| The GERG/UT
Antarctic science
team attempted to leave Christchurch, New Zealand 5 times (the "hurry
up and wait syndrome. Every member of the US Antarctic Program is made to
wear full cold weather regalia prior to bag-dragging and security check
point entry. While the weather in new Zealand was a balmy 75 degrees on
most days, the assortment of long-johns and fleece clinging to the sweat
of our bodies made the sprting of this gear unbearable (Thank heavens they
let us remove our down parkas). The crux of our torture came on Friday,
Nov. 17,2000. That day, the team with all the other USAP support and grantee
personnel loaded aboard the Starlifter, which shaves 3 hours off the flight
as opposed to the C-130 Hercules cargo plane. We loaded aboard 5 at a time,
and we were given a sack lunch and were belted in for the duration of the
flight. Reading and listening to music over the loud roar of the plane helped
to pass the time, but the sweltering heat inside made it necessary to strip
as many layers off as possible. Within 4 hours and 40 minutes of the flight
the pilot announced over the intercom that McMurdo's weather conditions
had deteriorated at William's Field, and that the plane had to turn around
and fly pack to Christchurch. We "boomeranged", and as I kept repeating
"unbelievable!" the crew and all the contents of the plane headed back.
After 10 hours of cramped and overly cozy accomodations, we touched down
at 1:00 am scrambling to find a shuttle to take us to a hotel for the evening.
We finally touched down on the ice transition runway Nov. 19 in a C-141
Starlifter. Because we were delayed a week in Christchurch due to bad weather,
the last 5 days have been busy filled with training sessions (Waste management,
recreation, GPS, driver's license and machine operation,and an NSF/station
debriefing to name a few), lab setup, and GPSing points (for my part). On
Nov. 21 Steve Sweet, Rob Robbins and I were trying to delimit the bathymytry
of the Bay here to place our sampling points. Unfortunately the bathymetry
data has 25-30 m of error in any given direction, so we've drilled on average
38 ponts per day using a Kovak's motorized auger to drill a hole through
the ice that is approximately 3 meters thick at this point in the season.
Using a weighted measure we determined the depths at each location. Once
these points are established, a 4 foot diameter Reed drill is used to place
a large hole in the ice. As the hole is formed, one person creates a snow
channel at the hole's edge. When the drill pulls up, icy seawater come channeling
around our bunny boots, and 2 other people take dip-nets to fish out the
ice in the hole. This is fairly strenuous work that takes approximately
15 minutes for each hole. It's all I can do to keep from sweating in this
weather which turned on us in a matter of an hour. Aswe clear the hole,
we get and occasional marine mammal visitor, such as the Weddel Seal. The
weather changed from Condition 3 (great-fair weather) to Condition 2 (Starting
to get really bad). Condition 2 is defined as approximately 48 knot winds
gusting about, blowing snow and about -5 degrees F with a windchill of -40
degrees F. The weather has been this way for the last 48 hours and makes
working on the ice unshielded from these conditions fairly difficult. Luckily
we keep all the extremely cold weather gear in the fish hut or Spryte, so
we're all pretty warm and toasty all the while. The fish hut is a small
rectangular plywood room. The dimensions are 12 feet by 16 feet with a large
cutout in the bottom so that the ice divers can submerge themselves beneath
the icy waters (about 28-29 degrees F) to retrieve out sediment and epifaunal/meiofaunal
samples. It takes the divers a space of 3 hours to retrieve about 2 sampling
sites. The process quickens with the more practiced at coring they become.
Today is Thanksgiving here, which is always held on a weekend , this being
out Saturday and all. So Happy Turkey Day. D.
Gielstra |
