Dec 18: Stir crazy
We woke to another cancelled flight message, which no one was particularly surprised about. Zoe had mentioned that the weather at Taylor Dome was not particularly great right now so we’re hoping for a Saturday departure. Our dorm room is in a state of chaos with mostly-packed bags strewn everywhere since we get less than 24 hours’ notice before our flight takes off.
We waffled around in the morning for a bit but I was craving a movie (aka an excuse to nap) so Dylen picked out Ocean’s 12 and myself, Dylen, and Ilyse plopped down while Ellen spent time doing real work (finishing her conference abstract). Not twenty minutes into Ocean’s 12 and Dylen was asleep. Next, myself, then Ilyse. We each probably saw enough of the movie to piece things together as a group but not a single one of us could tell you what happened in Ocean’s 12. After our M&M cookie-induced coma, we went to bother Ellen for a bit and figured out some flight baggage logistics before dinner.
We searched for Wingspan, a board game, for about 45 minutes before giving up and deciding to play a different game, called Monikers. It was a charades-type game with some questionable characters and things to act out but it kept us entertained! No one has faith that we’ll fly tomorrow so we’ll need to find another activity to keep us busy until we do end up leaving McMurdo.
Dec 19: Khaki, Kiwi, Mouse and Mutt.
Another slow day here in McMurdo with a cancelled flight due to weather. We spent the morning messing around in Crary and playing hangman before Dylen and I explored the corners of McMurdo. We encountered a few warm modules used as bus stops for people who work on the airfield to wait in before the shuttle picks them up and drives them out there. We grabbed a few pictures at the bus stops and the McMurdo sign, now that the sun is at a different position in the sky and not directly behind the sign.
We also explored the Church of the Snows for the first time since arriving. This is the third iteration of the Church of the Snows since fires (presumably from unextinguished candles) have burned down the last two. Luckily, some of the stained glass was rescued from a previous Church of the Snow and it sits in the current church, with a beautiful view of the mountains in the background. Also featured in the church is The Erebus Chalice, gifted in 1987 to Edward Joseph Bird’s ship from Ms. Betty Bird of Auckland, NZ. Ms. Bird wanted to commemorate Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition to the South Pole (during which he and some of his men passed away). The chalice travels between New Zealand and Antarctica during the winter and summer months, respectively.
During our exploration, Dylen and I found AntarctiCATAN – an Antarctica-themed Catan board game! After an intense, caffeine-fueled coding session, Dylen, Ilyse, Ellen, and I all played. Despite it being Ellen’s first time playing any type of Catan, she absolutely schooled us. Also scheduled for tonight was the Santa and Elf contest at Gallagher’s Pub so we obviously had to watch. There was only one Santa and one Elf but competition was incredibly steep. You should’ve been there.
We ended this lovely day by joining some new friends in the Coffee House for craft night. One of the painters from the craft fair last week was there working on another incredible painting while the others were working on embroidery, coloring books, drawing, and friendship bracelets. We didn’t have any crafting supplies nor did we feel that we could quite match their creative energy but we still showed up with enthusiasm (and cardboard and a sharpie). We passed the cardboard around in a circle, allowing each person three brush strokes every time one had the cardboard in their hands. We ended up with a lovely, accidental, nativity scene, signed by our radio call signs: Khaki, Kiwi, Mouse, and Mutt.
Rumor has it that the Basler pilots think that flights will be activated tomorrow. We’re still third in line for the Taylor Dome flights, after our two cargo flights, but we have the slightest bit of hope. If not, we’ll take a hike out to the sea ice on Cape Armitage and search for emperor penguins!
Dec 20: WASTEMAS
Today’s cargo flights were activated and successfully landed at Taylor Dome!! We were super happy to hear that the drill equipment, food, and other important items arrived with Zoe, Forest, and Elliot. Ellen, Dylen, Ilyse, and I are still here but we’ll hopefully catch the next flight out to Taylor Dome. On Sundays, the fixed wing crew gets a day off so there’s no chance of us flying tomorrow. But, we finally have more than a 24 hour notice about the next day’s schedule so we can plan ahead a bit.
Today was the third day in a row that we’ve had fresh veggies for dinner – a super special treat. It’s just romaine lettuce and green bell peppers but, after not having fresh fruit and veggies for over a month, it’s incredibly exciting. We ate lunch with Sam, on the SWAIS2C team, who came over from Scott Base where he’s staying. Him and his team have been delayed for three weeks now so morale is low and they are bored. Sam was telling us that a few of his teammates went out to the airfield today to get on a flight finally! There has been terrible weather at Crary Ice Rise (the SWAIS2C field site) recently so they’ve been waking up every day at 7am, bags completely packed, COVID testing every other day (a requirement at Scott Base), ready to get on a flight just for it to be cancelled due to weather at Crary Ice Rise. Three weeks of this would also drive me crazy. Unfortunately, we later learned that the SWAIS2C team members made it out to the airfield yesterday but there was some super heavy fog at McMurdo so they didn’t even get on the plane. They spent 5 hours waiting out on the airfield in a heated module. Super sad news considering there was anomalously good weather at Crary Ice Rise and anomalously bad weather here…
For a morale boost (and since none of us have anything better to do), Sam, Ellen, Dylen, Ilyse, and I headed out on the sea ice along the Cape Armitage path to look for penguins. Cape Armitage is a trail that goes on the sea ice all the way to Scott Base, about 4 miles long. It’s a completely flat (except for some crevasses where the sea ice meets the land, which fluctuate in size with the tide) and marked trail for driving and walking. The sea ice is ~10 ft thick here, but Cape Armitage will be closed later this summer once it starts melting more. About 20 minutes into our hike, we saw it: a tiny black speck in the distance bobbing up and down!! It was a lone Adélie penguin waddling and sliding on its belly on the sea ice. Adélies are curious little creatures that have no land-based predators, so it approached us and stopped, posing for pictures. We kept our distance but snapped some shots before the penguin continued on its journey to the group of seals that form a line right next to a long crack in the sea ice. It was absolutely adorable and just what we had gone on this hike to see. We continued on with the thick fog visible in the distance, where the airfield is. Poor SWAIS2C people.
After about an hour and a half, we made it to Scott Base, where there were lots of seals in the way. Scott Base staff closed the direct path back to the base due to crevassing, so we had to leave Sam as he made his way through smelly seals back to Scott. Dylen, Ilyse, Ellen, and I turned back and hiked another ~4 miles back to McMurdo. We arrived back in town quite tired and sore so we took a break to put our legs up and watch some TV on the McMurdo channels. We had to rest up for Wastemas!
Today’s fun event is Wastemas, an outdoor craft market with booths and games. It takes place outside under the midnight sun, with some temporary shelters in the form of mill vans, or shipping containers. Within each shipping container was a different game or booth: nail painting, tiki bar, a Las Murdo casino with blackjack, a Scott Base human slot machine, live music, the “night sky,” cut down a “Christmas tree,” a hockey shooting game, sitting on Santa’s lap, and much more. They also had a tug-of-war contest between Scott Base and McMurdo’s strongest residents. I think we won but the outcome was mildly unclear. Ellen and some other friends put on a great show in the Christmas choir (Ellen was a music major at Amherst and has experience conducting choirs!!) and some other people played music, including hand pan. I tried my hand at hockey (my most recent new hobby) though I failed to get the ball in the donkey and win a cigarette. Sam tried and won two(!) cigarettes, though. Dylen found a hula hoop and gave a little flow show in the cold. We got some warm drinks from the fuelies and Parsons construction workers and I won big at the human-powered Scott Base slot machine (I won an Antarctica New Zealand sticker).
We took a ride in Uber Hägglund at the end of the night, which brought us back to the middle of town. I schooled Dylen and Ilyse at foosball, we played some shuffleboard, and talked to some plumbers who were overwintering at McMurdo before calling it a night. We could stay up late because we knew that we wouldn’t have a flight tomorrow – no flights on Sundays. There’s only 3 days left to fly before a 2-day Christmas break so we’re very anxious to get out to the field before then.
Dec 21: Sauna
The team had a lovely Sunday brunch, indulging in Ahi tuna and some fresh fruit, including apples, which we haven’t seen in over a month. The mildly infrequent flights from NZ sometimes carry fresh goods on them, which are super popular here in town. We’re scheduled to fly tomorrow as a backup for the SWAIS2C team’s flight to Crary Ice Rise. This means that, if there’s bad weather at Crary Ice Rise, the Taylor Dome flights will be activated, assuming there’s good weather at Taylor Dome. If there’s bad weather at both sites, neither team will go. Naturally, we made plans for a movie night tomorrow night with the SWAIS2C team. We don’t have much faith that either team will fly tomorrow but if we have plans to look forward to, one of us will likely make it on a flight.
There was a gingerbread decorating contest which turned out some incredible creations! There was a Hägglund, the cookie and popcorn stand from the galley, Wastemas, and some other enormous structures. I also stopped by the library, where I checked out a book and subsequently found a $20 bill in it!
Everyone got some more work done, called family, and relaxed today. We were too tired from yesterday’s hike to join witchy solstice plans to hike up to Castle Rock but some of us saunaed and hung out with friends. The sauna was set to 170º F and it was definitely difficult to stay in there longer than 10 minutes at a time. The sauna crowd would warm up for a few minutes then step outside and watch the sweat evaporate in the cold, repeating the process a few times for the full effect. Some sauna attendees also had wool sauna caps which demonstrated real commitment. I was done after only one round of going in and outside.
Dec 22: Cancelled
We all woke up bright and early to prepare for our flight today. The plan was to shuttle over to the airfield at 1200 for a 1330 flight and we had some packing and prepping to do first. We scarfed down breakfast and proceeded to feverishly pack up our office, move some science gear from the warehouse to our dorm for pickup later, and do laundry. We checked the flight status every 15 minutes in case there were updates.
Finally, at 0930, we found out that our flight was cancelled. No one was super surprised but it was disappointing news. After lunch, we all rallied to take a shuttle to the ice shelf, where Ellen and I wanted to take a test ApRES acquisition. We saw some weird signals in our test data that we set up on dirt so we wanted to test on ice, instead. So, the whole crew headed out and Dylen and Ilyse got to learn about ApRES from Ellen and I. We hopped on a shuttle headed to the airfield and asked to be dropped off 3/4 of the way there to make our acquisition. We managed to assemble, make an acquisition, and disassemble by the time our shuttle driver dropped us off, went to the airfield to drop off/pick up workers, and arrive back at our little station. It was a fun trip and it’s always nice to get outside but we’re all quite tired after a stressful morning scrambling to get ready for our cancelled flight.
The SWAIS2C team also didn’t fly today so our movie night is still on. We headed over to Scott Base after dinner to meet up with Sam and Ari and watched Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Some of us (I will not name names) fell asleep despite Tina Fey’s charm. When we got back to McMurdo, we packed up our bags once again and prepped for a 0715 shuttle pickup tomorrow.
Dec 23: Twice!
Once again, a super early morning here in McMurdo, while we completed our list of tasks to do before leaving. We are scheduled to fly at 0900, assuming the SWAIS2C team doesn’t fly. However, since the SWAIS2C team has priority, their cargo is loaded on the plane already and they typically wait for a few hours in case the weather clears up in the afternoon. This means that we have to be ready at 0715 for a shuttle over to our 0900 flight, but, since SWAIS2C is typically delayed, we end up getting ready for 0715 shuttle, only to be cancelled at 0710 since SWAIS2C is waiting for weather.
At 1200, the airfield workers check the weather again. We have a shuttle scheduled for 1215, in case SWAIS2C gets cancelled and Taylor Dome has good weather. So, we once again pack up our bags, strip our sheets, and put on our gear to get ready for our flight. But, at 1219, we checked the flight schedule and found out ours and SWAIS2C’s flights have both been cancelled. None of us completely understand the reasoning for SWAIS2C getting priority some days and Taylor Dome getting priority other days but we just get ready when we’re told that we have a shuttle coming…
No one was happy to have woken up early, gotten completely packed and ready twice just to get cancelled twice but here we are. Luckily we had made some plans for a game night with the Crary staff so we got to have fun playing Monikers (salad bowl) and hanging out with them. Dylen also snagged some cute gloves from the medical center to put on her hands at night to keep the lotion/vaseline from rubbing off. Everyone has been having cracked knuckles and hands from the dry, cold air and washing hands so many times every day before going to the galley. We also got more freshies today – there were ENORMOUS avocados up for grabs in the galley! Lucky find.
After dinner, we went to a screening of the McMurdo Nutcracker! A few years ago, the residents of McMurdo filmed a lovely rendition of the Nutcracker, complete with janos (janitors) as rats, firefighters running around and dancing, and a boomerang! It was super fun to see and really, really well done.
Dec 24: Christmas Eve
We woke up at 0600 just to be cancelled again at 0710. We knew this was coming since we could see there were winds up to 30 knots and gusts up to 40 knots at Taylor Dome. But, we still had to pack up and get ready in case we were actually leaving. We got it through our heads that we would officially be here for Christmas. There will be no flights tomorrow and the next day (the 24th and 25th in the US) since there’s a two-day holiday break. We were bummed to still be delayed and to not get our science done but it’s nice knowing that we won’t have to prep for flights for the next two days and can participate in the Christmas festivities.
So, we volunteered in the galley! In preparation for an enormous Christmas dinner, the galley was soliciting workers to help decorate cookies, roll truffles, and cut pies. Ellen, Dylen, Ilyse, and I made some shortbread jelly cookies and spent the rest of the time slicing pies into 16 pieces. It was hard work to be honest and we all had sore wrists afterwards.
We set up our Christmas tree which was a gift from our PI, Kait. We had brought some gifts and we set out the ones that weren’t already in the cargo system. Of course, we included our hand-drawn nativity scene in the decorations.
Later that night, everyone prepped for the upcoming 2-day holiday break! Dylen and I hung out with some new friends (it’s been hard to make friends since we’ve been working long, long hours, but, ever since being delayed we have been showing our faces more) and ended up seeing a band practice! There’s an upcoming music festival, Icestock, which happens over the 2-day New Year’s holiday break on January 1st and 2nd. The band (which is without a name right now) reserved the McMurdo band room to practice their songs and they sounded great. One of the band members has a tattoo of The White Stripes’ De Stijl album which I recognized. He said I was the first person to ever recognize that the tattoo was from that album so maybe that’s why we got the invite to their practice.
After band practice we headed to the Vehicle Maintenance Facility (VMF) party. The VMF has a large space for working on vehicles that was transformed into a party area complete with a bowling alley, hot food, and a dance floor with a DJ. Dylen and I had a fun time dancing and hanging out with our new friends. I may have been on a couple peoples’ shoulders and I definitely had a couple of people on mine. It was a fun night and the fact that we knew we could sleep in the next day made the night even better.
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of the National Science Foundation, the United States Antarctic Program, or the University of Washington. This blog is for entertainment purposes only.