 McMurdo
January 17th 1996, 9pm
From
Michael Burton.....
This
is year 3 now of our South Pole reports, with this years players
being myself (Michael Burton) and Craig Smith, but I'm sure
by the end of this diary many others will have made guest
appearances. The JACARA South Pole site testing campaign is
still growing, and this year our plan is for a refurbishment
to the faithful IRPS so it can survive a third year wintering
on the Ice. Michael Ashley's enhancements should now allow
the IRPS to now dance a jig (or at least continually replenish
the liquid nitrogen supply without external assistance (it
can now monitor the amount of LN2 in the storage dewar, and
pressurise the dewar if necessary)).
Craig
Smith (from the ADFA) is also taking his pet mid-infrared
spectrometer (MIRAS) down to measure the day time mid-IR sky,
and help us quantify how much better this form of astronomy
will be from Antarctica than elsewhere.
As
usual, our expeditions South seem to start in chaos. First
over uncertainty as to when and who might actually be able
to go, with ever changing population caps at the Pole flowing
back to alter travel dates and the number of us who might
go. Craig ended up leaving Sydney on Jan 8, with myself following
on Jan 14. As I write this I am in McMurdo a few hours away
from catching my flight to the Pole, where Craig has been
for two days now.
Such
travails are a part of polar life, with detailed planning
next to impossible as schedules are reorganised to cope with
changing weather conditions and other logistic constraints.
For instance, on arrival in Christchurch on Sunday I was told
I might get off on Wed, but most likely Thursday. Then by
Monday morning it had become Tuesday night and by that afternoon
it was 5am Tuesday morning! Eventually, after being woken
up at 2am to be informed there would be a delay, we left CHC
at 1pm, to touch down on the Pegasus ice runway 7.5 hours
later (a `quick' flight we were told due to tailwind). The
flight down is the worst part of Antarctica - Hercules aircraft
do a great job, but they are noisy and vibrate terribly.
 
We
arrived to a heat wave, about 3 degrees above zero. I saw
Mt. Erebus (the 3700-m local volcano) for the first time as
it was beautifully clear on landing, with the 40km hike to
it looking like an afternoon stroll. Many of the locals were
strolling around in T-shirts, and we felt definitely over-dressed
in all our cold weather gear (which you need to wear in flight
for safety reasons). I even saw a couple of streams flowing!
(But no penguins I'm afraid.)
McMurdo
Sound, the southern most point you can reach by boat in the
entire world, is still covered in ice, but any decent ice
breaker can pierce it, as evidence by a US Coast Guard vessel
off shore, and the Nathaniel B. Palmer, the US NSF's luxury
ocean studies vessel docked at the port.
By
early afternoon I learnt that I was to be off tomorrow morn,
so my time for sight seeing was limited. I tried to check
out the souvenir shop (`ships stores') but, of course, it
closes all day Wednesdays. The shop at NZ's Scott Base (`best
souvenir shop in Antarctica' it proudly advertises) was only
open when I had to `bag drop', and the barber was fully booked
out! So much for my attempt to go on a shopping spree. The
Pole shop better have a few trinkets left when I get there!
One
interesting piece of trivia. I checked out Hillary's hut at
Scott Base, which is now a museum to NZ's first Antarctic
outpost, and one end of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic expedition
of Hillary and Fuchs in the IGY of 1957. (My father actually
went down to Antarctica along with that expedition, though
he stayed at Halley Bay to do science as opposed to the adventure
to cross the continent!) From the visitor book I discovered
that Edmund Hillary himself, as well as several of the Fuchs
clan, had visited the hut just 4 days after my visit in Feb
94! And that someone has obviously dropped the book in a puddle
of water since then!
Following
John Storey's experiences I found the exercise room, and checked
out the Marvin-like (as in hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy)
exercise machines. Having managed to program the machine to
test the fitness test of a 10 year old child, it complained
mine was immeasurable! So I went of for a run, my first in
Antarctica (those who know my habits in this regard and might
wonder why I didn't manage any on my last visit - well I was
fighting against the flu that time). Actually I must have
seen at least a dozen runners around McMurdo, which surprised
me somewhat, until I saw the signs up for the `Scott's Hut
Footrace', which turns out to be next Sunday! I tried to buy
the race T-Shirt from the organiser, but they wouldn't accept
my pleading I'd be stranded at the Pole by then. There are
only 2 foot races in Antarctica, the South Pole Round the
World Race, and this one, and so far I have managed to miss
both. I will have to talk to my sponsors before my next visit
and see if I can manage one some day!
Craig
has reached the Pole, though we have had little communication
as yet, other than to discover that apparently the crew weren't
expecting the 300kg of gear he was carrying with him for his
experiment!! A great start that, and I wonder what I will
find waiting there for me when I arrive about lunch time tomorrow.........
Michael
Burton
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