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Happiness is an Empty Bladder

Thursday, January 25th, 2007

Fuel Bladder containment

This could quite possibly be the last post from WAIS Divide.  This week has been crazy. I got the bladder emptied and, with the help of the Arch Construction Crew, got it all dug out, folded up and packaged to go back to McMurdo.  The weather has been really strange out here. One moment it will be sunny and calm and another it will be snowing hard with 15kt winds. It hasn’t been very conducive to working outside but there is so much to do in a short amount of time.
The plan for the bladder keeps changing like the weather.  First we were going to deploy the new one then we decided to leave it in the box until next season. Then the National Guard decided they need to divert all there Herc flights here next week because there is no cargo to go to South Pole until the vessel arrives at McMurdo.  Since we don’t have any cargo to come out either they are bringing fuel and since our single bladder is at max-fill we need to put out the other. 
But first we need to plow up a pad for it so it is elevated off the snow surface.  This requires the use of equipment which, at the moment has been occupied with building a T2 (big) cargo pallet. Of course we could use the Pisten Bully to do it but the mechanic wouldn’t think of actually using the thing…and I’ll stop there this time.
So yesterday we had two Herc missions scheduled but neither the weather here or at McMurdo was any good for flying in so they have been postponed to today. The first one should be bringing in the Carpenters and taking out our last science group.  The second flight will be taking out most of the arch crew.  Then Saturday, we should be expecting two more flights bringing fuel and taking away retro-cargo. 
The flight bringing the carps will also be bringing com-techs to take down our satellite dish.  They plan to be in on one flight and out on the next.  So, as soon as they get here we will be without internet. I will still have the Iridium connection but it is painfully slow.
It looks like Luci & I will be out of the first wave of camp staff out.   It is planned for sometime around the 5th of Feb. It will probably be later if things continue as they are going.  This will put us in McMurdo during the thick of Vessel Offload time; perhaps the worst time of all to be there. Lots of trucks, noise, dust and confusion.  Nonetheless I am considering staying an extra week in town to work. We’ll see.  
 

Air traffic

Sunday, January 21st, 2007

Bassler and Herc

I apologize to all of you who follow my blog for not keeping it updated. It has been hard work getting over the hump out here and now we are more than half-way through. On the subject of leaving…now, with a light at the end of the tunnel it seems like everyone’s spirits have lifted with the prospect of getting the &*%$ out of here. We are coming up on a very bust time with science trying to finish up their projects, the arch finishing up theirs Distinguished Visitors trying to catch a ride out here for “inspections” all while we are trying to inventory and prepare for close-out. The carpenters are supposed to come out Thursday to start taking down tents and transition us back to winter mode. I have my own little project to deal with in the meantime. I discovered a small leak in one of our fuel bladders. Nothing serious but the Fuel department thinks that it should be changed out before winter snows bury it and over-stress the seam making a minor leak a major one. So this is going to involve a major excavation of the bladder. While we are digging it out we figured we might as well raise it above surface level before filling the new one. The first step of course is to drain the old bladder which I have been working on the past few weeks.

We have had the DC-3 Bassler around for the past week. It has been shuttling people and materials back and forth between WAIS and the nearby Byrd Camp. They are closing the camp down and a lot of the retro material will go back to McMurdo via our camp. This has meant a lot of extra work for all of us during an already busy time. But it has also mean that I have been able to dole out a great portion of the fuel in the bad bladder to the plane that consumes over a thousand gallons to fly to McMurdo one-way. I estimate that we only have a thousand or so gallons left. Enough that I could start pumping it out into drums.

Our last science groups should be in and out this week and the project coordinator is down from Denver to assess how successes and shortcomings of the field season. Luci and I have made our travel plans and are looking forward to getting out of here. We are planning a kayak trip with my brothers Joel and Jesse in NZ before moving on to Japan (hopefully to ski) and SE Asia before making our way back to Italy. There are various pull-out scenarios being thrown around. One has all but four of us leaving on a Herc in the first days of Feb with the rest leaving by Twin-Otter a few days later. Another has us all leaving by Bassler the way we came in. Who stays and who goes in the first scenario is still up for debate but I have (ironically) volunteered to stay as long as possible so I can put my babies to sleep for the winter.