Twas the night before redeployment, when all through the town

The folks on the manifest were wandering around;

The bags had been dragged and labeled and weighed

In hopes that their owners wouldn’t get waylaid;

3:30am is the departure time,

So I’ll fast-forward through this quaint little rhyme;

We want to tell you before we fly out of sight,

Thank you for reading, and to all a good-night!

The SCINI Team

Scott wears the silly hat.

We all were wondering why our flight wasn’t listed on the “Departures” board. A little after 10:00am we were informed that our flight had been delayed by a day. A plane from Christchurch, New Zealand had been cancelled and this was the reason our flight was postponed. Stacy wanted us to finish packing just in case things changed again. In Antarctica it is possible for things to change back and forth several times and you usually get very little notice. The reason is that all of the flights are dependent on the weather and it can change in a matter of minutes.

In fact, yesterday I was running around in just my fleece jacket, but today was a very different story. The air was cold and the visibility was way down. Even the helicopters were grounded. As we are packing, Stacy suddenly yelled for me to take a look at something. I looked outside and was treated to a glimpse of “diamond air”. This is where the air is so cold that the rain is crystallized into drops of ice and they glisten in the air like diamonds. It is really gorgeous. Shortly after, the “diamond ice” turned to snow.

The snow was coming down in large flakes but hardly anything stuck to the ground.

One of the side effects was that the soda I put outside to chill was covered in snow. There was little doubt that it was cold enough.

My sodas were covered in snow.

We kept on packing because our goal was to pack all of the containers and take them to Cargo before the end of the day. After each container is filled, it is sealed with tape, buckles, or screws and then it is wrapped with two metal straps. They even have a special piece of equipment to connect the metal strap and crimp it. It was actually a lot of fun to learn how to use the equipment.

The tool for strapping the crates.

We also had to return some last minute items. Scott and I went on a trip to several places and we got an unexpected treat when we reached the Heavy Machine shop. Holly, the parts supervisor, took us for a short tour of the facility. It was filled with the largest vehicles I have ever seen. I couldn’t get over how big the tires were. Here is a picture of me next to one of the tires. Another vehicle actually had tires that were even bigger than these. It was way cool.

Is the tire tall or am I short?

One thing that we really wanted to do before we left Antarctica was to put SARA, the ROV that my students built, into the water. We filled the small test tank and crossed our fingers. Then we gathered everything around the test tank and hooked it all up. Stacy really liked our camera set-up. We are using a fish camera named SAM (this stands for SARA’s Aquatic Mascot) that is connected to a small black and white television monitor. It works really well and it is lots of fun to see what SARA sees.

Do you see Stacy looking at Stacy?

I was nervous that SARA would sink right to the bottom of the test tank. However, it turned out that SARA didn’t sink but rather she floated because she had positive buoyancy. Buoyancy is basically how much an object floats. If it is positively buoyant, then the object floats. If it is negatively buoyant, then the object sinks. You want to try to attain neutral buoyancy by adding or subtracting weight from the object. If you would like to read a really good explanation of buoyancy, then go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy.

I have to admit that when we put SARA in the water and she floated I was really proud.

SARA floats in the test tank.

We needed to attain neutral buoyancy so we added lead weights. Eventually we worked out the right combination of weights and SARA was set. Doesn’t she look awesome?

SARA, the camera, the monitor, and the power source.

The dive in the test tank was a huge success and we decided that we wanted to take it one step further. We collected a chipper bar, all of SARA’s components, and we headed for the jetty. Our party included Stacy, Scott, Addie (the dive locker supervisor), Judit (an artist), and me.

We ventured out onto the ice and walked towards where the Jetty used to be. The land was so very different from what it was like a week ago. The snow was melting and a lot more of the ground was exposed. The Jetty building had been removed and we had to hunt for the dive hole. Eventually we found the dive hole and it was in great shape. Stacy and Addie chipped out the ice and then scooped the hole free.

The ladies chip out the hole and scoop away the ice.

Scott and I readied SARA for her big dive and Judit took pictures. I should explain that during the dive in the test tank I got so excited that I accidentally let my camera go under the water. I didn’t discover until later that it was not functioning correctly. It was kind of weird because none of the still pictures came out but all of the video was just fine. I was really lucky that Judit took photographs and was kind enough to email them to us.

Once everything was ready it was time to put SARA in the dive hole. The ice in this hole is 19 feet deep and SARA’s tether is not that long. However, we wanted to put her in and look at the sides of the dive hole and anything else that might be in the water. She looked really cute in the dive hole.

SARA in the dive hole in Antarctica.

Everyone worked together and the dive was a big success. SARA’s buoyancy was very positive but we were able to add enough weight to counteract the effects of the saltwater. She was showing images of the ice wall that Stacy observed on the television monitor. Scott acted as navigator and I was the pilot. It was all very exciting.

You go SARA!

When we got back to the lab I was absolutely thrilled. After I had boxed up SARA for the trip home I took a few minutes to watch the video that Addie had taken. It was so nice to see the final result of so many hours of hard work. I am extremely proud of my students and the SCINI team for making this all possible. I leave you with a short video clip of SARA in the waters of Antarctica. It was a long, hard trip but worth every minute. You go SARA and hats off to my students!

Stacy Writing

It is unbelievable how long it can take to pack everything up.  Or maybe it is unbelievable how short a time it takes to transfer our homey busy crowded workspace into a sterile echoingly empty space ready for the next science group to use.  Either way, we are still working on getting everything organized and into well protected boxes.  Every item is separated into Do Not Freeze or Can Freeze, and then divided into things that stay here for use next year, things that have to get home in the next few weeks so we can keep working, and things that we can do without for the next three months.  Then there are also samples, some of which are Keep Frozen or Keep Refrigerated, and others that have to travel as Hazardous because of the ethanol preservative.

One of my favorite pictures from this season - diving with SCINI!

One of my least favorite pictures from this year, all our gear in boxes as we get ready to leave.

But it is also a Sunday, so we take time for brunch and no one is required to work – though they all do, dedicated team that we are.  Cameo and Bob are working on SARA, the ROV that her class built, but that got damaged in transit.  Cameo has been soldering connectors and injecting foam into floats and before long, SARA is ready for a tank test.  Will we be able to squeeze in one last mission on our last day, tomorrow?

Cameo perfecting her soldering skills and SARA at the same time.

This is my last journal for the season, so I want to take the time to thank you for your interest, your support, your help.  Everyone has a different reason that they are reading this, but all of you have contributed to our success, directly or indirectly, and we appreciate it.  I am very lucky to be working in such a magical place, with such talented people, and I hope that the work that we are doing will give back a little to the planet in the end.

A sculpture created by William Tinus called Tears of Erebus. The quote that goes with it is " Erebus is saddened, not because of the size of our footprint, but because of how dirty our feet are."

The real Mt. Erebus, in all glory, from the barranca near Heald Island.

Small footprints.

I hope you have a satisfying day – as I have!
Smiles, Stacy

Another day of packing. There were still a few items getting returned to various departments, but we spent a lot of the day playing with bubble wrap and tape. Well, ok, playing is probably not the right word, but we used a lot of it today.

Bubblewrap-o-rama

At lunch I learned the circuitous route that phone calls make around here. Calls are beamed out to Black Island, up to a satellite, down to San Diego and then are routed to Denver. It then makes its way to your intended destination, which may just be the office next door! Ken, one of our volunteers, was going to be headed out to Black Island to work on the communications equipment out there, so he filled us in on all that info during lunch.

Francois was slated to leave today, but didn’t find out when his plane was leaving until almost lunchtime. He headed off to the airport shuttle around 4:30 for his 6:30 flight. We were already missing him, and it became very apparent at dinnertime. Our whole group now fit at one of the smaller tables – a subtle sign that things were winding down.

Francois remains calm while packing chaos reigns in the lab

Dinner ended early tonight so that they could set up the galley for the Women’s Soiree – a big production put on by the women at McMurdo. All the performers were women, and there were many talented dancers, singers and entertainers. I’m glad I went.

I commented on listening to my iPod the other day as I drove the Pisten Bully, but something that particular form of entertainment lacks is an emphasis on the fact that people are making that music for other people to listen to. A form of sharing. There’s something basic there, probably going back to when people first gathered around a fire, and seeing the live performance made it feel more real, more human. The encouragement the audience gave to the performers when there was a false start or a first-time performer felt really good, too.

As a bonus, they had a raffle for several different prizes. I managed to win a free room cleaning, meaning an automatic pass for my room inspection. Now it’s up to me to get all the stuff IN my room packed up.

Another gratuitous packing picture

SCINI was the star of a webcast and she let Stacy and Bob share the limelight. The webcast was put on by the Exploratorium which is in San Francisco and believes that a museum should be a learning experience. If you would like to view the webcast go to the Explo.tv section of www.Exploratorium.com and watch “Ocean Ecology”. You can also check out the other webcasts that are being done with scientists working in Antarctica.

After the webcast Bob and I began some much needed work on SARA. For those of you that don’t know, SARA is the ROV that my students built. She was slightly damaged during the journey to Antarctica. In addition, there were a few things that Bob, the engineer, suggested we do to SARA to improve her functioning.

I first examined SARA to see just what was damaged. One of the struts had broken free of its plastic tie and I quickly reattached it with a neon yellow plastic tie that went lovely with SARA’s color scheme. The next thing I noticed was that the piece of Plexiglas that we had attached two of the thrusters to was cracked.

The damaged piece of Plexiglas that was used to attach two of SARA

I cut off the plastic ties that attached the Plexiglas to the frame and then I also cut the plastic ties that attached the two thrusters. Bob had a great idea to connect the two thrusters directly to the frame using plastic ties. One would have the valve go up and the other would have the valve go down. These thrusters obviously control down and up.

The thrusters are attached directly to the frame and the cables are shortened.

Then I stripped all of the cables. Each cable had a black wire and a brown wire and I then had to strip each wire.

I stripped the cables and then the wires. You have to be patient or you will cut right through the wires.

The next step was to twist all of the black wires together and then to twist one wire from the ground wire to each of the brown wires. Bob then taught me to solder. This is where you melt metal (tin and lead) onto metal using a hot rod. It is harder than it sounds but I had a lot of fun.

I got my first taste of soldering and I liked it.

Bob gave me little plastic sleeves to put on the end of each soldered wire. I then used a hair dryer to heat shrink the plastic sleeve. This will protect the soldered wire.

Who knew that a hair dryer had so many uses?

The next thing I did was to put a plastic tie around the wires and put them in the gray container that looks like a gun.

Everything was tied up neatly and put in the container.

We then used the sealant foam that I had brought form school which is aptly called “Great Stuff – Insulating Foam Sealant”. This stuff will make the wires waterproof.

We put the foam sealant in the container with the wires.

You spray the foam and it expands by 50%. We also put the foam in the floats to seal them as well. We had a hard time judging when we had filled the container half full. It spilled out of the ends and kept spilling out. We decided to leave it until tomorrow.

Oops! We used a little too much foam sealant in the floats.

In the meantime, we started to work on the control box. I should explain that what SARA needed was to have the two thrusters reattached, the floats waterproofed, and the wires soldered and then waterproofed. Bob offered to help give SARA a bit of a facelift. Who could say no to some free help from a real electronics expert and the price was right (free).

We organized the switches on the control box top and then flipped it over and began to connect the switches. This involved more soldering. I am getting to be a real solder expert.

All six switches had to be connected by soldering a wire to them.

After we had connected the six switches to each other, it was time to solder a wire from the grounding cable to each switch. We made sure to match the wire to the thruster to the switch.

I got to do a lot more soldering.

The final result was a control box that was able to control all six thrusters. Bob then gave SARA a lovely cable that would easily connect her to the power source. He also recommended putting the hole in the control box on the side instead of the bottom where we had put it. This would allow us to put the box on the ground and work with it.

The finished control box.

While Bob and I worked on SARA, Stacy and Scott were busy packing up the lab. It is quite a job.

Packing can be a very messy business.

They use lots of different containers to ship items back home. They also box up some items and leave them in Antarctica for next year.

It is the biggest suitcase that I have ever seen.

All day long Scott worked with a bit of a disadvantage because he had lost his voice. I had a little fun trying to make him talk or at least laugh. He was a really good sport about it and it made the day go a little faster.

Scott was speechless all day.

It was a very busy day and tomorrow promises to be just as busy.

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

Posted by Bob.

Our last day on the sea ice started with the normal hustle and bustle of getting all the cases loaded and packing the Pisten Bully (PB) with the “System” components necessary to penetrate the depths of McMurdo sound with a miniature robot. With the checklists completed and the wind pants and bunny boots donned the crew of three in the PB were off. The lab seemed quiet until a tour came by and distracted me for a few moments with my 5 minutes description of our project. Cameo and I were going to be the Snowmobile team today. We move so much faster on the “sleds” as I like to call them, that we don’t have to leave until the PB has been gone for an hour. Even then we often catch them before they arrive at the day’s dive site. Cameo was dressed and ready to go. I was feeling empty, almost naked. I had forgotten something important and I couldn’t figure out a way to remember what it was. I delayed the application of my bunny boots and wind pants and stumbled around the lab hoping to find that thing I needed to make me whole again. A reorganization of my gear didn’t help. So now it was time to go.

As we walked past streams of melt water down to the snowmobiles staged at the sea ice transition we noted how much the ice was changing. In less than a week the sea ice would be closed. Travel on the ice would be restricted to only the absolute necessary. It’s not that the ice was getting too thin for safe travel, it’s more a question of the condition of the ice surface. A few large holes and several deep ruts had formed in the road over the last 24 hours and this deformation was expected to continue until travel would be destructive to both vehicle and occupants.

This is our last day on the ice and it was looking like a perfect day. The snowmobiles started fine but were in need of fuel. The complicated fueling system was now routine as we have done this check out many times over the last few months. Mac Ops received the mandatory call on the radio informing them of our project number, the names of the riders, the snowmobile numbers, our point of contact (someone who knew where we were going and a rough idea of what we had with us), and our estimated time of return. In this case, for some still not understood reason I said 5pm I almost always give our ETR (estimated time of return) in 24hour format and I always select 1900 as our return time, just before dinner. For some inexplicable reason I said 5pm. Holly who recognized me and greeted me by name read back the check out stating that she would hear from me by 1700. My brain clicked, ok 7pm.

The ride to the dive site was bright white. The weather this day was blue skies and light winds. A nice day to be on the sleds was enhanced by some classic rock in the mandatory earphones. I don’t listen to much music any more but if you’re going to put plugs in your ears it might as well be music. The helmets they issue us can’t cope with the loud sound coming from the two cycle engines. We made good time and in less then 30 min were at the same place the PB took almost an hour and a half to reach.

This dive site was on blue ice. This phenomenon is created when the winds blow all the snow off the ice then continues to encourage its evaporation by sublimation. The ice never actually melts. It is converted from a solid directly to a vapor by the urging of the wind. What this means to us is that we have to work on the equivalent of a skating rink. A smooth and glassy surface in all directions for hundreds of yards is now our playground. The nice thing about blue ice is that it drills easily. Aaron and I had drilled the holes for this dive yesterday and they had not even iced up much. The still liquid water in the holes means the chipper bar stays in the PB. Every thing about this day was smiles.

SCINI was prepped and the computers were set up and readied for a deployment. The pre-dive check list was completed and SCINI slipped her nose down the hole. Scott and Stacy were giggling in the control room at the wonderful alien world that lay 600ft below. All was working fine so Francois and I moved on to the day’s next task.

Our last dive of the season was to take SCINI down to 1000ft. This was the stated depth limit of the vehicle in the proposal and both Francois and I were eager to achieve it.

“Duh. That was it.” I feel so dumb. I was supposed to scrutinize the map on the wall for a likely dive site that was just over 1000ft deep. I had perused it many times. But I was going to spend some time and pick a really good spot. It kind of seamed like I had found what was missing from my morning. As we loaded the jiffy drill and five of the 8” drill bits on the snowmobiles I was sure we would find a spot that was 1000ft deep but the nagging emptiness was not fulfilled.

Our method of measuring the depth of the holes was quite ancient. Tied to the back of my snowmobile was a garden hose winder with a battery powered rewinder. What wasn’t on my snowmobile was any garden hose. I did have 1200 feet of ¼ inch nylon rope wound neatly to the spool. François had suggested a spot between Tent Island and Inaccessible Island. I started towards an imaginary place roughly between the islands and after a few minutes I saw a black not so imaginary dot in just about the place I had chosen. As the bumpy snow dunes continued to rattle by, the dot grew into what I was sure was a seal. Bingo! We may not need to drill a hole for this first test.

We stopped our Snowmobiles several hundred feet from the seal whom seamed to be dead. We walked towards the hole in a manner that could not be misunderstood as getting closer to the seal. It still had no response. The hole looked good so we attached the weights to the line and down the hole they went. At 600 feet was a knot attaching the second 600ft rope to the measuring line. Minutes went by and still the line slid down the hole with out any signs of slowing. The end of the line yanked on the spool we both tested the tension on the line and determined that the weights were still suspended safely above the bottom 1200 feet below where we stood. This was bad news. We want to dive SCINI on the bottom at 1000ft. we decided to use the snowmobile to pull the line out of the hole and this worked well if we went slow and stopped for the knot to be pulled up by hand. It was begging too look like the jiffy drill was in our near future. When we started the sleds the seal finally moved his head a bit and we drove off.

The next 3 holes drilled went fast and pulling the line up with the snowmobile was making things go even faster. But still no bottom contact. Finally we drove to a spot 600ft from the shore of Deception Island. This time the weight slowed its descent around 650 feet. Again we both hefted the line and could feel what we thought was bottom.

I used my GPS to determine the distance we were from the island. Francois did some quick math and the outcome pointed to a spot 40 meters further from the island.

A quick drill, and with a dunk the weight headed for the bottom. Bingo again, the weight stopped right at 985 feet: we had our dive spot.

We left the drill and the line spool there to ride back the current dive spot and help the others finish their dive. A few hours later and one short argument about the necessity of this not so scientific dive and we were back. It was almost 7pm so it was time to extend our check out for at least 3 more hours. The new dive spot had communications with Mac Ops and just about the time I made contact with them a curious helicopter made a nice big loop around our site. Mac ops indicated there had been search efforts in place for almost the last two hours. I was shocked. I was first in denial that I had checked out to 5pm instead of my normal 7pm. I was quite angry with myself. Mac ops called again with a message to meet with the NSF representative in his office first thing in the morning. This was big trouble. They had launched a helicopter. The dive site we had just left was in a spot where we couldn’t get good radio coverage. We didn’t hear them calling for us. This mistake was not to be taken lightly. It totally ruined my day. It was completely my fault and I couldn’t stop thinking about how much trouble I had caused.

The dive progressed normally. We attached a 200 ft tether to the 1000ft tether we had been using. This should give us some line to fly around with when we hit the bottom. We then dropped the tether with a clump weight down to 900 feet. The bottom loomed in to our display. It looked a bit sparse. Some sponge’s bryozoans and hydroids were scattered around. The depth sensor said 945ft. I drove deeper. Scini was handling well. It looked like we were on a steep wall. Now at 963ft. I turned towards the descending terrain. And drove her deeper to 990ft. More sponges. The tether seamed to be pulling on me. This was bad. If I was at the end of my tether we might not be able to go the 10 feet we needed. Our last depth record was 720ft. Scini was more then 100psi deeper then she had ever been. I turned again and carefully maneuvered her around some rocks. The camera dome at this depth has over 500PSI of pressure on it. A small scratch or nick could surely collapse the dome and flood the camera bottle. 987ft. I am at the end of my tether again. I come up and tried to drive straight out away from the clump weight to drag it over my way a bit. I descended again and the bottom looms at an indicated 975 feet. Driving forward I can get down to 999ft several times but I can’t get the display to show 1000ft. Frustrated I fly up again and descend again. Bingo for the third time today. The first number over 1000ft that I see on the depth indicator is 1007. We drive around there for a few minutes and our deepest indicated depth is 1015 feet. It’s been a long day, we have a lot of tether to wind up, SCINI has been in the water for almost 5 hours today. With the success of the deep dive helping to cheering me up a bit, we recover SCINI and pack all the gear for the last time this season.

Season statistics

Total in water time: 104 hours.

Total number of recorded dives: 44.

Maximum depth reached: 1015 feet.

Number of science objectives achieved: 3 out of 3.

Number of dropped chipper bars: 0.

Number of missed check-ins: 1 really big one.

The Snowmobile ride home was the highlight of the day. We didn’t want to get back to town too much ahead of the PB and we needed to do some searching for drivable cracks and potential sites for next year. First we drove the pressure ridges along Inaccessible Island. There were blue ponds of water in the low spots and rows of teeth looking stratified snow that had been thrust up by pressure pushing the sea ice against the shore. These weird shapes brought me back to the simple fact I was not in a place that existed on the planet earth. At least not as most people know it.

I turned on my iPod as we headed out of town and one of the first songs it played was “Go Speed Racer, Go”. Anyone who has driven a Pisten Bully would chuckle at the juxtaposition. These machines do not go fast. In town, on the dirt roads, we’re limited to 5 miles an hour, but on the sea ice, we can crank them up to about 12 to 15 miles an hour. Slow, but very rugged for the type of terrain we deal with out on the sea ice – snowdrifts, refrozen cracks in the ice, and many other sorts of irregularities.

I offered to be the driver, seeing as how several other team members have been driving the long haul to Cape Evans. It takes between an hour and an hour and a half to get there, depending on whether we’re hauling a trailer, forgetting items, or the conditions.

Me at the wheel listening to tunes

For some reason I now imagine Steve Jobs riding in a Pisten Bully when he came up with the idea for the iPod. They work perfectly together. The situation is that the sea ice is flat for miles around, you’re moving slowly, and there’s practically no traffic around. You can actually get reading or knitting done while driving on the sea ice. If you wander off the road too far, it gets a little bumpy and you’ll notice.

The view of Tent Island up ahead along with a rarity - other traffic!

The same view ten minutes later - ok, it's really the same picture, but it gets the point across - between the slow driving and huge horizons, the scenery changes very slowly

It seems like blues work really well for listening. Train-chugging blues, old-style, gritty, travelling blues. The sunlight is so brilliant some tropical songs seem to fit as well.

This may be our penultimate dive, assuming that everything goes well tomorrow. With one week left in Antarctica for me, I’ve been trying to remember the experiences more. Years ago I went to the library at night. The air was cool, the scent of pine needles was in the air, and then I unzipped my jacket. That combination of sensations – the cool air, the pine scent, the sound of a zipper – instantly sent me back to a camping trip I had taken years earlier. This trip is providing many of those same kind of mental cues.

The sound of flags flapping so fast they’re actually humming, the taste of the fresh water from the dive hole at Heald Island, the smell of the dry gloves we use when we haul up the tether, the salty taste of my leather gloves as I pull them off with my teeth because my other hand is busy holding the wet, cold drill flights from plunging through the ice to ocean bottom, the sight of Mt. Discovery or Erebus dominating the horizon that seems to extend forever. Add in the sounds of the Pisten Bully whirring along, the generator chugging because the choke was left on, or the Jiffy Drill bogging down as it gets stuck. There’s also the feel when the Jiffy Drill finally breaks through to the saltwater, the incline of the main ramp in Crary Lab that connects all the phases (we enter at the top and the lab is in the bottom phase), the slickness of the salty slush the drill creates when it pulls up the seawater. Also the intense cold of the wind against my face as I stand out of the lee side of the Pisten Bully at a dive site or drive a snowmobile across the landscape. Sensing the many different kinds of snow underfoot – rotten, loose stuff, hardpack so dense that snowmobiles don’t make an impression, soft, fluffy stuff that makes you feel like you’re walking across a beach, thin crust that cracks in six different directions as you step on it.

Yes, the senses have been getting a workout here.

Work today went rather smoothly. We were at the small iceberg again and got our transects done before moving on to another site near another iceberg that Bob and volunteer Aaron had started drilling. We finished up the holes at the new site, unhitched the trailer, and headed back to town.

Stacy is going to continue her media star status! The Exploratorium, a really, really cool hands-on science museum in San Francisco, is putting on a series of interviews with polar researchers. The live webcast will be on December 11 at 1pm PST.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/webcasts/index.php

]]> http://scini1.mlml.calstate.edu/2008/12/go-speed-racer-go/feed/ 0 http://scini1.mlml.calstate.edu/2008/12/heald-no-more/ http://scini1.mlml.calstate.edu/2008/12/heald-no-more/#comments Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:08:44 +0000 cameo http://scini1.mlml.calstate.edu/?p=1312

I was at the Medical Center first thing this morning. In fact, they open at 7:30am and I was there before they unlocked the door.

McMurdo General Hospital

I have been getting progressively sicker the last several days and Stacy thought it was time that I saw the doctor. He examined me and then handed me three types of pills. My only question was “Can I go to the field camp today?” I know that it will surprise you to hear that he said “No”. I was not very happy. Today was our last day at Heald Island. Not only did I not want to miss anything, but I also was disappointed about not helping the team. Stacy told me that I should take my antibiotic and go to bed. I did what my boss told me to do. However, the next morning I got pictures and commentary from the rest of the team about how their last day at Heald Island was.

Stacy said that the day started out great with her being able to take some beautiful pictures during the helicopter ride. She got a great shot of a large crack.

A large crack in the sea ice.

This picture that Stacy took is one of my favorites.

The scenery from the helicopter is always beautiful.

Stacy even got a chance to catch this shot of the helicopter flying away.

The helicopter departs over Mount Discovery.

Everyone said that it was a very warm day and that everything at the campsite was soaking wet. In fact the silver case got a bunch of water in it and that caused a bit of a panic. The reason is that the case contains the power source for SCINI, all of the computers, and the “history eraser” button. Fortunately, Scott and Bob braved the 220 volts that were set free in the water and saved the case and the day.

The silver case of power.

After one very short dive, the team started packing up the campsite. Everything had to be packed, boxed, or tied up. The main thing that had to be done was to take down the Endurance tent. It turned out to be a three man job. It is definitely more complicated than it looks.

The boys take the tent down.

One of the helicopters arrived two hours early and the pilot told them that he didn’t have anything to do so he thought he’d hang out at Heald Island. This helicopter belongs to New Zealand and the pilot, Rob, is considered to be the best pilot in McMurdo Station.

The ultimate pilot, Rob.

Once the helicopter was loaded they took a hike for an hour and a half. They wanted one last look at this amazing place.

The second helicopter arrived and it was finally time to say “good-bye” to Heald Island. I wonder who will have the privilege of visiting it next.

Two helicopters wait to remove our field camp from Heald Island.

Stacy got to ride with Rob and sit in the front of the helicopter. It was a real treat. She had a close-up view of the instruments.

The instrument panel in the helicopter.

She also had the chance to take some more amazing pictures. This picture almost looks like some islands in the middle of water. Actually, they are islands that are in the middle of frozen water.

Islands in the ice.

The team came back to the lab and started prepping for the next day. It seems that I missed a great day and I certainly hope I feel better tomorrow. Who knows what might happen?

Stacy Writing

It’s Sunday again, the day off, and we are hosting an “Open House” for the community, to show them SCINI in action as well as some of the life that lives on the seafloor in their front yard.  It’s our chance to show them what they have helped us accomplish and we wanted to do them all proud.  We used the Jamesway that is very close to the station as a base.  It is large so lots of people can fit inside, and we were able to set up a LCD projector and a sheet as a screen so they could all see what SCINI was seeing.

Green flags marked the safe route across the sea ice to the SCINI Open Jamesway.

Of course, not everything went as smoothly as planned.  We had a communication problem with SCINI that we eventually tracked down to a bad Ethernet cable.  And when we finally thought we were ready, the hole had frozen down so much that SCINI would not fit, skinny though she is.  This was quite the surprise because it has been so warm, the ice is melting everywhere else.  Cameo and I jumped into action and broke out the Jiffy drill to redrill the hole.  I was embarrassed by all the delays but people seemed to enjoy watching the hole drilling, and they got the full experience of what it takes to launch SCINI.

Scott launches SCINI through the newly enlarged hole.

It was a busy day, with lots of questions and lots of interest.  We let people drive SCINI if they wanted to, as part of the idea is to show that this technology can be used by anyone.  I think everyone enjoyed it, and I certainly enjoyed the chance to share what we have been doing with some of the folks who have been supporting us so well.  We owe them so much and are so grateful for all the bag lunches, clean floors, recycling, fresh water, heat…and smiles.

Shuttle Bob, one of the many great assistants we had this year. Thank You!

We got another boost via a video portrait posted by Mary Lynn Price  http://inmotion.typepad.com/women_antarctica/2008/12/antarctic-diver-benthic-ecologist-on-project-goals.html. She has been working down here to show the variety of jobs and women who are part of the McMurdo community.  She was very patient to get the footage she wanted and was working under some difficult conditions with a super positive attitude.

Mary Lynn Price, diving in warmer waters. From http://mlptravelvideo.com/Welcome.html

I also want to show what we have been doing with the beautiful prayer flags Charmaine Ryan and the Second Opportunity School at Cabrillo College made. The class studied the Antarctic treaty, and each student selected one signatory nation for further research.  The students also decided to add Mexico because of their heritage.  They looked for societal problems that they felt could be solved, and wrote an affirmation to fly in the winds of Antarctica and send across the planet.  As a further part of the learning process, the students explored katabatic winds, which are gravity driven flows, and the parallel density driven circulation of Antarctic Deep Water.  The role of this deep water in global ocean current patterns brought the Antarctic closer to the shores of Monterey Bay, where Watsonville is located.  We first flew the flags on “Highway One” in McMurdo Station, so that the community would get a chance to enjoy them.  We then flew them at Cape Armitage, our first study site.  Winds were not too strong there, and the flags did well.  Then we flew them at Heald Island.  They were out during the storm that destroyed our tent, yet they survived.  Next we will fly them at the Cape Evans iceberg, our third study site.

Flags made by SOS students flying along the barranca wall at Heald Island.

I hope that today you share some joy with your community.
Smiles, Stacy