1 November 2008 November 1, 2008: It was cold today!

Journal

Temperature control in Antarctica is quite difficult, especially on such cold days! Dressing in layers is key, but it is tiring constantly putting layers on and then taking layers off. Gloves on because it's COLD, then gloves off to gain dexterity for the work that needs doing. It would be interesting to have a temperature probe on my hands to monitor the wild temperature fluctuations. While working hard, we sweat. Then if we stop working for even a moment, we cool down quite quickly!Today was a tough temperature control day. Ian and I got suited up to dive. The plan was to start by Ian launching Hal (the "profiler" - this is a piece of equipment that can measure oxygen, pH, sulfur, etc. levels in the water and algal mat) to his monitoring spot on the bottom of the lake. Then I was to dive and secure the lines for Hal and take photographs of the transect line we set two years ago. We suited up at camp and walked to the dive hole. By the time we got to the hole, we were sweating - not a good thing to have happen on such a chilly day (right around 0°F all day). We started to chill. Then the dives got delayed for a couple hours due to slight problems with Hal. Hilke worked her magic and fixed the problems and finally Hal was ready to go! The pictures would have been impressive, but we needed all of us and all hands to get Hal into the water.

Aslan ties some loops in the floats for Hal's cable - or is he just so hungry that he's started eating rope?

Ian and Hilke getting Hal prepped for his first dive!

Hilke starts working her magic!

Me trying to stay warm while we wait to dive.

Aslan took to ice sculpting while we waited... he wanted to send some love home!

Ian found a way to get himself off the ice and rest at the same time!

Eventually, all was ready!

Ian dove and transported Hal to his designated spot. Ian got out of the water and started to cool off - he was scheduled to be the backup diver while I was in the water. By the time we were getting close to my time to dive, I was freezing (having been standing on ice for hours in the cold!). Ian and I hurried back to camp to the dive hut where there is a heater constantly burning. We literally huddled around the stove for a few minutes to thaw out!

We warmed up nicely and returned to the dive site for me to do my scheduled dive. Some of the gear had frozen in the mean time, so we had to pour hot water on several things in order to get them to thaw and work during the dive. An auspicious start!

Aslan pours some hot water on the frozen gear!

I got into the water and started searching for the transect line from two years ago. I was unable to find it. It was not far from the dive hole, and the hole we have this year is VERY close to the old hole (within a just a few feet). But there is no transect below. We considered the possibility that when the moat ice melted over the last few years, the lake ice was free to move, and shifted positions, thus the transect is no longer right near the hole. We'll see, the search will continue!

By the time we all got back to camp, Ian's outer dry suit boot had frozen to his dry suit. We literally could not get his foot out of the suit. He had to put his foot on the furnace to thaw it out! We finally got him unfrozen and all is well!