Blogs from Antarctica - page 63

Antarctica » Antarctica » McMurdo Station December 23rd 2005

After a nice breakfast, Jennifer, Joel, Jerome, and I took a guided tour of McMurdo Station. It took us about an hour. The tour introduced us to the various buildings that we may need to visit during our stay. One of the highlights of the tour was finally seeing Scott's Hut from a distance. After the tour, we attended a Outdoor Activites briefing, which informed us of the various routes about camp that we can hike, ski, etc. There are a suprisingly large number of hikes. However, many are now off limits due to the weakening sea ice. Apparently, our landing at Pegasus Field was the last of the season. In the afternoon, I visited the cargo building and turned over my excess cargo (parts for rover). We then went next door to pick up our ... read more

Arriving at McMurdo

Antarctica » Antarctica » McMurdo Station December 22nd 2005

C-17 in Christchurch

Bully

We made it to Antarctica. The trip was surprisingly uneventful. We checked in at 6:30am. We were weighted with our luggage and then cleared for breakfast. At 7:20, we reported back for a briefing and baggage screening. Then, it was off to the C-17 cargo jet. The C-17 was much nicer than the LC130 Hercules in that it takes only 5 hours to travel to Antarctica instead of 8 hours. Their insides were quite comparable. Lots of head room, but our legs were crowded with such large hand carry bags. We were also given a huge sack lunch. About 5 hours after takeoff, we landed at Pegasus Field, a landing strip located on the sea ice of the Ross Ice Shelf. We were greeted by Ivan the Terrabus, which we rode for 20 to 30 minutes ... read more

Climbed It...Loved It

Antarctica » Temp December 12th 2005

Travelling Dave W

Slept in. Awake at 10am. Headed in to the city again and to the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. We are on the 12.05 climb. It takes three hours but that isn’t all climbing. Firstly you sign an information sheet for them and have a breath test. Then you are given the most unflattering gray boiler suit. We had too get caps and hankies and everything is attached by clips so you can’t drop them. Apparently it can cause damage to cars! There were 12 people in our group we walked along the underside of the bridge. The mesh can be seen through and it is a long way to the ground. Climbed the ladders and you come up between the traffic. It is a weird experience. After that bit it is so much easier on the ... read more

ROMEO is Underwater

Antarctica » Antarctica » McMurdo Station November 26th 2005

ROMEO at 80 feet

jefe

I just returned to McMurdo from New Harbor, and the ROMEO camera is underwater! Things were hectic trying to get the equipment running, since I thought it would be impossible to make any of it work after the technical failures last Sunday. More details on that tomorrow after I get some sleep. Thanksgiving is celebrated on Saturday here as Sunday is a non work day on station. The meal was fantastic and I am ready to head North on Tuesday. ... read more

Arriving at New Harbor

Antarctica » Antarctica » McMurdo Station November 21st 2005

jefe

I finally made it to New Harbor Camp in Explorer's Cove Antarctica. This is going to be a short entry because I have been awake for nearly 40 hours now. Lets just say a bunch of horrible technical problems came up that I spent a lot of time figuring a work around for. Finally I went to bed at 1 so I could get up at 5 to move my cargo to the helicopter pad, but never was able to fall asleep. I think it was a state of hyper anxiety, sleep deprived delirium and my half concious dreams detailed me on a journey to McMurdo Medical to tell them I was going crazy and needed to leave. I woke up every 15 minutes but the storyline of leaving the ice or avoiding technical difficulties in ... read more

Drowning Romeo

Antarctica » Antarctica » McMurdo Station November 16th 2005

ROMEO in Dive Hut

jefe

First of all, despite what this blog site might list above, Antarctica is not a part of South America. It is its own continent with land underneath all of its ice and mountains. Just thought I should make that correction. This morning I pulled up Romeo from dive hut #8 out on the sea ice, where it had been resting on the sea floor, 80 feet below. Ben the Antarctic Scout, helped me with some wiring, logistics, and this pressure test before leaving for New Harbor today. He and I drove out to Hut 8 lst night around 9:30 after I received some modified parts from Mike in the McMurdo Machine Shop. Since Ben is THE Boyscout, he was in charge of all of the knots and we rigged ROMEO to the dive line. We attached ... read more

Where I work

Antarctica » Antarctica » McMurdo Station November 11th 2005

Crary Hallway

jefe

Its been a while since i have posted anything, sorry about that. Work has been really busy with assembly, programming and integration of the various parts of the underwater camera system. The radio antenna tower at New Harbor is going to be installed on Weds, and the fiber optic cable conduit is still intact! I am playing a show at Gallaghers pub tonight which will be a lot of fun. Joe Mastroianni left yesterday, and he is lucky he got out. Right after the C-17 took off some weather moved in and I woke up this morning to snow blowing all over the place and condition two. On another exciting note, there was a funky sulpher smell in the lab yesterday and someone ended up calling the fire department thinking there was a spill or leak. ... read more

Photos from Cape Washington

Antarctica November 6th 2005

Penguin Inspection

jefe

I just received some photos from the Penguin Ranch group with photos of the Backpack Camera installation at Cape Washington. The two cameras we built for them were deployed at the end of October and will be retrieved at the beginning of December. These cameras weigh 10 lbs including batteries, and are relatively compact given that they use a pan/tilt/zoom camera for the imager. This system was designed to run for 6 weeks but given the new electronics I am working on, we will be able to make this system run for multiple years without any maintenance. It's easy to see why imaging at this site is so difficult; there are so many birds! If everything goes well with this deployment, we will hopefully be working on plans and grants for future camera arrays using our ... read more

The Harsh Condiments Win the Boondoggle

Antarctica » Antarctica » McMurdo Station October 31st 2005

"Its A Harsh Condiment"

jefe

Happy Halloween everyone! Here are two photos from last night's halloween party on station. It was a really great party with lots of creative costumes. We did really well, and the "its a harsh condiment" (a pun on the saying "its a harsh continent") won the best group costume. This means we get to go on a snowmobile boondoggle to the room with a view. The room with a view is situated somewhere between Mount Erebus and Scott Base and supposedly has an amazing view (hence the name). Anyway I hope that we can schedule the trip before I leave for Thailand. Our cargo has not arrived yet. It should come down on the next C-17 flight on Weds. A few people from New Harbor came back today so there are people around the lab, and ... read more

Some Underwater Pictures From New Harbor

Antarctica » Antarctica » McMurdo Station October 31st 2005

New Harbor Ice Wall

jefe

These are some recent pictures from the ice wall at New Harbor. This is the location where the communications cable transitions out of the ice and into the water. Romeo is placed roughly 100 feet from the wall. Photos courtesy of Henry Kaiser. Click on to see the second image... read more

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