McMurdo, an unusually fun day, first penguins, seals

Hi a few of you,

Things slowly get smoother as I get a handle on my job. As I learn the most immediate things, I can start looking a bit further, such as how the hut Preway heaters work. So much to learn! But fun. Am doing well figuring out the GPS. Pretty darn useful here, esp with recent weather.

Today was the best so far. Thur is our SAR (search and rescue training and related) day, but as the helicopter step out training (while it hovers) was cancelled due to the forecast (which turned out wrong!), four of us went out onto the sea ice to profile some cracks (not unlike doing data pits for avalanche/snowpack study, but simpler), which I hadn't actually done (it's something we teach). We did that, and also checked out the toe of the Barne Gl. and the Erebus Ice Tongue, both of which reach out into the sea ice. Cool.

Out by the ice edge we saw our first penguins! Three emperor penguinos, one of whom waddled around for us. Hilarious. I can see how easily one can become captivated by them. We weren't very close, and even lying down I couldn't keep my camera still enough, but I'll get other chances and it sure was fun anyway. They also flop onto their bellies and kick along with their feet. When they get up, they unfold like you're supposed to do in yoga.

And the weather was mostly clear so the views of Mts Discovery and Erebus, the Royal Society Range, the outer ends of the dry valleys (more snowy mtns it looked like) and Black and White Islands was wonderful.

Saw a couple more seals at a distance. And Shackleton's 1908 hut! From the outside. Not the one from his famous voyage, but the one from which they got 97 miles from the pole. Pretty amazing. A bale of hay there where they kept the ponies. Brian said there is anthrax there, but it's illegal to dig around in this protected historical site anyway. Boxes of food outside, still jars of table salt and lots of rusty cans that I think were full. Pretty impressive, esp for that era. We have it so easy now.

The part of the day that had me giggling for awhile was when Brian tied a rope with loops in it to the back of the Hagglund. You know what's next! The ice was scoured and super smooth, except for a few very shallow patches of high friction snow, and so we went flying along behind him in the Hagglund as even it skid around the curves. It was really fun. We started standing but that didn't last long (very difficult to suddenly run across the snow then stand again for the ice). As we were wearing USAP carhardt overalls, I didn't mind sitting on my butt. Nice having insulated pants on, though it was still a bumpy ride, I think.

Or maybe my butt was cold and numb which is why the bumps didn't hurt. Funny. It's also something we would do well to keep quiet about. Not just in terms of the admin people above our supervisor, but esp in the general community. People are jealous enough of us as it is because we get out of town so often so it's been made clear to us that we need to be discreet about the more fun parts of our job, and not of our job.

Well, I hope you day was as least half as good as mine. But mine wasn't all fun. Not esp fond of the 2 stroke engine for running the ice drill. Stinky. But I do remember how to start it.

Enjoy the fall colors for me.

Love, Susan