Sunday October 9, 2011

 Whew! It is finally Sunday! Our PI (Primary Investigator) told us before we even came down to Antarctica that he wanted us to have Sundays as a day off so that we could enjoy some of the "finer" things that McMurdo has to offer. We got to sleep in and have brunch and just relax for most of the day. However, I couldn't sit around all day and later in the evening four of us went out on a short walk out to Hut Point. The hut in the pictures was built in 1902 by Robert Falcon Scott and his men in 1902. They bought the materials to build the hut in Australia so it was terrible at insulating and keeping in the heat as it was originally designed for the Australian Outback. The cross was erected in memory of men lost during the 1901-1904 expedition.  

This is a picture of a dead seal. It is potentially well over 100 years old. It has not decomposed much at all because the temperature is rarely above freezing as the annual temperature average at McMurdo is 0 degrees Fahrenheit.

While they are quite difficult to see in this picture, behind me (just over my left shoulder) are Tent island and Inaccessible island which are two of our traditional fishing sites.