Dan’s Adventures in Antarctica: Saturday November 12, 2011

Well, I woke up before the helos were flying so I knew that it was before 7:30am and that was a good thing. I was still a little tired but I felt so much better than I did a few days ago. I went to the lab and Brad said we were going fishing at Cape Evans wall. Just the words I wanted to hear!

On the way out to Cape Evans wall, we stopped for a bit at Big Razorback Island to see some seals. It is always so impressive to see how large they are and to see how comfortable they are to just be laying out on the snow. Must help to have several centimeters of blubber as insulation!

A seal in the road on the left, a Scott tent and Big Razorback to the right, and Mt. Erebus in the distance.

Me in front of Big Razorback.

Cape Evans wall was beautiful. There were some huge ice bergs stuck in the sea ice near us as well as a massive part of a glacier coming off the land.

Sandwich and a guy from town, Ryan, fishing at Cape Evans wall.

The Swedish fish research group was also fishing near us so I got a few pictures of them as well while I was securing some equipment to the top of our PB.

Brad, Sandwich and Ryan fishing.

Sandwich and Ryan drilled two more holes so we all could fish since the fishing was a little slow when we first arrived.

Once we got four holes drilled, we were on it! We couldn't stop catching fish! It was unfair how easy it was to catch fish! You want a newnesi? Send your hook to the bottom, set the hook and reel up. Done. You want a Bork? Drop it down below the ice, set the hook and reel up. Done! We caught 37 fish in a very short amount of time! Good thing too because the wind was ripping. We kept almost falling into our holes when the wind would blow us over!

Looks like Brad has one!

Ice bergs that were right next to us.

Ryan and his trophy sized Bork!

Sandwich and her hard earned juice box on the ride home.

It was a rough ride home, but when we got home, there was a FEAST of epic proportions waiting for us! There were no work related injuries to Raytheon (non-science, non-helo, non-nana) employees during working hours that caused time to be lost in 30 days. I know that is a very specific group of people and a very specific way to define an injury, but that is how things go down here. Anyway, we had top sirloin and crab legs, pumpkin lasagna and all sorts of cannolis! There was music playing in the galley and people walking around picking up our trays for us. It was like we were at a restaurant! We even had wine and beer with dinner! It was an incredible meal. I had to use my Leatherman multi-tool to crack the crab legs, which was pretty funny! The crab legs were MASSIVE!