Sunday, Oct 26, 2003, Dan Writing

Another day of rest and relaxation in Mactown. Of course we had to start the day off with another dive. Jennifer, Craig and Jonna decided to go in at our Cape Armitage hole to get some photos and reconnoiter the site a little more. Up until this point all of the dives we have made this year, with the exception of the surface-supply dives Stacy has done at the contaminated sites, were accomplished from the comfort and safety of a dive hut or our lovely and portable “Polar Haven.”

	Pisten Bully with Polar Haven in Tow

For some reason we decided to do this dive in the open air. Maybe it was because we were too lazy to move the Haven to the new hole, or maybe it was because we know that we will soon be without these comforts at New Harbor, and we wanted to see what it is like to go diving when exposed to the elements. We did a fair number of open dives last year, mostly in fair conditions. This morning it was fairly calm and sunny, but it was also bitter cold. As Jennifer, Jonna and Craig were to discover this can make it extremely challenging to prepare yourself to enter the water. The first problem you encounter is that your hands can get cold and numb as you are hurrying to put on your three hoods, mask, fins and finally two layers of gloves. It is no fun to start a dive with numb hands, when you know they will only become more numb while you are underwater. A trickier problem is how to go about cleaning your mask. Divers have to clean the inside of their masks before each dive with soap or spit or special mask cleaner and then rinse them out with seawater so that they don’t fog up underwater. When the temps are well below zero this means that you get an instant sheet of ice on the inside of your mask. To prevent this from happening, each diver has to come up with their own strategy for getting their mask clean, on their face, and into the water in the least amount of time. Needless to say, as this was the first outdoor dive for these three, this did not happen. As their dive tender I got icy fingers that quit working from trying to dip everyone’s mask in the water and scrape the out ice crystals. Despite these efforts Jennifer still spent most of her dive looking out through an ice-occluded mask, not being able to make out much on the bottom.

After this arduous dive was completed we proceeded to gorge ourselves on waffles at brunch. Immediately thereafter we decided to punish ourselves by hiking up Ob-hill to take in our surroundings. It was such a beautiful, clear day, and we were able to see all the major landmarks in all directions; Black and White Islands and Minna Bluff to the south, Mt Discovery and the Royal Society Range to the west, Caste Rock and Cape Royds to the North, and Scott Base and Mts. Erebus and Terror to the east.

In the afternoon people drifted back to the lab or back to bed. Jennifer and I decided to x-country ski over to Scott Base which was fun until I broke a ski and had to hobble along cursing.

In the evening we were treated to an interesting lecture on the reproductive biology of Emperor Penguins and their recent misfortunes caused by the iceberg B-15 by Gerald Kooyman who has been coming to McMurdo to do research on penguins and seals for decades.