26 October

Stacy Writing

It’s Sunday, and that’s the day off here, which we sometimes observe – like today!  So, for gentle relaxation, DJ and I met at 9:30 to go “feed” the Hotsy and generator that are still melting our hole at Cape Armitage.  The weather was MUCH nicer than yesterday, when it was Condition 2 while we were out.  Condition 2 means at least one of the following:
1.  Sustained wind speed 48 knots to 55 knots
2. Wind chill temperature -75°F (-60°C) to -100°F (-73°C)
3. Visibility 1/4 mile to 100 feet

The Royal Society Range of mountains across the sound – on a clear day.

But today the sun was shining (unlimited visibility) and the wind was just a gentle breeze.  DJ, however, was Not Happy to be out and about without breakfast, as Sunday brunch does not start serving until 10 am.  I offered him a candy bar but I think he was thinking of waffles.  So poor boy, without any sustenance I forced him to stay out for 2 hours using the big circular melter to melt through the  3 m of snow on top of the ice so that we could see what the Hotsy was doing to the ice below.  The normal Hotsy stinger is about 25 cm in diameter, about a meter long coil that circulates glycol to heat the seawater and melt the ice by conduction.  However, it only melts the part that is in contact with seawater, so any freeboard that is above water level stays frozen.  Because the snow cover is so thick here, we could not see down the 9 ft to what was happening in the water below.  But the circular stinger, which is about 70 cm in diameter, worked very well.  DJ tried to stuff me down the hole in the snow at one point, but since he had not brought his camera with him, there is no photo documentation of this event.

DJ is Not Happy.

Check out the Bling! And the Happy DJ.

After a well deserved brunch (second helpings for me!)  we met up to take a walk down to the Discovery Hut.  I have been trained (yet another training) as a hut guide, so I can get the key to let us in and know how to be sure none of the artifacts are inadvertently damaged.  Discovery Hut was built in 1902 on the Discovery Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott.  The hut was designed to stay cool in the Australian outback, and it does a wonderful job of that, which is not exactly what one wants in Antarctica, but it was the only “modular” building available at the time.  Scott’s initial expedition used the hut for storage and as a theatre, but they lived on the ship moored next to it, where it was a little warmer.  The hut was used by 3 more expeditions, often as a base camp for starting journeys further south – it is the furthest south hut.  In a couple of cases, this location saved the lives of men who collapsed over 30 miles away, but whose companions were able to make heroic journeys to get help from others at the hut.  My favorite story is the less known of Shackelton’s Endurance expedition.  Shackleton was attempting to cross the continent, and you may have seen the movie about his ship getting crushed in the ice, the insane journey across unstable pack ice to reach a small uninhabited island, and the completely crazy crossing of 800 miles of icy Southern Ocean by 4 men in an open boat to get to a whaling station and rescue help for the men left behind.  The untold part of the story is that there was a party of men sent to the other side of the continent to lay depots of food and fuel for the crossing party.  A small contingent of these men were stranded  when a storm broke the anchor lines of the ship and it blew out to sea in a storm.  Without any supplies, and only a few of the planned party, they nevertheless realized that Scott’s party would die if they did not lay the planned depots.  They spent all winter not just cobbling together supplies to keep themselves alive, but also building blubber stoves and collecting seal meat for food and blubber for fuel.  They successfully laid the depots, not knowing that Shackleton’s party was also in trouble and would not make the journey.  To me, this effort is one of the most incredible in all the amazing history of Antarctic exploration, that this group, with almost no resources, remained dedicated to their task and completed it so successfully.

Some of the supplies for the original expeditions in the early 1900s.

Other supplies obtained locally; these are penguin bones.

And some of the 100 year old Extreme Cold Weather gear. Brrrrr!

After a very pleasant walk I returned to the lab in time to meet the weekly tour where community members can find out what science is going on.  I had a fun discussion with the group and recruited a fantastic gang of volunteers to help us with our work.  We are so lucky that people are so interested and involved in our work.  Then I was able to catch Bob and his friend Eric and convince them to help me chip out the 3 Winter Quarters Bay dive holes that were drilled 2 days ago.  If we do not chip them out fairly often, they will freeze so solid that we can’t get them open again, so this was a required task.

One of the pieces of artwork, a welded Orca, on the walk between McMurdo and Discovery Hut.

After dinner we stayed for the Science Lecture, which taught us about when Antarctica was not so cold, and there were forests of southern beech and mosses here on the continent.  It is hard to imagine!  The to bring the day full circle, Francois and I went out one last time just before bed to fuel the Hotsy and generator.  The hole will be ready tomorrow and we will have a hut put on it.

Working hard to keep the hole melted.

Wishing you a day off with less work in it!
Smiles, Stacy