November 11 2003

Some things work, and some don't...

Oakden writing.

This was a bit of a mixed day, with the Antarctic rigors taking their toll. The day started in a predictable fashion, with breakfast followed by splitting into a couple task forces before heading to the ice. Stacy and Craig went out to the 30m site with Dan tending, Stacy to video the bottom and Craig to take still photos with his digital camera in the new housing. Upon entering the water, Craig quickly knew that something was amiss when he noticed that there was water in the housing. This is a bad thing. He got the camera out of the water as quickly as possible but despite subsequent freshwater and alcohol rinses, the camera was mortally wounded. However, he did get a few very unusual pictures... Stacy's dive went fine.

In the meantime, everyone else (Rob, Jonna, Mike, Jim, Jen) went to a different site for a look-see dive. It was Mike's first dive this trip, and first time to New Harbor. Rob, Jonna, and Mike had a good dive, then it was time for lunch.

The afternoon saw Jen and Dan, accompanied by Jim, Rob and Mike, mobilize to try out the new hole at Dayton's deep site. The blasters had run out of explosives before that site had been blasted, so the hole had been completely opened using the Hotsey, which melts a hole through the ice. The Hotsey generator had been acting up, but the hole looked good as far as we could see. Unfortunately, when Dan got in the water, he found that although we had a 14' hole through the ice, the ice was 15' thick... After some minor wringing of hands, the Hotsey was restarted, and we headed over to the 30m site for a consolation dive. Dinner was appetizers, followed by Craig and Jen's pizza extravaganza, which resulted in several people complaining after having overeaten.

	Jim and Jen await the results of Dan's investigation of the 40m hole, with the much-maligned Hotsey in the background.

	The consolation dive, with Jen about to get the video camera from Jim, and Dan ready to go.

As a result of the heroic and unstinting efforts of the Communications people, our wireless link to McMurdo came online. There was much rejoicing. What this means is that more than one person can be online at a time, the phone still works when someone is online, and that we have a pretty fast and wide link to the server at McMurdo (although internet speed is still constrained by the satellite uplink from McMurdo). To balance this, it was found that one of the generators was leaking fuel. Some things work, and some don't... The other generator was started, and a celebration of sorts commenced, with everyone getting online.

	Night of the Living Nerds.

Interior of the generator shed, showing the ailing 6kw generator on the right, and the 12kw generator on the left.	Stacy's right index finger pointing to the spot on the generator that is gushing diesel fuel.

New Harbor, as is true of many thriving communities, has spawned several suburbs. These consist of tents set up by individuals who presumably desire either to better appreciate the solitude of Antarctica, or who wish to escape the intense communal living experience (with associated sounds and odors) in the village. The population of the suburbs tends to rise and fall with the weather, with the fewest number of commuters occurring when its really windy. The locations chosen by different people for their second homes may indicate something about their personalities, but I will leave it to our gentle readers to draw those conclusions.

Rob's tent (foreground), placed not far from the Lab, and surrounded by a picket of metal stakes. Stacy's tent is in the background, placed almost in the surf zone (now frozen), where she can easily hear the sound of the Hotsey and its generator.

Jonna's tent, subsequently taken over by Dan, placed on the sea ice to the NE of the village.

Jen's tent, placed in the foothills above the Bay, a very long way from everyone else.