Making the cut

Looking out across Ross Bay towards Inaccessible Island

    So, my job appears to have survived the stop order. I got the word on Friday that I would be staying and all of my projects would continue running. Whether or not they are supposed to get the same level of support they’ve had in the past is still up for debate. There are also a number of my projects that have grantees come down for a couple of weeks each summer, to do upgrades and repairs, take down/remount instruments for the summer, etc. We’re still not sure when or if any of them will be allowed to come down. Which will either mean that I will have a lot more work (trying to do all the things the grantees would have done if they were down here) or a lot less work (since some of the things that would normally happen on this projects might not actually happen).

    It also looks like I may be the only Crary science person staying in town. Which means that I might get some other duties, to go along with my RA stuff. The one I know of right now would be giving tours of the building. I should find out more tomorrow when I talk with the lab supervisor. Doing tours would actually be pretty fun. Crary is a really nice building and there is a ton of cool stuff that would normally be happening in there, scientists running around, sea life getting put in the big tanks for study.

The sun over Ross Bay

    Anyways, I’ve pretty much gotten oriented to my regular duties. In the mornings, I’ve got my daily checks for ELF/VLF, MEVO, CTBT, USGS GPS, the weather station, and a couple of checks on all of my data getting sent out to the grantees. Most of these are in Crary, although CTBT is in Comms, which is just down the road. The checks mostly consist of making sure things are running, checking for any errors or alarms, taking a look at the data to see if it looks normal, making sure that the date and time are correct, and seeing if data is being sent. After my morning checks are done, and assuming that everything looks okay, I’m usually in the office for the rest of the morning, doing reports, giving tours of my projects (if someone is interested), emailing/talking with grantees. Right now, this part of the morning is mostly office staff talking about when/if they’re getting sent home and if they’re going to be furloughed when they get there. Since all the grantees are getting sent home, there isn’t much action happening in Crary.

    In the afternoons I head up to Arrival Hights, which is my main “out-of-town” work site. From what Liz, my predecessor, says, it is a nice walk from town in the summer, but right now it is a little on the chilly side to do that. Arrival Heights is an Antarctic Specially Protected Area, so the McMurdo and Kiwi RAs are the only ones allowed up there without permission. If anyone else wants to go up, they have to go through me! I get to manage the permits for the AH ASPA since my projects are the main reason that this area has been given that designation. Up at AH, I’ve got another set of daily checks (these ones have to be done after midnight UST, so that’s the reason they’re done in the afternoon here) that are pretty similar to my morning checks, except that I am also checking on some actual instrumentation, rather than just computers and graphs. I’ll also check an make sure that the building is in good shape, warm enough, no snow blowing in, etc.

    I’ve also got a number of once/week, bi-weekly, and monthly checks to do. Since some of them involve hiking into Second Crater, about a 45 min hike from the building, I get to take a buddy. Usually the RAs take someone from the galley or supply staff, since they don’t get off station much, and from what I hear, there are usually lots of volunteers.

    I have gotten some time to do a little bit of exploring around McMurdo. I found the “gerbil” gym (cardio machines and weights), the aerobics room, the big gym (with a small climbing wall), the library, the coffee house and the bars. The bars are closed right now, indirectly due to the stop order. The management decided to go to ship rules (the rules that get put in place when the ice-breaker and supply ships are in town), and stop the sale of alcohol, since there are a lot of stressed-out and unhappy people around. Speaking of, all the people who were told they’re getting sent home on Monday or Tuesday, are still here. There are probably a couple of reasons for that. One is that between the people here and the people in Christchurch, there are a lot of people getting sent home, and not enough flights back to the States to put them on. There has actually been rumors that they are going to start flying the people who have been in Christchurch for the last two weeks down to the Ice, because it is cheaper than leaving them in hotels. Another reason is that they have been fairly conservative when calling weather delays. Last week’s Monday flight down to the Ice was very exciting. The ceiling lowered fairly quickly, so the Airbus ended up circling until it was almost out of fuel. At the point, the passengers, including my boss and Liz, were told to prepare for a crash landing. They landed fine, but it seems to have but the people in charge of flights a little on edge, so there haven’t been any flights in or out since last Wednesday, when my flight and one other came in.

Pressure ridges along the shore

    That’s all I’ve got for now. Tomorrow I get the keys and the pager, and Liz gets to sit back and relax.