Wednesday
24th January 2001
From
Andre Phillips, Crary Lab, McMurdo.....
Hi Guys,
You'll be interested to
note that the Pole-bound passengers who arrived on my flight
from Christchurch, are *still* here! In fact my ex room-mate
returned *again* last evening, after spending another frustrating
day waiting for a departure time which was continually being
moved forward. At 6:55 this morning I woke him from a deep
slumber to alert him that he was scheduled to depart for Willy
Field at 7:00. The poor sod leapt out of bed like a Polaris
Missile and flew out of the room in three minutes flat. Shortly
afterwards he returned looking dejected and saying that the
flight had been further delayed. And the same scenario repeated
itself mid-afternoon when I noticed he was sleeping towards
another scheduled departure time. He's not a happy chappy
right now. I'm still scheduled to leave for Pole on Monday,
if not before.
I on the other hand, had
a very pleasant day catching up on a few McMurdo rites-of-passage
which I've never had time for in the past... starting out
with a tour of Scott's Hut at Hut Point. Poor ol' Scott, he
made some extraordinarily bad decisions, and that hut appears
to be another telling example. You may know that it's actually
of Australian manufacture (allegedly all jarah construction,
although I'm skeptical), and was purchased sight-unseen as
a catalog kitset. Being designed for Aussie Outback applications
it had no insulation, an elevated floor for good under-floor
ventilation, and an ample loft to duct away more of that Aussie
excessive heat. Needless to say, as soon as the thing was
built here it was discovered that it was too damn cold for
human habitation, although it was used by various expeditions,
usually as an emergency shelter, usually due to some major
cock-up.
Then I walked over to
Scott Base, checked out its well stocked shop, and walked
back. This was followed by a Skuaing raid on Skua Central.
During the afternoon I read, napped, and made some amends
for my sadly neglected email correspondence of late. Last
evening I attended the outdoors education talk, mandatory
for off-base travel. Besides a quick trip up Observation Hill
(no permit required) the only other McMurdo rite-of-passage
I would like to try is the walk around the Castle Hill Loop.
Friday perhaps.
This evening I attended
the weekly Science Lecture, concerning the installation of
infrasound detecting arrays, which have been placed in Antarctica
(and around the world) as part of global Comprehensive [nuclear]
Test Ban Treaty monitoring. Essentially these instruments
are super-sensitive capacitor microphones placed at the end
of long plastic drainpipes, and which could detect a dingo's
fart across a continental distance.
The Science Lecture was
held in the all-new, and very pleasant, building 155 dining
room. Older McMurdo visitors will recall how the dining area
was segregated into 'E' and 'O'* dining rooms, the O being
somewhat better furnished with some nice paintings on the
walls (*E='Enlisted' & O='Officers'). Those days are history
and now there is just one big well furnished dining room.
Furthermore the grub just keeps on getting better and better
as the years go by. The subject of McMurdo food has supplied
generations of visitors with something to bitch about. Maybe
my taste buds were burned out by earlier memorable examples
of Navy cuisine, but these days it all strikes me as pretty
damn good.
My last couple of days
mooching about McMurdo have been very pleasant, and a good
tonic for the last few hectic months. But I'm rapidly running
out of things to do, and a suitcase load of AASTO-related
goodies is nagging to be fiddled with... Manyana...
Cheers,
Andre
 
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