They just kept coming! They got so close that we had to start backing away. The Antarctic Treaty does not allow anyone to approach the wildlife (unless you have a scientific permit). However, they kept approaching us! We kept backing away and they kept getting closer! In the end, we just had to get into our PB!

 

Now I am aware of cattle blocking the roads in some farming communities and that sheep routinely block roads in New Zealand, but how many people have a morning commute in which they have an unobstructed view of an active volcano (in Antarctica) and then have their road blocked by 19 Emperor Penguins? Probably not that many. You can see Mt. Erebus in the distance (no clouds today), the penguins blocking our “road” and our daily commuter, PB 310.

Once we were back in the PB, we took some more pictures as we waited for them to move on, but they just hung out around the back of the PB. We drove off very slowly and one even “waved” at us.

Then we saw 6 more Emperors less than two minutes later! In total, 25 Emperor Penguins!

Marissa and Sandwich fishing, Mt. Erebus in the background.

Me fishing. I don’t have a picture of me catching it, but today I caught a Pagothenia borchgrevinki. It is definitely my most favorite fish in the whole world. It is so beautiful! I wish that the pictures online did it justice but the picture that I posted earlier of one is close. They are incredible.

Here is Sandwich making sure that our flags are tied down properly. 

Another breathtaking and unobstructed view of Mt. Erebus.

Finally, on our drive back, we saw all the same penguins again. It was like they were waiting for us! Still blocking the road. But we had fish in our PB this time so we just drove around them. Lastly, as we were driving, we saw a MASSIVE Weddell seal on the sea ice right next to the road and it was lumbering toward our PB as well. Talk about a day filled with charismatic mega-fauna!

It was another incredible day in Antarctica!