18 January--Emperors Rule! The Ships Arrive!

For the last few days there have been a group of 3 Emperor penguins hanging out at Half Way House on the road out to Pegasus Field.  I'm told it's common for molting penguins to stay in one place during the molting season.  I was able to get within 5 or 6 meters of them without causing them any anxiety, but I think if I had had more time and could have gone down on my knees or--better yet--slithered along the snow, I could have gotten within 2 or 3 meters. 

There are stories going around about how to get close to penguins by arousing their natural curiosity, which they are are full of.  One reputed way is to waddle about on your knees.  Depending on your height, this might just put you at about eye level for an Emperor penguin.  A second way is to slither along on your belly the way Adelies and perhaps Emperors do.  Another way is to wave your arms like they flap their stubby little wings.  There is one story of a person who was able to get so close to an unidentified penguin that he reached his hand out to touch the penguin's wing.  The penguin swatted it away so forcefully that it broke his hand.  Don't mess with a penguin!

The two expected ships also came in a few days ago.  The Swedish icebreaker/research vessel Oden arrived first, forcing a way through the thicker than expected sea ice.  The Nathaniel B. Palmer, a NSF chartered ship, was not far behind  The Oden continues to keep the way open and the Palmer is docked at the floating ice pier.  Many of the scientists aboard both vessels flew out early this morning for Christchurch and are being replaced by others who flew in yesterday.  The Oden will be around until after the tanker and the freighter arrive in two weeks or so.  The Palmer will be leaving tomorrow at some time for a 2 week research trip, then return to McMurdo for refueling, and go immediately out for another two weeks.



The Oden rounding Hut Point and coming in to the floating ice pier.



The Oden further out in the Sound.



The Oden.



The most pleasant thing about getting the ships here was getting to see my good friend George Aukon.  He's been working on the ships for the last 3 years, but has worked for Raytheon now for 6 or 7 years as an electronics technician. George and I met down in Costa Rica in 1991 at a Project R.A.F.T. ("Russians and Americans for Teamwork") international whitewater competition.  We helped him and his family move to Flagstaff and they all became American citizens.  One of the years down here, the American icebreaker apparently broke a prop and couldn't continue.  A Russian icebreaker was hurriedly contracted to clear the way.  George was lateraled over to be the Russian and English speaking liaison aboard the ship.  On board were a number of people that he knew from his Arctic service in the Soviet navy. 

The Nathaniel B. Palmer docked at the ice pier, McMurdo station.

Here are a few more miscellaneous photos that I did not take, but wish I had:



A launch from the Long Duration Balloon facility on the way to Pegasus Field.  An aerial jelly fish?



16 January--Icebreaker in Sight; the Adelie Lives!

The last few days have been a blur, filled with rumors of the icebreaker coming, forecasts for a Herbie, and the reappearance of that Adelie penguin.

If you have followed this from the beginning, you may recall that a Herbie is a blizzard with hurricane force winds.  They blow in from the South and can be tracked as they come over White and Black Islands.  By the time they are upon those islands we have only a few hours until they hit here.   Some people say only 45 minutes.  They can bump the condition from the normal Condition 3 (travel unrestricted) to Condition 2 (travel must be coordinated with the Fire House) or even Condition 1.  Condition 1 means that if you are in a building, you are restricted from leaving it until the All Clear is given.  If you are in a vehicle, say out on the Ice Shelf, you must stop where you are and report in to the Fire House, waiting either for it to clear or for the Search and Rescue Squad to come to your aid.  So a Herbie is a big deal and a forecast for one is not taken lightly.  We carry our complete ECW bag (extreme cold weather) on every run out to Pegasus.

In this picture you can see 6 flags out ahead of you (there are also others from adjoining lanes).  When you can see only two, you must stop, even if a Condition 1 has not been declared.

We haven't had one since I've been here, so I was feeling a bit of both excitement and concern.  It was supposed to be hitting at around midnight, the middle of my shift, during a run out to Pegasus field.  The weather was very dramatic with wind, snow, fog, wonderful breaks in the clouds. The road became difficult with drifts that threatened to bog us down or rocked and rolled us.  But the timing of the Herbie kept getting pushed further and further back to 0200, to 0600, and finally to 0800 before it was cancelled entirely.  It had swerved and mostly missed us.

The icebreaker was one of the other big deals of the last few days.  There is an excitement about it that's hard to explain.  If you've read Jurassic Park, at the end the surviving velociraptors congregate on the beach looking for the ship (I don't remember if that is in the movie).  The road down to Hut Point has taken on that quality.  Lots of people have been walking down there to see if they can see the icebreaker, the penguin and the seals.  I've been part of that pilgrimage myself.

The floating ice pier for the icebreaker Oden, the Nathaniel B. Palmer research vessel, the tanker and the freighter.

Four days days ago there were rumors that you could see the Oden.  Nothing.  Three days ago someone had seen it briefly from Ob Hill before the clouds swirled in and hid it again.  Another person saw it from Arrival Heights at about the same time.  Then nothing as the storm blew through.  I walked down to Hut Point twice two days ago and again twice yesterday and was finally rewarded with a good view of it in the far distance.  By the early evening yesterday it was visibly closer, but you could see them going forward and then back, widening the channel and pulverizing the ice.  I'm up for the night and will check it in the morning before going to bed.  I think it'll be here by early morning, maybe by 0800.  It might even be docked at the floating Ice Pier.

The other excitement was seeing the solitary Adelie pinguino back at its accustomed spot on the new sea ice.  Yesterday I got within 40 feet of it, sitting there preening its new feathers, completely oblivious of my presence.  How do I know it was the same one?  Because it had the same sort of banding on its left wing as the other.  It seems unlikely to be a coincidence.

I never realized what beautiful eyes and plumage they have.

11 January--Dead Solitary Adelie Penguin?

I went back to Hut Point this evening after dinner.  There were said to be 10 Adelies down there.  Instead, I found what I took to be the solitary individual from the day before laying on its side.  I might have seen one quick, slight movement, but I couldn't be certain.  I thought, too, that I might have heard a noise from it, but, because of all the sounds of ice moving, I couldn't be certain of that either.  I hadn't heard the ice making so many noises before this.

They say that penguins and seals, like elephants in Africa, retire from the company of their compatriots when sick or seeing death approaching.  Was this the case here?

A few days later: I heard on NPR (yes, we get NPR here) that banded penguins may suffer up to 17% greater mortality than non-banded penguins.  A further wrinkle.

There was a rumor last night that the icebreaker is at the open water and ready to start cutting a track into McMurdo, so, it being slow at work, I rushed up to the Golfball and discovered that its view doesn't go quite that far.  Later during the night I got to drive up to Arrival Heights where I could indeed see the open water, but there was no ship.  Not yet...

10 January--Solitary Adelie Penguin

A solitary and very lonely Adelie penguin was hanging out off Hut Point yesterday.  I went down with the little point and shoot camera and go a few snaps, but the telephoto on that was pretty wimpy.  At Midrats I got to my room and retrieved the larger camera and went back.  These photos are from that camera.  I didn't notice that he/she had been banded by a researcher on the left wing.  (By the way, the name Adelie comes from the French biologist who named the species after his wife.)

The weather has gotten cooler, thank goodness, and the roads are better.  Talk has turned to whether this is the Summer ending (already!?!) or whether it's just a temporary fluke.  We've had a number of days of light warm snows--snow much like you'd expect in Flagstaff--and not the dry wind-blown powder that is usually just redeposited previous snows.  The Swedish icebreaker Oden is expected within the week.

7 January--Penguins

Emperor penguins

A group of 7 emperor penguins was along the sea ice/land margin down by Hut Point yesterday. Cavorting. waddling, sliding around.

I talked to Mandy Freylich, the physical therapist down here.  She goes on periodic clinical visits to the South Pole to treat people there.  A few days before New Year's she was down there and was expected to fly back to McMurdo in time for New Year's festivities here.  The weather turned and she was stranded for a few extra days.  But this allowed her to see them move the red and white barber pole with silver sphere on top the grand distance of 33 feet to show the change in the actual position of the geographic South Pole.  This is done every January 1st to reflect the slight wobbles in the Earth's spinning.  The magnetic South Pole is considerably further north than this and presumably wanders around as drunkenly as the magnetic North Pole.

Interesting things to ponder: When they move the marker for the South Pole, in whatever direction they move it, they will always be moving it south and when you are standing on the exact South Pole, every direction you can conceivably face is always north.

Fata Morgana.  The cliffs are all mirages.



2 January--Pressure Ridges, Yet Again

Because of the very warm weather, they have begun to fly the C-17 in at "night", hoping to get slightly cooler temperatures that might make the ice runway firmer.  An earlier flight ripped up pieces of the runway and the weather has prevented a really good fix.  I was scheduled to work tonight, but the C-17 was delayed again.  I just happened to overhear someone at dinner talking about going on the pressure ridge walk, so I rushed and got my things together, hoping there might be a space available.  There was.

There were many more meltwater pools than previously and the flagged route was considerably shorter.  From the heights above Scott Base I'd been seeing lots of seals on the other side of the ridges, but it was impossible to get over to visit them.  How much longer we can continue to go out here is anyone's guess. 

A little resentment surfaces regarding the tourists on the Russian cruise ship.  But the humor goes deeper, too.  You can buy T-shirts in the base shop with a polar bear in a red circle and slash mark and a caption to the effect that we're 100% polar bear free.  Give creative types time enough and PhotoShop and what else would you expect to get?