View from Hut Point with two seals in the foreground.
Ahoy all,
Another milestone achieved today: all cargo is in the system and in the process of heading to Shackleton Glacier Camp (SHG). Over the past few days we’ve prepped all food, gear, and equipment for systematic deployment to SHG – we have certainly become savvier with those often-finicky cargo straps. Our skidoos are also prepped and awaiting flights to SHG. I’m looking forward to being reunited with my skidoo “Sparky” (more on that name to come later).
The weather is cloudy today but you can still hear the helicopters taking off, boding well for the timeline holding reasonably close to the notional plan – all fingers and toes are crossed (for luck and added warmth). Team A (read: alpha) are scheduled to fly on Saturday (Friday in North America) to SHG. While a lot can change, everyone is very positive and optimistic. Team B (read: bravo – sorry all, that’s our official name in the cargo system, they wouldn’t bite on my Team Eh recommendation) is queued up for Monday, though we could potentially get out on Saturday with Team A depending on all our food/gear etc. getting to SHG with or ahead of us.
Morale is high and everyone is excited. We have been eating meals in the McMurdo (current population just shy of 800 per sign on “Highway 1”) galley together daily. Frosty Boy has been getting a pretty good workout to say the least. It has been nice to share stories with everyone and discuss the two movies that repeat constantly over the course of the day on separate channels (Jim has an encyclopaedic knowledge on the movie front). With the fair weather we have had recently, we have tried to take advantage of the evening (still bright out!) hours going on several walks/tours as a group. While Juliane posted about the Ob Tube specifically, we have explored much of the area around McMurdo (Hut Point, Ob Hill, etc.) as a group whenever time permitted (see included photo from the other day near Hut Point). Jim, James, and I, have had a few table tennis matches – no comment on the results as you’ll surely hear different stories from each of the combatants. Not sure if John or Brian ever take a break, those guys are machines and the best in the business – we are lucky to have them in the team.
Posted by Scott from the McMurdo Crary Lab on 2017-12-06 at 14:45 local (while sitting across from James – who is also writing a blog – and Ioannis – who is teaching us the fundamentals of the Greek language).
PS. To amend Juliane’s last blog post, while Ioannis definitely had us in stitches with his surprising and unconventional use of the (new to me) hand-swap card in UNO, after she left, on the last hand of the night Ioannis poached a stellar hand of mine to quickly win him the game. I guess I had it coming after I intentionally picked up each turn and waited to pass several dozen cards to James at the end of the previous match. Karma always prevails.