November 9,

Cape Bernacchi here we come. We got to dive for the first time at Caper Bernacchi today. In fact we might be the first people to ever dive there, kind of an interesting prospect. The hotsy did its job well, and we had a nice large luxurious hole through which we could hurl ourselves with reckless abandon into the below freezing waters. So we had to figure out the best way to haul two divers, two tenders, and all the requisite gear and accoutrements of a small diving trip out to a hole 8-9 miles out on two skidoos and a six-wheel ATV. What we came up with was to hook Nanson sleds (named after a famous Norwegian Arctic explorer) onto the skidoos and haul the suited up divers and gear out on the sled. Well, the drive takes about 45 mins to and hour and a half depending on who's driving, and that seemed like a bit of a long time to only be in your dive gear in the Antarctic. However, due to the ATV's penchant for breaking through the ice, the skidoos were our only option.

The drive out was actually quite nice. The sea ice was filled with bumps, ridges and small icebergs making it all but impassable to us. So to get to our site and still have be in one piece you follow the moat ice all the way out to the dive site. Moat ice is ice that abuts the land and melts during the summer leaving a moat of sea water between the land and the sea ice; as a result it is relatively smooth band that you can drive across. Andrew drove us out, and being one of the more cautious drivers, gave us a very comfortable ride out, made even better by the great weather that we've been having out here. In addition the Nanson sleds are actually quite nice to ride on. On our drive out we saw our kiwi neighbors' caravan ponderously moving along on the eighteen hour trip down to Scott Base.

As I said earlier, the hole was quite large. Once we got in the water though we noticed that there was a pronounced lip on the bottom of the hole, making the bottom of the hole smaller than the top, but it still was large enough to squeeze through. On this dive we had to take our video and still camera quadrats, and haul up sediments for the enrichment experiments at this site. Unfortunately the hole is in deeper water than we thought (80' as opposed to 60') so our lines were dangling 15' off the bottom. This proved to be a challenge when hauling our buckets of sediment. The bottom is composed of very soft sediment and there is a nice shelf in ~60' that is about 100-125' from the hole. Stacy quickly finished up the still camera quadrats, but the video lights died, so it would take another dive to do the video quadrats. Stacy and I finished up hauling the sediment during the dive, which proved to be a lot of work. It is very difficult swimming the distance from the 60' area of the site over to the hole, which is in 80', hauling a ~60 lbs bucket of mud without sinking to the bottom, which is deeper than you want to go. Once you get to the line, you have to figure out how to attach the bucket to the haul line while suspended in the water which seems like it should be quite easy, but it never really seems to work out as easily as you think it should, especially when you add numb gloved hands and a head full of Nitrogen to the mix. Anyway we got it all done and had a productive first dive at the site.

In the afternoon, Dan, Andrew and Kathy went diving in Explorers Cove to start working at that site. They had some troubles with deploying the fencing, but got a lot done anyway. The sediment at that site is apparently even finer than it is at Cape Bernacchi, and really clouds up the area if you stir it up, which of course is exactly what we are doing by digging up sediment and hammering in stakes. So buoyancy control while diving at this site will be very important.

After dinner, we somehow had the energy to go on another hike. We have a hunch that it either has something to do with some weird biochemical effects of having 24 hours of constant daylight, or is the result of having a PI with a seemingly inexhaustible reservoir of energy, you be the judge. We went roughly southeast towards Butter Point and walked along the ridges overlooking the camp. We even found a mummified seal, which was morbidly interesting. The views were amazing. We could see all of Ross Island, from the northern point, Cape Byrd, all the way down to Observation Hill, which is at McMurdo Station. We could even see some really big icebergs out to the north. It seems that while we are hear at New Harbor, you are always very aware of the fact that you are in Antarctica. In McMurdo it is easier to forget that because of all the people and buildings. But out here, when you step outside it is just you and the mountains and ice.

Aaron