2 November 2007 Camp Life at New Harbor

Journal

Today’s quote comes from the outhouse wall again. It is our 4th day in camp, and though we don’t have a smooth routine as every day varies by our main job to do for SCINI science, there are some things that happen each day.

Bathroom reading consists of student notes to Dr. Bowser

Every 3-4 hours we need to refuel both the generator and the hotsy. I left off on yesterday’s journal with Marcus and I going out to refuel them at 4:30 a.m. Since we now have 24 hours of daylight, it is easy to see, but the sun is low in the sky at that time and it was -15 F. Brr… There were low clouds so it looked like Mt. Erebus was a floating island.

Mt. Erebus "floating” above the clouds

Marcus fueling the generator with Erebus in the background

After we fuel, we drive the 6-wheeler back to camp and fill up the jerry cans with the hurdy-gurdy’s attached to fuel drums. We have four kinds of fuel for different things so we have to be careful to fill the jerry cans and the machines with the correct fuel. We have AN-8 diesel for the hotsy, Mogas (motor gas) for the snowmobiles and the 6-wheeler, kerosene for the small heater, and pre-mixed fuel for the ice drills. We also have propane tanks for the three heaters; one each inside the kitchen and sleeping Jamesways and another in the lab.

Marcus using the hurdy-gurdy to refill the jerry cans

View of lab (orange door on left) and outhouse (blue door on right)

Most or all of the day is spent out on the ice drilling holes and then melting them larger with the hotsy so that VideoRay and/or divers can fit through them. Yesterday we flew SCINI under the sea ice, because we didn’t need to melt the holes for her skinniness! This year we are drilling ten-inch holes, but next year the goal is eight-inch holes which should be easier to drill.

If we need to use the bathroom when we are out on the sea ice, we go to the Pee Flag, which is yellow of course. This way we don’t have yellow spots all over the sea ice where we are working. In camp, our pee and our solid waste get collected in separate barrels. We will helicopter the barrels back with us to McMurdo and they will be shipped to Seattle via the annual container ship.

Pee Flag

After we are so tired we can’t think, we come back to the Jamesway to cook dinner and do camp chores.

Stacy and Bob made a lovely salmon and pasta dinner with a pesto sauce

Nick doing the dishes

Me emptying the dishwater into the gray water tank

Another daily chore is chipping ice to make wash water. The ice is brackish (is mixed fresh and salt water) so we can’t use it for drinking, but we do use it for washing our hands and doing the dishes! There are no showers here, so we take sponge baths or use "baby wipes” to clean ourselves the best we can.