Mactown Blues

After a week of trying, we finally made it to the coast of Antarctica! We landed at the snow runway outside McMurdo base last night at around 6PM, loaded onto the transport vehicle (which looks roughly like a shipping container with windows, wheels, and seats) and settled in for the 45 minute trip. After a 40 minute introductory briefing we got our room keys and network login information. By the time I'd helped a couple of newbies find their rooms, dumped all my stuff in my corner of the 4-person dorm room and made my bed, it was already 9:30PM. I went down to the galley, had a cookie and some juice, and was asleep before 10:30PM.

Today I was up before 8AM and went to the galley to do some work. I was surprised to find one of the people from my group there, because I knew they'd planned on meeting at 10:30PM to have some beers and didn't think they'd be awake until brunch started at 10AM! More of our group streamed in throughout the morning so I spent the morning eating and chatting instead of working :-)

Due to various problems I couldn't get online, which meant I couldn't do my work, so at about 1:30PM I gave up and took a nap.

When I woke up, I headed up the hill to the Cargo building to find my checked bags. It was bright and sunny when I went into the building, but when I left 15 minutes later a storm was blowing in. The forecast says we'll have bad weather for the next couple of days, but we're still scheduled for "bag drag" at 7PM, when they'll weigh us and our luggage. They'll take our checked luggage and we won't get it back until we arrive at Pole, so I've made sure to pull out everything I need to survive for another 4-5 days here in Mactown.

I have to go eat now so I'm done before the 7PM bag drag. Hope your November is going better than mine :-)