Merry Christmas From The Bottom Of The World

Something got messed up and I now can't move the pictures around in the blog, but above is of a softball game and a couple from X-Mas. I stole them off the I-Drive.

I last left off at Marble Point where we would watch Gilligan's Island during lunch. My time there was fun and my flight home was even better. I have some good video, but unfortunately the files are too big to post here. When I got back to town I found out Fuels was having a Pizza Party out on Pad 2 (outside storage area) with all kinds of games. It was a nice way to get back to town life and during our games, the C-17 buzzed town. They are doing some work out at Pegasus and to save money they have canceled the C-17 until the end of January. This was the last flight and they did the traditional low flying salute over the top of town. The bad news about the last C-17 is that mail and fresh fruit is now limited to LC-130 flights which are much smaller.

For many different reasons including our medevac of the Australian at Davis Station earlier this year, the Australian Airbus has made a couple flights down to McM for us. This is a regular jet plane that even comes with flight attendants. I had to go out and fuel it one day and got to meet the crew and get a tour. We also had the South Africans there with a LC-130 helping the Italians bring their helicopters back to NZ. Yeah, Pegasus has really become an international airport.

Unfortunately that same day one of the managers started having heart problems and needed to be Medevac'd. We waited a few hours while they helo'd him out to Pegasus and loaded him onto the plane. To save time I volunteered with ATO to help load the baggage onto the plane which got me some bonus points.

Since it's that time of the year, lots of great events have gone on. In the chapel, people got together and put on a "Charlie Brown's Christmas". I have to say it really started to put me in the holiday mood. I also joined the Christmas Choir where we preformed over the HF radio to South Pole and the field camps, at the Town Party, and at Midnight Mass. Also to get into the mood, a co-worker and I dressed up and delivered fuel around town signing Christmas songs. It's nice to put a smile on someones face. I don't have any pictures, but Bama and I also dressed up for Burger Bar the other night. It was hot cooking with all that stuff on but again, it cheered people up. Currently McM needs a little cheer. I mentioned before about one of the medevacs, well there has been a few of them lately. People are getting hurt and being sent home. One day last week they had to activate our "walking blood bank" after a fleet ops worker was run over with a trailer. Our softball tournament also sent a few people home and station management is now threatening to cancel the annual rugby game against NZ.

For Softball I played on the Shuttle's team. We didn't win, but put up a good fight. I didn't do that well, but did hit a home run.

Since it's the holidays I must remember my families. There are so many wonderful people out there that have taken me in including, Obrien's, Campie's, Compton/Popovici's, and of course my own. I miss everyone and hope you all enjoy your holidays. Merry Christmas from Antarctica.

Marble Point - Truck Stop for Helicopters

I am having one heck of a good time out at Marble Point. MP was surveyed back in the 70's and was suppose to be the site to build McM. However it never came to be. There is a book out here that the Navy put together showing the plans. Pretty interesting. Anyway, my first day at MP I went for a hike down to the Bay of Sails. Yup a stroll on the beach with great views of a bunch of icebergs frozen in place with huge tidewater glaciers spilling out into the frozen bay.

Day two (two day weekend b/c of the holiday) was a 5.5 hr stroll up Hogback. The trail-less hike follows the 100' wall of ice that makes up the Wilson-Piedmont Glacier. It then climbs up a really long way to the peak. Once there I got stunning views into Taylor Valley, the top of the glacier, and a view of Mt Erebus. I could just barely make out Ob Hill back in McM.

There are a few mummified seals in this area. For whatever reason seals crawl up on shore and trek across the ground only to die. Nothing eats them so they dry out and become well preserved seal jerky. I thought I had found one of these guys but thought it looked too fresh. When I got closer I realized the seal was still alive (for now). I ended up following his track along the glacier's edge and have estimated that he put on about 4-5 miles. That's a long ways for something that can't walk. I named him Scott after the famous explore who traveled Antarctica only to perish before getting to his final destination. I left Scott at the glacier which is about 1 mile from the shore. At some point I'll go check on him again but I doubt he'll make it.

Monday it was back to work. I'm up and out at 6:30 to open up the fuel system. First I sump the tank, open the control valve, sump the filter, and start the pump. I recirculate about 300 gallons through the system before I hook up the nozzle and take my samples. After collecting 2x 1liter samples I bring them back to the lab/ workshop. I then make sure the fuel is Clear and Bright, test for free water, and finally sediment. I have this neat little machine that helps me filter the fuel onto test filters and then two analyzers to read the results. The results have to be in by 7:30 so the pilots won't fly out here if they now the fuel is bad (I don't think there has ever been bad fuel here). After this I come back inside for breakfast.

This is an interesting piece of equipment. It looks like a witch's cauldron but really it's a way to evaporate all our gray water. We can't leave anything behind here so all our waste water is evaporated. All of our Poo is collected in bags and put into a waste drum and our urine goes into a 55 gallon drum. I may post those pictures later but let me know what you think. I could take a shower here but it uses a lot of water and would be a lot of work for Crunch (camp manager). I'll just wait another week and take one back in town.

Crunch is also in charge of putting together the sling loads for the helicopters. This is a load of 7 empty barrels going to a field camp for waste. Crunch holds up a bracket and stands still. The pilot then comes in and hooks it. Crunch then slowly walks away as the pilot starts to raise again. After the cable is tight Crunch radios the pilot to let him know the line isn't tangled and they take off to their destination. It's pretty neat to watch loads come in and go out.

Karen, the camp cook. This is her kitchen where she does her "science". All meals have been great. Karen was the cook out at WAIS last year so I know her well and enjoy her meals.

Normally it's just Crunch, Karen, and myself out here. Every now and then helicopters will stop for fuel (or equipment), maybe lunch, and then be on their way. That's what kind of makes MP into a truck stop However every now and then weather will come in and people get stuck away from town. On Tuesday night this happened. We were about to call it a day at 5:15 when I went into the office to enter numbers into the computer. While waiting for the computer to boot up Tracey from HeloOps called. She said weather in town was bad and we would have 10 people over for dinner. MP is the midway point between the Dry Valleys and McM. Shortly later the two Bell 212s, one A-Star, 3 pilots, 3 helitechs, and 4 pax showed up for fuel and food. As weather didn't improve in town they were then stuck here for the night. By 10pm weather improved in town but it was too late to get the flight crews back (only allowed so many duty hours) but the night crew in town flew out in an A-Star and picked up the two 212s and the 4 pax. This meant that at 10:30pm I had to go out and fuel another helicopter. Made for a long night but it was fun having people over. As for the people that spent the night, we have pilot quarters and a bunkhouse just for this reason. My job the next day was to change the sheets and place new mints on the pillows for the next time this happens. It was fun being in the middle of nowhere Antarctica and being a room maid.

MP also has WiFi which is nice and I've done more planning for my travels. It now looks like I may also do an 11 day cruise from Australia to Vanuatu and New Caledonia. We'll see.

Cheers,

Skippy