Foreign Territory

R/R Update:


A group of 7 South Pole Winterovers have arrived at McMurdo for a week of R/R. This follows an incredibly busy time at The South Pole. We went from Christmas, worked 4 days, then into New Years; now, 6 days of (mostly) unstructured time-off in a strange town.

After a delayed out-bound flight, we finally arrived at Williams Field on the frozen sea in front of New Zealand's "Scott Base". We landed around 9pm lcl. By the time we finished an orientation briefing in the McMurdo galley, it was 10:50pm. We dropped our baggage in our room (6 guys in 1 room; 1 girl in another), and ran for the Coffee House before it closed at 11pm. I was the first in, so I ordered Bailey's and coffee for all of us. It was nice to finally relax a little. Afterward, I took a long, hot, unlimited-water-use shower. There are no water restrictions here as there are at The Pole.

Day two began with dental inspections for all of us. This proved to be a very short inspection to see if any teeth were falling out. Raytheon requires this of all winterovers. No problems were found with any of us. Our team leader, Nathan, had the keys to the Coffee House (normally closed at this hour), so we all grabbed our laptop computers, and headed over there. We spent the day pretty much unmolested by McMurdo locals (they all assumed the place was closed). I wanted to edit the video of my band at New Years, but Bill Gates would have none of it. My disgust for Microsoft grows day-by-day. If MS products would just do what they say, there would be no problem.

After dinner, we were invited over to New Zealands Scott Base for "American Night". Once a week, they allow the Yank's to invade their station. They have a small store where I bought a very nice Scott Base hat and a calendar for the office. Then, over to the pub. We hung-out there for a while until we jumped a shuttle bus back to McMurdo. These two bases are only 2 miles apart (I actually walked there with another member of my group).

Still not ready to go to sleep, we wandered up to one of the Building 155 lounges for more conversation and some pool. We were watching the clock to time our arrival at MidRats to avoid any conflict with the local D/A's. (MidRats starts at 12am, but we are allowed-in at 12:30am. I began serving myself the day before at 12:26am and was accosted by one of the Dinning Attendants. I gave her a look only a Polie can, and asked if we were gonna have trouble over the discrepant 4 minutes. "No", she said, then wandered off.) After MidRats, off to bed. I am sleeping fine here this time. My roommates are very considerate, and don't snore like the last time I was here (see the October blog entries).

This morning, I had another visit with the dentist to get a cleaning. This dentist was pretty good, with no clenching of the fists required. It was nice to hear him comment that my teeth are in excellent condition.

Today, we have been offered a tour of one of Robert F. Scott's huts which is located pretty close to here. We'll be walking down there with a local guide. There are a lot of hiking trails in the area. With lungs now breathing the abundant O2 available here at sea-level, hiking becomes a much more attractive distraction. We'll probably ascend Observation Hill (Ob Hill) later today. It over-looks the whole of McMurdo and should make for some good pix. I'm told the season still isn't right for seeing penguins or seals. I guess they arrive right after our ice-breaker clears a channel into the McMurdo port. This will happen next week or the week after.