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| Another set of scanned postcards. |
More questions. Thanks Chris.
speaking of $$, do you need to carry cash and a wallet there? Is everything paid for?
On Fridays after dinner I walk through the store or as we call it McMurdo Wal-Mart. I am always looking to see if there is anything new out. I will pick up either two six packs of Speights Ale or two bottles of New Zealand Dashwood pinot noir (the limit is 2). Along with that I will buy a bag of tortilla chips or a can of beer nuts. So that is the only day I carry a wallet. Except for toiletries everything else is paid for.
is the sky starting to lighten more and more?
Yes...and it is very exciting to see the world again!
Are there any roaches or bugs in the dorms or cafe? Those things can come in on fresh produce in the egg /larvae form
I have not seen any bugs in the dorms or work areas. When I first arrived there was an occasional flying insect in the galley that probably came out of the kitchen.
Speaking of the kitchen the doctor does a monthly inspection of that, the outside loading dock, and the walk-in freezers and refrigerators. He says that after he inspects the loading dock he enters the walk in freezer and 'warms up' in there!
In the warmer months do they have mosquitoes outside?
There are no mosquitoes or any insects in the Antarctic. There is nothing for them to exist on.
Are you really excited to see the sun again?
Extremely excited. From about 11-1 each day you can see people stopping and staring. Everyone is thinking the same thing.
What's the first thing you are going to eat once you get to NZ?
A large piece of fresh fish, fresh vegetables, fruit and a huge glass of fresh milk. Also fresh cheese as I really miss that too.
More fun facts
The
continent is roughly 14 million square kilometers (5.4 million square miles).
The USA is only 9.36 million square kilometers (3.6 million square miles). The
distance from Washington, D.C. to McMurdo station is approximately 14,830
kilometers, or 9,920 miles.
Scientists
work on all kinds of unique projects in Antarctica, including penguins,
Antarctic cod (they have a special antifreeze agent in their blood!), whales,
seals, global warming, climatology, meteorites, glaciology, astronomy,
volcanoes, UV radiation, and more. Scientists also study humans in Antarctica,
doing research on how the human body adapts to cold and how the human mind and
heart react to extreme isolation. (I was wondering what I was doing here!)
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| A cool patch I found on a Christchurch store's website. I'll visit that store when I get off the ice. |
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| My neighbor Chris sent me this picture as a reminder of Tropical Storm Fay from 2008. In front of my house that's me, my daughter, and two dogs in our canoe. The dogs are lousy at paddling. After this Jocelyn paddled around a news reporter and his video guy through the neighborhood. |
The Penguin Timer - but who's counting!
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| A below the horizon sunset. The light to the lower left is a tractor on the ice pier. |
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| Sunset... |
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| followed by a beautiful morning! |
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| Last week a Pisten Bully broke down on the ice shelf. A friend of mine drove out and towed it back to town. Photo credit to Rich. |
A friend became ill Sunday and a medical evacuation flight flew in yesterday, Thursday. After one hour on the ground the flight departed for Christchurch with the patient. Fortunately it was a beautiful windless day.
An Australian Medical Team Has Rescued an Expedition Member After Medical Emergency
A medical team has arrived
in Christchurch, New Zealand, after departing the U.S. McMurdo Station
in Antarctica where it rescued a U.S. expedition member who suffered a
medical emergency.
The patient, who for
privacy issues has not been identified, landed this morning in New
Zealand. The patient was to be transported to a local hospital there,
according to a spokesman from the U.S. National Science Foundation
(NSF).
The Australian Antarctic
Division assisted in the rescue and provided its A319 Airbus and a
medical team to help, the Australian government division said in a
statement.
The rescue team had been waiting
for a break in the weather to make the risky trip to the Antarctica
research station. The team's plane left Christchurch Wednesday evening
en route to McMurdo Station, according to the Australian Antarctic
Division.
The NSF coordinated the operation, but remained mum on most of the details.
NSF spokeswoman Debbie
Wing told ABC News that privacy issues prevent the foundation from
revealing the patient's name, gender, age or illness.
"The patient's condition
may require treatment beyond what can be provided at the station's
medical facility," the NSF said in statement Wednesday.
The NSF said the American
patient is in stable condition, but the McMurdo medical facility is
"equivalent to an urgent-care center in the U.S., and is not equipped
for the type of procedure being contemplated."
The Australian team was positioned
in Christchurch and had been waiting for weather and lighting conditions
to allow them to make the dangerous trip to the bottom of the world.
Antarctica is in the middle of its
six-month winter. It is now dark at McMurdo except for a brief period of
twilight at midday, making the flight risky.
A live webcam positioned at McMurdo
showed that it was 30 degrees below zero Wednesday. McMurdo is about
2,415 miles south of Christchurch and about 850 miles from the South
Pole.
"All nations work together very
cooperatively in these sorts of emergency situations in Antarctica to
provide support when and as required," Australian Antarctic Division
Director Dr. Tony Fleming said in a statement.
This risky rescue was not the first of its kind.
In October 2011, American
researcher Renee-Nicole Douceur suffered from a suspected stroke and was
rescued from the pole by the U.S. Air Force. And in two separate
incidents in 2010, New Zealand helped two Americans get out of McMurdo
due to illnesses.
Douceur described the weather conditions that can hinder such a rescue operation.
"As the sun starts rising the
weather can start to act up a bit and become very stormy. Weather like
anywhere can be very fickle, it can change in a moment's notice," she
said.
The most famous rescue was of Dr.
Jerri Nielsen in 1999. Nielsen, the doctor at Amundsen-Scott South Pole
Research Station, diagnosed herself as having breast cancer after she
found a lump. She treated herself with chemotherapy agents delivered by
parachute from the U.S. Air Force until she was rescued. She even
performed her own biopsy procedure.
After her rescue, she was treated
and her cancer went into remission, but it returned in 2005. Nielsen
died in 2009 at the age of 57.
ABC News' Joseph Simonetti contributed to this report.
The medevac flight came with some fresh fruit that we enjoyed for dinner and again at breakfast this morning. It may seem silly but fresh fruit is a really, really, big thing here!
(the comment section was somehow embedded in this and I can't figure out how to remove it - one of the many unfriendly issues I have had with blogspot. As a result I have continued this post onto the next one.) |
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