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22 October 2003
Stacy writing
This morning started with the usual flurry of phone calls and emails to find out what is working, what is broken, what that was scheduled has been unscheduled, and adapting our daily plan to fit the continually changing conditions and availabilities around McMurdo. In a minor miracle, the plan we ended with at 7:30 am this morning was the same one we had been working with at 10:30 pm last night. I think that was the first time that has happened. Of course, it wasn't what we actually ended up doing...flexibility is key to being able to work successfully down here!
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Hut 8 at Cinder Cones, our first target for the day in plan A. |
Jennifer and I started out to Cinder Cones, with Dan to tend, assisted by volunteers Joan and Angelique. After a quick orientation and our lovely bumpy half hour commute, we tumbled out of the vehicle and dragged our chipper bars, shovels and dip nets across the ice to clear our safety holes. No seals greeted us, though we could tell by the thin, slushy nature of the ice on the holes that they had been there recently.
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Some of our volunteer dive tenders, moving one of our coolers containing samples. Instead of using the cooler to keep our samples from getting to warm, as we do at home, here we use them to keep them from getting too cold and freezing. |
Our plan was to make a deep dive, to video and photograph some experiments Dr. Paul Dayton placed on the seafloor here nearly 30 years ago. Nitrogen narcosis is a symptom of deep dives, where the nitrogen gas saturating your blood has temporary neurological effects. This is not the bends, which you get from ascending too fast and gas bubbles blocking circulation, but something you feel while at depth that goes away as soon as you ascend. Everybody has different symptoms of being "narced." Some act like they are drunk, some get anxious, some get euphoric. Jen and I are both the kind that get nervous when narced - we are used to being very composed while diving and the sneaking suspicion that you are not performing quite up to par makes you worry. As we reached 100 ft and started looking for the plates, we spent nearly as much time checking our gauges and each other as searching the seafloor. It seemed to take forever before we finally located them and could being recording images. We had 6 minutes to finish our work. Three minutes, and we traded places to record the duplicate experiments. Countdown, and we were safely on our way, working slowly up the slope and finally able to enjoy the clear water, incredible animals, and beautiful ice formations.
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Jennifer getting her gear ready to go in the water. |
Meanwhile, Jonna and Craig were diving at the Jetty to finish off the final few samples there. But their dive did not go so well. Jonna got disoriented and then one of her fins slipped off, so they had to abandon their sampling goals to a later dive. It seems that every year there is one site where we just cannot get the sampling done easily, and this year it is the Jetty site.
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Last one in is...slowest getting ready. |
In the afternoon, Dan and Jim went to a newly drilled hole at Cape Armitage. They were well prepared for the strong currents that often rip through this area, but fortunately they were not too bad. Unfortunately, there was also no sand or mud bottom to be found, just cobble and hard pavement, which does not represent the kind of habitat we are interested in. So though they had a nice dive, they were not able to complete their sampling goals. But, it gives them a good excuse for another dive tomorrow or the next day!
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Dan and Stacy rinsing and hanging up dive gear in hopes that it will dry before the next dive. |
Finally, Jonna and Rob got back in at the Jetty in another attempt to finish the sampling there. Added to their list of samples to collect was one dive fin (the one Jonna had lost earlier) and one green goodie bag containing the sampling equipment. They found both, got one sample, forgot two animals, and then lost the fin again on the way to the surface. My theory is that the fin likes it better in the water and wants to stay there. So despite valiant attempts, the Jetty remains uncompleted!
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Coming home from the last dive of the day. |
In the evening I gave a science lecture here in the lab. This was the lecture that was originally scheduled for the entire community, but that had to be cancelled due to all the flight delays and boomerangs - I was in the air and returning to New Zealand after one tantalizing glimpse of Antarctica when I was supposed to be giving the talk the first time. Though I was nervous, I think it went well and my team was wonderfully supportive. To relax afterwards, we went to the coffeehouse for some cheering beverages before heading off to bed.
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| In the lab, preparing more sampling equipment for the next days planned work. |