On my way

I am leaving Antarctica. My plane is on its way here from Christchurch. My transport to the ice runway is in about an hour. I bag dragged last night, so I am living out of one bag until I leave. It is snowing now and it looks foggy on the sea ice. They don't usually fly the planes south to pick us up if they don't think they can land when the get here. PSR is designated as the same time that the plane is due to land, so they can come all the way here and decide to turn around if they think it is unsafe to land. That might happen and I might spend another day here, but probably not. My work is finished, the lab is clean, my knitting is packed, so it's time to go!
It has been a great summer here. I am headed to a warmer version of summer in New Zealand for a little while. I will be in the land of tree ferns. It will be the first time I have experienced darkness (outside) since October. I look forward to star gazing and seeing Orion upside down. I heard that the Ohio State University closed down for a couple of days due to snow. I'm not sorry I missed that. I hope it will be turning to spring in Columbus soon after I arrive. I have become so spoiled over these last 14 years living in perpetual summer. I'm looking forward to seeing my friends at home. I have missed you all and I'm eagerly anticipating to my return to my northern hemisphere life.

Freeze

I am giving up my computer today. I will be packing my computer, lab and field notes and papers to get them into the cargo system so they can be waiting for me in Columbus when I return. The water in the turning basin has started to refreeze. The whales have left and although the emperor penguins were here over the weekend, I think they finally swam home yesterday too after exploring the sea-ice near station for a while. I took this picture from the Crary Lab window. The turning basin is filled with grease ice, which is one of the early stages of sea-ice formation.
It would be unfair to say that it is starting to get dark here. However, the sun is lower in the sky and the first sunset will happen next week. The "sunset" picture was taken Saturday night around 11PM. Some people who are staying for the winter are anxious for the summer people to leave. I understand this sentiment having grown up in a beach town that was a summer tourist resort. It was always a little relief on Labor Day to get our town back from the visitors. Some of my friends who are wintering can't believe that we are leaving so soon and they are sad to say goodbye. In any case, it's just a matter of time before the summer residents and visitors to McMurdo pack up their things and say goodbye.

My last week

The resupply ship left last night about 10PM. It was loaded up with containers of our waste, which has been sorted and packaged for future recycling or disposal in the US. The ship also contains our scientific samples. Now that the ship has gone, the schedule here is getting back to normal. It's Sunday here so they served brunch as they usually do on Sundays. The road to Hut Point is open to pedestrian traffic again now that vessel operations are completed, so I decided to go for a walk after brunch.
I keep going on about water and wildlife. It has been a good year for both of those things. There were emperor penguins around last night, which I saw from a distance, but did not get close enough to photograph them. They were gone by the time I walked to Hut Point today.
It's a little cold today, but the water almost has a tropical blue color against the sea ice. It is about +15F today and 15 mph winds.
Did you notice the seal at the bottom of the picture above? I actually did not even realize that the seal was there when I took the picture. I saw it when I walked back again and then I zoomed in so you can see better. This is one of the Weddell seals that live around here. They are really pretty, even though they don't look like much when they are just lying around on the ice. Their backs are dark and their bellies are lighter and mottled looking, probably so they can hide from their prey.
Here is the Coast Guard ice breaker docked at the ice pier. I'm not sure how much longer they will be here now that the ships are all finished. They will probably be finishing here soon too. The season is really winding down. There will be a flight every other day for the next two weeks. There are only 7 more scheduled flights for the season and all of the people who do not plan to stay for the winter will be leaving on one of them.

The boring parts of my job

I know, it must seem glamorous. According to my blog I lead a very exciting life of meeting distinguished visitors, flying out to the dry valleys by helicopter, whale watching from the Crary lab and cruising on ice breakers. Well it's true. However, it's not all about hobnobbing with Admirals, Generals, Prime Ministers and penguins. Today I faced the job I dread the most for the whole season. I inventoried all of the chemicals that we will store here over the winter. I'm the last one left in McMurdo from the LTER team. I think we had another great season. I have a week left now and I am cleaning up and getting ready to go, making lists, returning things, packing, and so on. At least now that everyone else is gone, I can see what is left to do.
I just wanted to point out for careful readers of my blog that if you look back at the pictures from early January compared to now, things have changed. The day of the penguin invasion, Jan 7, the sea ice was still solid almost everywhere. Where those penguins were running, they would have to swim. We have lots of open water in Winter Quarters Bay and around Hut Point. It changed quite a bit this month. I promise I will take some more pictures of McMurdo before I leave. The sun has not set yet, but it is lower in the sky. The first sunset will happen in about a week, of course it will rise again a few minutes later. It has been getting colder and windier, which makes it feel like it's time to head to New Zealand. Many people are leaving. My turn is coming soon.

Water and ice

It has been a while since residents of McMurdo have been able to look out their windows and see this much open water. In the 1990s, every few years we would have extensive open water and eventually, in late February or March, the sea ice would blow out, leaving the whole area open until the sea ice started to form again in April, as winter started to set in. For the last few years, I would tales of whale watching from Hut Point and the new folks would look at me as if I were dreaming. Since the large iceberg, B-15, broke off the Ross Ice Shelf and blocked McMurdo Sound, the sea ice around McMurdo has not broken up. The sea ice has beeen getting thicker every year, creating quite a challenge for the ice breakers. It's also hard to create a runway for planes on crudy old ice, so as far as logistics are concerned, it's a great year when the sea ice goes out and we get to start "fresh". Many people are optimistic about the eventual departure of this ice that is still hanging around McMurdo Sound. For now the ice breaker has created a notch to extend the ship channel so that they can use this as a runway next year, just in case the sea ice sticks around for yet another year. It's hard to imagine that next summer planes will be landing where it's water now...

They are starting to load the scientific samples onto the resupply ship. I just heard that one of the boxes contains a seal carcass! There is always something interesting happening here!

Shipping season

Late summer is the season for ships. I have mentioned the ice breakers several times. This year the Swedish icebreaker, Oden, was here as well as the US Coast Guard ice breaker, Polar Sea. The ice breakers clear a channel through the sea ice for the various ships that need to come to McMurdo every summer to resupply the station. The US Antarctic Program runs on fuel and one of the most important activities that happens here has nothing to do with science. It is the arrival of the fuel tanker to deliver fuel for the next year's operations. Here is a picture of the Polar Sea and the fuel tanker parked at the ice pier. The cargo resupply ship, American Tern, is here now and during this time, "ship offload" is a 24-hour operation. There are about 70 Navy Cargo Handing Personnel ( Nav-chaps) here to help with this proceedure. Mostly, cranes on the ship lift shipping containers onto flat bed trucks that drive up the hill. The cargo is unpacked, sorted and delivered to various work stations and warehouses. Much of this work takes place outside and the weather during offload is notorious for being cold, windy and harsh. When the ship leaves it will be loaded with a year's worth of garbage as well as a few containers with scientific gear and our precious samples.
There are also research ships that come to McMurdo and occasionally tourist ships. Here is a picture of the Palmer which is one of the research vessels opperated by the US Antarctic Program. Sometimes the Palmer comes to McMurdo to offload a crew of scientists and staff and onload a new group for the next science cruise. Research on the Palmer includes biology, geology, and oceanography, so the ship travels all around the continent during the year in support of different projects.

Mom's birthday

It is my mother's birthday today. In honor of my mother's birthday, I put one of her favorite flowers on my blog. She likes Queen Anne's lace, I think because her name is Ann. It is Feb 6 here already because we are on the other side of the date line. One way to think about it is that we are the "first" time zone and we start the day off here before everyone else does. In McMurdo we operate on New Zealand time because that is where the planes fly from. So far the day feels Antarctic, or kind of like an early February day in New Hampshire, where my mother lives. Here it is 20F, windy and overcast. I called my mother earlier to wish her happy birthday and she said that it was very cold and windy and that she knew it would be too cold to walk outside, so she and my godmother, Peggy, walked on the treadmill at the gym. Good for you Mom!
I want to write more soon about all of the ship activities here, which I will do in my next blog. There is alot of open water near station because the ice breakers have been opening a channel for the tanker and resupply ships. Because of all this open water, there are whales here, minke whales, swimming in the ship channel. Every time I look out to the turning basin for a few minutes, I see their spouts and their dorsal fins and backs. Minke whales are baleen whales and they eat little things like krill. We also have orcas here, which are toothed whales, but I have not seen any recenly. For now I am thinking about my mom and how much she loves flowers. Happy birthday Mom!