"There's always something there to remind me" -performed by Dionne Warwick and Naked Eyes
Beep beep beep...my watch alarm goes off at 5:50am. I drag myself out of bed, put on a t-shirt and some workout pants, throw on my down puffy, hat and gloves, and head to the gym. Yep, there's a gym here. In fact, there are two of them. The closest one to me is a building almost next door. It's one room filled with stationary bikes, treadmills, stair steppers, and, much to my excitement, an ergometer, also known as an erg or rowing machine. I didn't expect that one day I'd be so happy to see an erg but I am! I sit down and start to row, my muscles remembering the sport that was a huge part of my life for 14 years.
A view of McMurdo from the porch of my dorm. Everything is very close in this small little town. This photo was taken at 10:00pm.
Just after I start to settle into the strokes, someone comes in and turns on the World Series. From the time I can remember until I was in the 5th or 6th grade my dream was to play in the major leagues. I love the World Series! These familiar things made me feel calm and ready for the day. I remind myself that having familiar pieces around, whether it's a routine, a rowing machine, some baseball, or even plankton, helps me feel grounded so my mind can stay focused.
The aerobic workout room at McMurdo Station, Antarctica
After my workout I make my way to the next building over. The big blue building is an important one because as well as dorm rooms, it contains the Galley. The Galley is like a dining hall or cafeteria and there are always a lot of yummy options for food. In sticking with my let's-start-to-feel-comfortable-here theme, I decide to skip the eggs and sausage gravy and have oatmeal. I love oatmeal and I eat it almost every morning for breakfast. Even the smell of it makes me think of home.
Once I finish up breakfast I get ready to leave McMurdo town. I pull on my snow pants, my bunny boots, and my big red parka. Today the research team, divers, and I are heading out to the ice again to a dive hut. This time our destination is Turtle Rock. Yep, bay area climber friends out there, there is a rock in Antarctica called Turtle Rock. It's quite a bit bigger than the bouldering rock in Tiburon and to climb it I'd have to dodge around all of the Weddell seals out there. So, because I'm here to support and communicate research and NOT climb rocks in Antarctica AND because there are a bunch of seals in the way...oh, and because it's -15°C/5°F with a wind chill of -24°C/-12°F I decide not to even attempt to climb Antarctica's turtle rock.
Turtle Rock, Antarctica with Weddell seals in front
Amy Osborne bouldering at Turtle Rock, Ring Mountain, Tiburon, California. Photo by Jen Metes
Weddell seal on the ice near Turtle Rock, Antarctica
Instead I hop out of the Pisten Bully, take a couple of seal photos, and help bring the oxygen tanks into the dive hut. As time passes I'm slowly figuring out where I can be helpful and where I just feel I'm in the way. Something that was very unfamiliar last week is starting to feel familiar. This particular dive hut is tinier than the others so trying to stay out of the way of the divers preparations is sometimes challenging. I think I manage to do a decent job of it. Once the divers hop into the water Graham pulls out the O2 and salinity monitors.
Oxygen tanks near a dive hole at Turtle Rock, Antarctica
The divers spend about 40 minutes in the water looking for sea spiders and nudibranchs. Two of the divers, Amy and Aaron, are also on the research team, who you will meet very soon! The other two divers, Rob and Steve, are the divers with the United States Antarctic Program. While the divers are under the ice Graham takes the salinity and O2 measurements and also starts heating the divers' lunch. The morning of or the night before our dive days everyone grabs food from the Galley, wraps it in tin foil, and then it is heated up on a stove inside the dive hut. Several of us had made burritos at last night's burrito bar. The smell of tortillas getting toasty starts to fill the dive hut.
Divers Amy Moran, Steve Rupp, Aaron Toh, and Rob Robbins prepare to dive around the dive hole near Turtle Rock, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica
This particular day Mike Lucibella from the Antarctic Sun newspaper is out with us. He takes a lot of photos, including a 360 photo, and is interviewing Graham when suddenly, bubbles start to rise from the depths. Is it a diver coming back up? Nope, a seal head pops up through the dive hole! This seal is a Weddell seal and its round head pops in and out of the hole for awhile. It first earns the nickname Sealy McSeal Face but its name quickly changes to Snotty as it continually blows air from its nostrils occasionally spraying seal snot on the humans standing nearby. The entire time the divers were under the ice old Snotty was hanging around too.
A Weddell seal pops its head out a dive hole near Turtle Rock, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica
Eventually, the seal clears out and divers come back up dripping with cold water and ready to warm up. After a quick lunch break and another dive, the divers unload what they've found below into a cooler to bring back to the lab.
Dr. Amy Moran and Graham Lobert unhook the containers holding sea spiders and nudibranchs from the line. These animals will be transported back to the lab in the yellow cooler.
Now, things get really exciting...for the first time ever I am driving a PistenBully on the sea ice! As Aaron and I bump around up front, Graham tries, through all of the jostling, to take a nap in the back. Driving this machine is a new feeling and I love it! I generally love driving anything...old pick ups, Jeeps, my little Toyota Corolla, 15 passenger vans, and now a PistenBully! We arrive back in McMurdo town and I radio McMurdo Operations to let them know we've returned safely from the ice. I'm excited to go out again soon!
We bring our new ocean critters to the lab, unload the PistenBullys, and I begin to work on my next journal. The divers rinse out their gear and Graham, Aaron, and Amy check on the animals they are already studying. It's the end of another day in the field and as each day becomes more familiar I begin to love it more and more. Stay tuned to meet the research team and what they are doing!
As always, thanks for the questions and keep them coming. Soon we'll hear about sea spiders and their digestion and what life is like for a scientist at McMurdo. Thanks Steve and Reesha for asking about these things. To Tim Dwyer's Oceanography class and my nieces and nephew in Spain, I'll send you the answers to your questions soon!
TRIVIA DUE TODAY!!!
Don't forget your answers for October 23rd's trivia questions are due today by 5pm PST. Just write your answers in the comments section of October 23rd's post.
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