Date: December 2nd, 2006
Location: McMurdo Station
Latitude: 77 degrees, 51 minutes South
Longitude: 166 degrees, 40 minutes
East
Temperature: 1°C (34°F)
Wind Speed: 6.9 knots
Wind Chill: -3°C (27°F)
Elevation: 34 meters
Written by: Dan D.
Last Minute Stuff
Today is the absolute last day that we can get cargo into the system in time for Monday’s Herc flight to Taylor Dome. I spent the morning gathering together some requested items for the TDM crew. Then I headed over to Science Cargo and put everything into a triwall box. I gave the box a TCN and spoke to Keith, the head of Science Cargo. Keith assured me that the box would definitely make it on to the Monday flight. Phew! Now I can relax a little.
Rick spent much of the day applying last-minute touches to the spreader bars along with two Raytheon-Certified welders from McMurdo. By the end of the day the bars were TCN’d and ready to fly out to TDM. There will still be at least a week’s-worth of welding to be done when we arrive at TDM. It will be worth the effort it in the end to have nice strong sleds and a pair of new spreader bars.
It has been quite warm for the last few days here in McMurdo, while walking around I stumbled upon several streams draining the melting snow into the McMurdo sound. Some of the ground becomes quite treacherous during melt-season, behaving a little like quicksand. Watch where you tread!
Date: December 3rd 2006
Location: McMurdo Station
Latitude: 77 degrees, 51 minutes
South
Longitude: 166 degrees, 40 minutes
East
Temperature: 1 °C (34°F)
Wind Speed: 7.8 knots
Wind Chill: -3°C (26°F)
Elevation: 34 meters
Written by: Dan D.
Bag Drag
Today we had to do a bag-drag ready for Monday’s Herc flight. We borrowed a truck and threw our check-in and hand-carry luggage into the back. We drove to the MCC and unloaded our gear there. The first thing we had to do was make sure that all our bags were labeled with our names and flight number. Then we weighed our check-in luggage. After that, we weighed ourselves along with our hand-carry bags. Our check-in bags were taken away to be palletized and we no longer have any access to them. It will be nice if our plane takes off on time because much of our personal gear is now palletized out of reach and waiting to board the plane. There is really nothing we can do now apart from hope for good weather. Our flight leaves at 08:00 tomorrow morning…
Earlier in the day, Paul, Steve, and I hiked up Observation Hill and then walked over to Scott Base and back. It was quite windy and cold, but well worth the effort. When we got to the top of Observation Hill, we saw a huge bank of fog rolling in fast and smothering the surrounding hills and valleys like an opaque blanket. It was beautiful to see the way the wisps of fog curled and roiled as they advanced over us.