Twin Otter plane plus cargo and Barb, ready to be loaded.

We made it!! We were successfully pulled out today to Shackleton. The wind had picked up a bit last night and the temperature had dropped even more. It was really cold this morning but so very beautiful. The snow put on a wonderful display of sparkle and glitter to wish us farewell. During our last night here at Mt. Cecily/Raymond I missed our fully equipped, “homey”, and cozy tent as opposed to our now minimalist Johnny style tent that we slept in. How will I survive tonight inside a mountaineer tent here in Shackleton and without Barb (we all got a tent to ourselves)?? I’m definitely homesick for our Mt. Cecily/Raymond area already. This morning we woke up at 7am and were told at 7:15am that we needed to be ready, packed, and out of the tent by 8am. So we hurried through breakfast, packing up was easy since we had almost nothing in the tent anyway, and were ready at 7:55am. At 8:10am we heard via satellite phone that the plane had wheels up and at 9am the plane arrived. The first flight brought Barb, one skidoo, a bunch of bags and stuff back to Shackleton. Jim, Brian, and I took down the tent and piled up the bags, skidoo, and science boxes that were supposed to be on the second flight while we waited for the plane to come back. At 10:50am the Twin Otter was back. This time I got to fly out with our cargo. Jim and Brian were pulled out on the third flight. Each skidoo weights about 700 pounds so the Twin Otter plane can only take one skidoo per flight. So our fourth skidoo is still out there with some boxes, waiting to be picked up later. The reunion with Team B was great but way too short. We arrived at Shackleton and they got onto a Basler airplane and left for McMurdo 10 minutes after Jim and Brian arrived at Shackleton. At least Barb and I were able to enjoy their company for an hour (Barb a bit longer since she arrived first in Shackleton). After lunch and once Team B had left, we went to organize our cargo, meaning built pallets, sorted boxes, food, and trash, weighed and labeled every cargo item from personal bags to Scott tents to science equipment that has to go the flight to McMurdo with us. After about 2 hours everything was ready to be loaded. We were supposed to fly out tonight at 7pm with a Basler as well, however, soon after we finished with our cargo line we learned that our flight had been canceled. Right now we are scheduled to fly out tomorrow (I’m secretly delighted to spend another day out here, it is so beautiful here). Since we had finished our tasks and now had a lot of extra time, we all decided to try out the two crude solar showers here. The showers are inside a wooden box, with a shower curtain and a self built shower bottom. The solar shower bag gets filled with hot water and hung outside of the box. A hose from the bag is then threaded through a hole in the box that ends above the shower curtain. And finished is your self made shower!! I don’t think I have ever been so excited about a shower. In the end the water was luke warm (the hot water bag cools really quickly in these temperatures) and was only dripping out of the tiny shower head but that didn’t matter. It was the first shower since a very very long time and it was such a wonderful experience. My fingers started crinkling up after just 2 minutes in the “shower”. Guess my skin is not used to liquid water anymore. Really interesting how the body changes during the field work here in such a harsh environment! We all felt wonderful after our shower with silky hair, soft skin, and semi new/fresh clothes on (at least some of my layers were fresh, not all) and had a great dinner that someone else cooked for us. Shackleton seems like a luxury spa to me at the moment: hot water on demand (AMAZING, best thing ever), someone else prepares food for you, your own sleeping tent (though I miss Barb), two showers in the entire camp, 4 closed outhouses (glorified poo tents) in which you are allowed to poo and pee into the same hole, and a breathtaking landscape, and a super awesome and friendly support staff! It is truly amazing here!! I will be sad to leave tomorrow! Seeing Team B again after such a long time was awesome even if only for a few minutes. We can’t wait to be reunited again in McMurdo and finally catch up with each other (we can’t read each others blogs since we don’t have internet).