Date night at CON 1

This morning, CON 3, looking at Building 155 from the Clinic

Current conditions:  Con 3, Temp -2F (-27F with wind chill), overcast.  Population: 277

Yesterday began with beautiful weather.  Clear skies, no wind, but very, very cold.  Dean and I planned a date night with a trip over to the New Zealand base two miles away.   Every Thursday is "American night" at Scott Base and the Kiwis open up their superior bar and store to the denizens of McMurdo.  We were looking forward to it.

In the afternoon, Shawn, the nurse manager, began teaching us about using the IVACs, the machines that run intravenous drug administration.  Although combined, Dean and I have practiced medicine for 70+ years, we don't know how to do something as simple as administering an IV.  (That adds to the many other simple things that were left to more competent people than I--splint someone's joint, give a nebulizer, do PFTs, etc., etc).  As we were practicing, we could hear the wind rattling the building. Chris came in and said, "We're at Con 2".  Exciting!  I grabbed my phone and told Shawn that Dean and I were going to run and grab a picture.  As I was halfway to the door, I heard Shawn muttering, "Tourists!" just loud enough for all in the clinic to hear.
Con 2 looking at Building 155 from the clinic
We could still see most buildings around us, but the snow and wind made everything a bit blurry.  American night was canceled.

We went back to IV practice, listening to the shuddering windows as we worked.  At 5:15, Chris again came in and said that it looked like we were headed to Con1 and, if we didn't want to get stuck for the night, we might want to head back to Bldg 155 where we live and where the dining room resides.  We packed up and headed to the door.

Building 155 is about 75 feet from our building.  By the time we left, I could barely see it.  I forgot my goggles and my balaclava.  In the powerful wind.  I had to slouch, keep my eyes towards the ground and put my hand to my face both to keep my glasses from blowing off and my face from freezing.    In the 15 seconds it took to walk over, we had moved from Con2 to Con1 and the base was pretty much on lock down.   When I got to the building, I was 10 feet off target, missing the entryway.

Con 1(or 1.25) looking at Building 155 from clinic
The dining room was fairly empty when we arrived for dinner (more about food later). We sat down with a large group and chatted about the weather. The winter-over crew got a kick out our newbie enthusiasm.  After about an hour, pagers went off around the room indicating that the category had shifted back to Con2.  Many of those in the cafeteria got up to leave, hoping to get back to their dorms before any further worsening.  Others began to stream in from their dorms and workplaces, happy to be able to escape and grab dinner.

We were sitting with the baker, so I got up to grab a dessert she had made (really delicious) before it all disappeared. Dean did his usual and got a big bowl of soft ice cream.  When he got back, the conversation shifted to the Frosty Boy soft ice cream machine and its quirks and frequent breakdowns.   The table must have perseverated on the topic for quite a while, lamenting the many disappointments over the prior weeks.  Finally, Isaac, the PhD Molecular Biologist currently working as a janitor, shut down the Frosty Boy discussion saying, "Ah, Antarctica. Its a harsh continent".  Too true.

As for our date, Dean was asleep by 8:30.  I made it til 10:00.






Comments

Christina said…
I'm up at Lake Tahoe and just had dinner out on the deck of the Sunnyside. For several minutes reading your blog about "date night" I thought seriously about posting a photo of the moon rising over the eastern ridge of the Sierra as we sat there drinking wine in shirtsleeves and 70F and I told my friends about the two of you at McMurdo. But your photos of a barely visible building close by brought home the truth of where you are and what you're doing. I faced southwest, lifted my glass and said a silent toast to the two of you way way way on the other, way under, side of planet earth.
September 12, 2019 at 10:48 PM
JP said…
Thanks for the toast, Christina. I'm sure what you were drinking was better than the choices available down here. Sounds like a lovely night.
September 13, 2019 at 1:32 PM
Tana said…
Mike and I look forward to your blogs. Keep them coming.
September 14, 2019 at 1:25 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What we've been up to

Image
Ross Island looking out from the Pegasus crash site on the Ross Ice Shelf.  The peaked mountain is Ob Hill with McMurdo to its left.  Erebus is obscured by clouds.  The two dots halfway between the camera and the island at the left tip of the island are emperor penguins.   Condition:  Temperature 41°F (Windchill 39°).  Mostly cloudy Population = 1141 We've been extremely busy.  We've had several bad injuries on the base, including last week a hand smashed by a 42 ton ship's hatch.  Once again, Dean did an amazing job with the injury but with broken planes and unrested flight crews, the patient ended up spending seven hours in an ambulance waiting on the runway before being brought back to the clinic to wait some more. I was assigned to care for him that evening, re-bandaging his wound twice, giving him his pain meds and antibiotics, helping him shower, and ultimately, putting a squirting hole in his IV tubing AND covering myself ...
Read more

Off the ice

Image
Toto, I think we're not in Kansas anymore Conditions:  Temperature 70° (70° with wind chill).  Sunny. Population=381,500  Well, we got off the ice.  The trip proved somewhat harrowing and prolonged but we are now blissfully ensconced in the Crowne Plaza in Christchurch, heading back home tomorrow. Antarctica is shutting down for the winter. The Pole will close to all transportation in about two weeks just as the sun begins to set, leaving only the 40-50 person overwinter crew behind to face the brutally cold and dark winter.  McMurdo will close more slowly and, for the first time, will actually have winter flights to facilitate the new base construction.  Usually, about 150 people would be left in McMurdo by mid-February.  This year with all the new base construction underway, they expect to winnow down the current 1100 people to about 400in the next 10 days and and then to 300 or so at the end of April and 150 in June. The whole...
Read more

South Pole Traverse

Image
The South Pole Traverse moving down the Leverett Glacier: my dream job. Conditions:  Temperature 19° (4 ° with windchill).  Cloudy.  Population = 1100+ I mentioned in a previous post, the cowboys of the Antarctic are the South Pole Traverse (SPoT) team.  Like Scott and Shackleton, they troop slowly in tractors, pulling necessary supplies--particularly fuel--to the South Pole.  The Pole base could not exist without the traverse; planes simply could not carry enough fuel to supply the base. The eight man crew drives tractors 1031 miles, averaging about 5 miles per hour over 25 12-hour days (it took Amundsen 57 days and Scott 78 to reach the Pole).  The tractors transport diesel fuel in long bladders that drag along the ground. They also pull the team's living quarters.  On the way back, they fill the bladders with air so they drag well and also bring back the waste that needs to be shipped off ice.  Although I think of this as my dream...
Read more