Date: November 25th, 2006
Location: McMurdo Station
Latitude: 77 degrees, 51 minutes South
Longitude: 166 degrees, 40 minutes
East
Temperature: -2°C (28°F)
Wind Speed: 2.6 knots
Wind Chill: -4°C (25°F)
Elevation: 34 meters
Written by: Dan D.
Thanksgiving Celebrations!
Today the whole of McMurdo Station is on holiday for Thanksgiving. Most people took the opportunity to have a nice morning lie-in after last night’s preliminary festivities. Rick, Dan B. and I spent the day in the Vehicle Maintenance Facility (VMF) working on the fabrication of two 22-foot long spreader bars for the US ITASE traverse trains. We were also helped by David Nelson. We spent the whole day working at the VMF, stopping only to eat our Thanksgiving meal at 7pm
The Thanksgiving meal is a big deal in McMurdo. The entire town needs to eat, but the galley cannot accommodate everyone all at once. To circumvent this issue, there are three separate meal sittings throughout the day, 3pm, 5pm, and 7pm. We all sat in on the 7pm meal. The galley staff did an absolutely exceptional job on the food and presentation, operating with efficiency and a good grace, what would we do without them?!
After our Thanksgiving meal Rick, Dave, Dan B. and I returned to the VMF and continued working until the early hours of the morning
Date: November 26th 2006
Location: McMurdo Station
Latitude: 77 degrees, 51 minutes
South
Longitude: 166 degrees, 40 minutes
East
Temperature: -2°C (28°F)
Wind Speed: 4.3 knots
Wind Chill: -5°C (23°F)
Elevation: 34 meters
Written by: Dan D.
Working at the VMFAfter working a late night, we were up-an-at-‘em again this morning, back to the VMF and back to work. We worked through the day again with the help of David Nelson and Randy Sliester. We owe them both a great deal of thanks. Meanwhile, the ice coring crew out at Taylor Dome were working away, reaching a depth of 75m by the end of the day! The crew at VMF worked into the early hours of the morning and finished much of the work on the spreader bars and skis.
Date: November 27th, 2006
Cargo Rush
After working on the spreader bars until 4am we were all pretty tired. Nevertheless, we had to make a concerted effort to get all of our cargo pieces into the system. Our flight is due to leave on Wednesday and we have to give the LC-130 packing crew a couple of days to pack up our heavy gear so that it will fit onto the airplane. We are still working on the spreader bars, but hope to have them ready for the Wednesday flight.
The drilling crew at Taylor Dome reached 100m depth today and finished the hole! A science team involved in the Long Duration Balloon (LDB) project will be using the empty hole to transmit signals into the atmosphere from below the firn/ice transition. This is the depth in the hole where the accumulated snow reaches a density of 0.82 g/cm³.