Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Still waiting

OK, so days have passed, and we've still only the single Basler into Pole. I'm still in McMurdo, and keeping myself nicely busy during the days. I've been working in the Berg Field Center (BFC), which is the equivalent of an outfitter's store back in the States. The BFC is where field camps get a lot of their gear, and the folks there do a whole lot of work to keep it clean and in shape and organized. It's a really nice workplace, with a fabulous view out over McMurdo Sound to the Trans-Antarctic range.

Yesterday we had like 40-knot winds here, which made life both chilly and interesting. Somebody got blown off their feet out front of the BFC, which was fairly singular in my experience here in Mac-town.

The earliest I might be flying would be Saturday. The weather at Pole is supposed to be improving, and tomorrow (Friday here) Pole has the potential for getting the 2nd and 3rd Basler flights completed. This would be a good thing.

"There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm."
~Willa Cather

4 comments:

Craig said...

There are worse places to be stuck...When you went to Mass for training was it at Visidyne?

EthanG said...

No Massachusetts for me. I stopped in NH, MD, and DE. It was all last-minute and up in the air even as I was leaving to fly out there. I'm enjoying my time in McM, but it will be nice to finally get the Pole season underway.

Rachel B said...

You seem so comfortable, so at home in Antarctica. It's weird that you could feel "at home" in a place that no one is truly FROM (in the sense that no one is born there--wait, are people born in Antarctica?)

Lilly said...

Hi Ethan,
You probably know this blog, but just in case you have somehow missed it, I am passing on the URL:
http://marsandme.blogspot.com/2009/10/opportunity-sol-264-spirit-sol-285.html