Blogs from Antarctica, Antarctica - page 27

Today I spent at Willy Field getting some work done. Our assembly is on the south side of Willimas Town on the Ross Ice Sheet (9 meters down is the ocean). The area where land transitions into ice (aptly named "the transition") usually has heaves of ice created by the moving sheet, sort of like how mountains are formed. Right now the road at the transition is very melted and the deltas and ivan the terra bus have a hard time getting through. They have reduced shuttles services to try and repair it. Calling fleet ops yesterday to level out the ice caused all sorts of confusion, which led to me having to call a bunch of people only to find out the person I have to talk to is out at Willy Field. The only ... read more

Today I had more training sessions. 8 a.m. brought me an awareness of the environment here, and taught me how to dispose of my urine. That was followed by a trip to the Berg Field Center (BFC) to get a space heaters for our enclosure to thaw the batteries and ice jugs and to prevent freezing and condesation on the all-sky camera lense that we will be installing. Then came a trip to the S S C to get a how to on generator operation and a generator for our space heater. Lunch was next, if I recall correctly, then a trip out to Arrival Heights to check on an old magnetometer that has bad axis. Hyomin and I opened the vault, tested the wires and whatnot, and found out that the coil itself was bad. ... read more

Woke up, ate breakfast, then read until a meeting at 10:30 in which I learned nothing important, because I cannot remember what it was about. Probably something to do with recycling or protecting the environment. Went to cargo to see if we could get our box shipped out to Williams (Willy) Field, and they said tonight at the latest, so we ate lunch then headed out to Willy to see what we can do. The normal shuttles that go out there are Deltas, hug trucks with 4.5' tall wheels that are 3' wide -- spreads the weight of this behemoth over a larger area so as to not break through. Since our enclosure was not out there, we could not do more than disassemble the old one, so that is what we did: stopped the wind ... read more

Finally Made It Another early morning for me, getting up at 4:30 to pack, 5:00 pick-up from the hotel, 6:30 check-in at the air port, then on the plane at 8:40. Plane taxied to the runway around 9. Off the plane at 9:30, wait an hour for the winds to die down again, then board at 10:30 and take off shortly thereafter. This time for good... well, until we landed on the ice at Willie Field anyway. The former president of Slovakia was on our plane and they did some sweet rolls back and forth for a documentary his is making. Nice views of the continent. After the plane landed we had to wait at the air field until Ivan the Terra Bus got unstuck and came to pick us up. The temperature was well ... read more

Sunrise was about 3.20 a.m. local time and I awoke at four - Lisa shortly thereafter. Outside we were met with a stunning spectacle! We were entering the Gerlache Strait, named after the great Belgian Antarctica explorer Adrien Gerlache who discovered and mapped this part of the peninsula and offshore islands in 1898. Brabant Island was on our starboard side and the Danco Coast of mainland Antarctica on port; everywhere snow and ice clung to the hills and the plateaus with hardly a bare piece of rock to be seen. Icebergs large and small, of every shape and colour, were scattered along our path as the bridge crew steered the Minerva skilfully between them. Apart from a few clouds hanging over the mountaintops, which climbed in places to over 2,000 metres, the sky was completely blue ... read more