Date: November 23rd, 2006
Location: McMurdo Station
Latitude: 77 degrees, 51 minutes South
Longitude: 166 degrees, 40 minutes
East
Temperature: -9.1°C (16°F)
Wind Speed: 9 knots
Wind Chill: -16°C (3°F)
Elevation: 34 meters
Playing the Waiting Game
Most of the day was spent doing last minute errands. At noon, we all sat in on a conference call with the Denver office. The purpose of the call was to run our fabrication and repair plans through some experienced engineers in order to get their opinions and recommendations. It was a long call; it lasted about two hours!
Later in the afternoon, Steve, Dan B. and Paul took a walk over to Hut Point to see the Scott Hut. We now have to wait for the go-ahead to begin fabricating the repairs. This may take a while because back in the U.S.A. it is the day before Thanksgiving. Thankfully, there are some good folk back in Denver who are willing to put time in over their holiday period. Here in McMurdo it is Thanksgiving, but we are not celebrating today. Instead, the whole base will celebrate this weekend by having Saturday and Sunday off work, instead of the usual Sunday only.
The crew at Taylor Dome finished setting up the three-inch Eclipse drill and drilled a test core. The core came out beautifully; tomorrow they will begin drilling in earnest.
Date: November 24th 2006
Location: McMurdo Station
Latitude: 77 degrees, 51 minutes
South
Longitude: 166 degrees, 40 minutes
East
Temperature: -8.9°C (16°F)
Wind Speed: 8 knots
Wind Chill: -15°C (4°F)
Elevation: 34 meters
Taylor Dome Temperature: −24°C
(−11°F)
Taylor Dome Wind Speed: 11 knots
Taylor Dome Wind Chill: −36°C
(−32°F)
Meters of ice collected: 20
Written by: Dan D.
Drilling at Taylor Dome
Today is the day before McMurdo’s Thanksgiving Celebration. Most of the departments are planning on closing early so we must rush around and get every last thing done. Most of our time today was spent in the Science Cargo yard. After yesterday’s conference call, we have several more pallet loads of gear to ship to Taylor Dome.
Denver called us back and gave us the go-ahead to begin fabricating repairs for the Berco sleds. Rick began working on that right away. Dan B. and I spent some time doing shopping for parts and spares.
The drilling commenced at Taylor Dome and by the end of the day they had recovered 20m of ice core – our first official core of the season!!