hot dawg!
What a fantasitc day! I'm still on a high from the greatest expereince I've had since being at McMurdo. It has been 5 years since the U.S. Coast Guard has coordinated with Raytheon and the National Science Foundation to make time for "moral" cruises into the McMurdo Sound. Before I go into more detail I need to make a correction to my last blog entry. See "Oden," the Swedish ice breaker...
See "Polar Sea," U.S. Coast Guard ice breaker
I'm a rookie and was confused about the whole "ice breaker" & "vessel" thing but I've got it straight now...whew. Both of these ships are ice breakers here to break the ice and then keep the channel through the McMurdo Sound open until the vesselS get here. There are several vessels, not just one, carrying fuel, science cargo, non-perishable food, alcohol...basically everything you can think of to keep McMurdo up and running until next January, minus the supplies that we get on a regular basis carried on the C-17 's from Christchurch during the summer months. Then, the vessels take with them all of our crap (literally), garbage, waste, EVERYTHING goes back to California and put in landfills or dealt with there. Yesterday, during our our all hands meeting we watched slides of what McMurdo was like in the 80's and early 90's. It's hard to believe that garbage and raw sewage were actually dumped directly into the ocean at that time. They also used to have a dump where garbage was burned everyother weekend sending clouds of black smoke and soot into the atmosphere. Thankfully, things have changed a lot around McMurdo.
Anyways, I'm getting off topic...I got to take a three hour cruise on the Polar Sea today!!!!! The funny thing is that I wasn't even on the list to go. During the middle of the week there was a sign up sheet up for anyone who wanted to go. There are 1000 people on station and there was only room for 400. Names were chosen randomly and posted yesterday. When I found out that I wasn't even an ALTERNATE for the trip my heart just sank. I'd been waiting all week for this trip, for the chance to ride aboard this ship that I'd only heard of before coming to McMurdo. I mean, how many times do you get to go out on an icebreaker? Suddenly, last night, this had become the anti-moral trip for me. Being the emotional eater that I am, the first thing I did after seeing the list that my name was NOT on, was stuff a frosted cupcake into my mouth to ease the pain. I went back and my name was still not on the list. Whatever, there was nothing I could do about it so we all got ready and headed over to the carp shop where there was a barbeque going on. Later that evening I ran into a friend of mine, Galena, who is a beaker (scientist) at the Crary lab, where I clean toilets. Of course, the subject came up and I was reminded that I was NOT going on the cruise the next day. Without hesitation Galena offered me her spot on the ship, her reason being that as a beaker she has gotten out to many field camps and has seen more than most people do during her time at McMurdo. When the lists were posted we were told that you would not be permitted to give your spot up to someone else but instead, someone on the "alternate" list would be given the spot. But, I figured I wasn't going to get on that boat sitting in my room so I took her up on it and for a few hours I became Galena Ackerman :) YEAH! The only thing that could trump that would be a helo ride, it was fantastic! We saw tons of wildlife...minkey whales, emporor penguins, adelie penguins, weddel seals. The emporor penguins actually reminded me of loons the way they swim at the surface of the water with their little black and white head poking up. The whales were entertaining. We would see them about a hundred yards ahead blowing and the captain would annouce "minkeys, starboard." When we got next to them, or they swam towards the boat, they would come within just a few yards of the hull. The water is so amazingly clear and blue that you could see them gliding past the ship even when they didn't break to the surface. Then, when it was time to turn the ship around the captain demonstrated what it was like to "back and ram" the ice which is what they do when they are breaking. We were told the ice was about 14' thick and the ship could break at a speed of 3 knots. The ship would actually ride up onto the ice and you had to hold on so as not to loose your balance when the ship hit.
Here are some pictures of the ship and what we saw.
My moral has been lifted! What a great way to end the season. My re-deployment date is set for February 14 when we will be flown back to Christchurch, New Zealand. Most people are planning to travel afterwards, including myself.
Back to work tomorrow, 14 more days of scrubbing and then it's one long vacation :)
See "Polar Sea," U.S. Coast Guard ice breaker
I'm a rookie and was confused about the whole "ice breaker" & "vessel" thing but I've got it straight now...whew. Both of these ships are ice breakers here to break the ice and then keep the channel through the McMurdo Sound open until the vesselS get here. There are several vessels, not just one, carrying fuel, science cargo, non-perishable food, alcohol...basically everything you can think of to keep McMurdo up and running until next January, minus the supplies that we get on a regular basis carried on the C-17 's from Christchurch during the summer months. Then, the vessels take with them all of our crap (literally), garbage, waste, EVERYTHING goes back to California and put in landfills or dealt with there. Yesterday, during our our all hands meeting we watched slides of what McMurdo was like in the 80's and early 90's. It's hard to believe that garbage and raw sewage were actually dumped directly into the ocean at that time. They also used to have a dump where garbage was burned everyother weekend sending clouds of black smoke and soot into the atmosphere. Thankfully, things have changed a lot around McMurdo.
Anyways, I'm getting off topic...I got to take a three hour cruise on the Polar Sea today!!!!! The funny thing is that I wasn't even on the list to go. During the middle of the week there was a sign up sheet up for anyone who wanted to go. There are 1000 people on station and there was only room for 400. Names were chosen randomly and posted yesterday. When I found out that I wasn't even an ALTERNATE for the trip my heart just sank. I'd been waiting all week for this trip, for the chance to ride aboard this ship that I'd only heard of before coming to McMurdo. I mean, how many times do you get to go out on an icebreaker? Suddenly, last night, this had become the anti-moral trip for me. Being the emotional eater that I am, the first thing I did after seeing the list that my name was NOT on, was stuff a frosted cupcake into my mouth to ease the pain. I went back and my name was still not on the list. Whatever, there was nothing I could do about it so we all got ready and headed over to the carp shop where there was a barbeque going on. Later that evening I ran into a friend of mine, Galena, who is a beaker (scientist) at the Crary lab, where I clean toilets. Of course, the subject came up and I was reminded that I was NOT going on the cruise the next day. Without hesitation Galena offered me her spot on the ship, her reason being that as a beaker she has gotten out to many field camps and has seen more than most people do during her time at McMurdo. When the lists were posted we were told that you would not be permitted to give your spot up to someone else but instead, someone on the "alternate" list would be given the spot. But, I figured I wasn't going to get on that boat sitting in my room so I took her up on it and for a few hours I became Galena Ackerman :) YEAH! The only thing that could trump that would be a helo ride, it was fantastic! We saw tons of wildlife...minkey whales, emporor penguins, adelie penguins, weddel seals. The emporor penguins actually reminded me of loons the way they swim at the surface of the water with their little black and white head poking up. The whales were entertaining. We would see them about a hundred yards ahead blowing and the captain would annouce "minkeys, starboard." When we got next to them, or they swam towards the boat, they would come within just a few yards of the hull. The water is so amazingly clear and blue that you could see them gliding past the ship even when they didn't break to the surface. Then, when it was time to turn the ship around the captain demonstrated what it was like to "back and ram" the ice which is what they do when they are breaking. We were told the ice was about 14' thick and the ship could break at a speed of 3 knots. The ship would actually ride up onto the ice and you had to hold on so as not to loose your balance when the ship hit.
Here are some pictures of the ship and what we saw.
My moral has been lifted! What a great way to end the season. My re-deployment date is set for February 14 when we will be flown back to Christchurch, New Zealand. Most people are planning to travel afterwards, including myself.
Back to work tomorrow, 14 more days of scrubbing and then it's one long vacation :)
posted by PolarSweep at 3:19 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home