11 December 2008

Stacy writing

With our last mission finished yesterday, we have 5 days to pack up all our stuff.  This may seem like a ridiculously long time, but we have to wash and clean and dry everything, return all the borrowed gear to the various workcenters, go through their lists and our lists and make sure that we have returned everything, find the things we have not returned and return them, or explain where they have gone to.  I have a lot of final paperwork and reports to file as well, and all the shipping documentation to fill out.  We will be busy, but hopefully not too busy to enjoy our last few days.

A thousand feet of tether getting clean in the rinse tank.

We started this morning by trying to get everything we could out of the lab.  Once again we took over the loading dock and the roll up door and the part of the aquarium near our lab, and Cameo and Scott made several trips to the BFC to return tents, tables, chairs, kitchen kits, sleds, carabiners, ropes, ice axes, and all the other field paraphenalia, and to the MEC to return chainsaws, generators, drills and other large metal implements.  Then we ran a couple of carts up and down the ramps in Crary lab, returning all our freshly washed labware, microscopes, sampling equipment etc..  With all that out of the way, we at least felt for a moment that we had a bit of space to maneuver.

Cameo and Scott struggling with getting the 5 kw generator out of the Pisten Bully.

Kim takes pity on the poor overworked members of B174 and offers to help - with a forklift.

In the afternoon Cameo and I went to “clean” the sea ice.  We drove out to our old site at Cape Armitage and removed all the bamboo flags marking holes in the ice, making sure that the holes were well frozen over and no longer a danger.  We also cleaned the Jetty site, all along the Station front, and cleared out our dive Tomato and moved to over to where the heavy equipment could reach it.  Everything is coming off the sea ice before it gets too melted, all the huts and tomatoes and vehicles are being moved to safe quarters on shore.  In honor of the softening ice, Cameo found another small hole to fall into – in an area we had just crossed safely three times.

Cameo at the stick towing the Dive Tomato. Look at her go!

I ended the work day with a quick meeting with the Exploratorium to plan for a live webcast tomorrow as part of their IceStories program.  You can view it under Ocean Ecology at http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/index.php.  They are a very creative group of people who have made a web studio space in an old seal observation hut that is in storage near the Carpentry Shop.  The hut has plexiglass windows on three sides so you get a quiet space but also a view.

The view over McMurdo from H3, the new "web studio" for the Exploratorium.

Later at night I went to the Coffee House with my good friend LaVonne to catch up.  As we are getting close to our time to leave I want to be sure that I have a little time with people who are special to me.  We find we both have visiting the Plain of Jars on our life list – she is hoping to go there in February when she leaves the ice.  But for me that trip will have to wait for a few years.

I hope that you check something off your life list this year!
Smiles, Stacy