21 October 2008
Stacy Writing
The exciting news of the day is that Jim got ALL of the data streams showing up on the computer interface.  This means that when we bring up the communications screen for SCINI, it shows depth, temperatures in the main electronics bottle and in the camera bottle, humidity in both bottles, acceleration [...]

We’ve been working hard towards this day for a long time – SCINI’s first ocean dive of the season.  We made the dive under the sea ice in front of the station in a dive hut also used for tagging seals.
The hut has a hole in the floor over an existing hole in the ice, [...]

19DEC08
by Marco Flagg
 

This I was told in the galley hallway by a GA is the proud slogan of their crew.  And it’s also a good opportunity to talk about the ordinary work that is necessarily a part of this extraordinary place.  In this respect, our and other science teams are truly the lucky ones:  We [...]

Saturday, October 18.
Francois writing
There is no weekend in Antarctica. Our time here is too precious and we can’t afford to take much time off, except for sleeping and eating. So we started working at 7:30AM, as usual, hoping to put SCINI in the ocean by the end of the day.
As the mechanical engineer for this [...]

Friday October 17, 2008, DJ writing

Today we had one of our last training sessions required to allow us to do our research in Antarctica. Besides operating the submarine under the sea ice some of the members of the team are also going to be SCUBA diving under the ice. This specialized diving technique requires a [...]

16 October
Stacy Writing
Unlike the horrifying driver training videos that 16 year olds suffer through in the US, our driver training was very hands on.  First, we met with Toby, who instructed us on the skills needed to start a snowmobile, fix very minor problems, and then let us pick out our helmets.  Required helmets are [...]

Our second day of snow survival training started early Wednesday morning.  We had to have the entire camp taken down and put away and all the bags ready by the shed for pickup by 9am, and the process takes about 2 hours.
I had elected to sleep in all of my clothes since I get cold [...]

14 OCT 08:
by Marco Flagg (with pictures by Francois and Marco)

Cotton Kills!  Weight is Great! And then this: if some happy camper students get their hands frost bitten and amputated, say due to an instructor’s ill considered approach, do they still qualify as ‘Happy Campers’?  While these were some of the many cosmic guidelines and [...]

Monday October 13, 2008
Francois writing

This morning, Marco felt really tired as he woke up and got out of bed. His phone, which he had used as an alarm clock showed 6:30AM. He took a shower then headed down to the galley. The town seemed really quiet this morning, and the sun was still low. [...]

12 October
Stacy writing
Sunday is the one day off of work for most of McMurdo Station.  The support staff work 6 days, 10 hours a day.  So on Sunday, a delicious brunch is served, with “round eggs” – as opposed to the “square eggs” we usually get, out of a box.  There are also Belgian waffles, [...]