All settled in for another Antarctic winter
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2003
1
19
43
Trip End
Jul 29, 2008
McMurdo Station,
Antarctica
Sunday, March 6, 2005
Our flight from Christchurch left and arrived on schedule-so unfortunately, no extra days in New Zealand for us. When we arrived at McMurdo, both of us commented on how this now feels like our home. I guess because we didn't have our own place during our 3 month vacation and we now actually have our own room-and won't be going anywhere for quite awhile.
Since Ron and I both work in the Supply Department, we're responsible for helping unload the supply vessel (big ship)that comes once a year. It arrived early February and we all switched gears into working 12 hours on, 12 hours off. Ron and I were both on the night shift working on unloading all of the food for the next year
A Cargo Delta
. Mostly the job consisted of opening crates and writing numbers on boxes...a lot of boxes. Overall, it went by pretty quickly (even though I had the crud), and I think we were done in 5 nights.About a week ago, the last plane of the season left. Working in Supply, we get to volunteer to help with the last flight. Ron now drives "Ivan the Terrabus", and I drive a Delta (see pics). They're both enormous passenger vehicles that are driven out on the 500+ feet of ice where the runway is located. The day we were out, when that plane took off, it swooped over us low and dipped it's wing like it was waving goodbye...pretty cool. We did miss out on the rest of the station's champagne toast but had our own when we returned to town.
Let's see....we are finally into our winter room, which is great. Our temporary room was holding steady at 57 F degrees on the windy days and it was getting hard to take. The new room is the same one we were in last year, big and warm and it's now set up just how I want it-we even have a couch this year.
Tonight is the night of our first two-day weekend! This is definitely a big deal since we usually only get one day off per week. Things are a little more relaxed in the winter and they allow us the first weekend of each month. One of the best things about the two day weekend is Burrito and Bloody Mary Bar-free burritos and cheap bloody's in the morning.
Oh, and one more thing that I almost forgot. This year, Ron and I are both working in different supply warehouses. Ron is in the Carp Shop, getting all the carpentry supplies situated and I'm now in the Heavy Shop dealing with heavy equipment and auto parts-I think we're both glad to have a change.
