More Fuel
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The weather got better before it got worse. The flight made it in a half hour early and gave us 1150 gallons of AN-8. AN-8 is a cold temperature jet fuel that we use in our heavy machinery and in all the heaters. That amount is exactly what we use in a week. I have been building a spreadsheet to track our fuel use and supply. I have determined that up to now we have been using 1149 gallons of AN-8 a week making it 164.1 gallons a day.
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Along with a decent amount of fuel we also received a new fuel tank. The original idea was to plumb it together with the tank in the generator shack. But we discovered that the new tank doesn’t have a drain plug from which we can run a fuel line from one tank to the other. We now have four steel tanks in the camp and we needed to figure out the best way to put them to use. Two of them are 250 gallon tanks, one is a 200 gallon and the one in the generator shack is a 150 gallon. The only one with a drain plug is the 150 so I discarded immediately the possibility of joining two tanks together. The 200 was on the tank sled that I drag around camp to fuel buildings. The configuration I finally decided on was this: I would take the 200 from the sled and put it in the gen-shack; I would take the 150 from the gen-shack and put it on the sled alongside the new 250. The old 250 would stay out at the arch to be used with the big drill whenever it comes in. To get these tanks in and out of the gen-shack we had to take out a wall and maneuver them gently with the Tucker’s forklift. Now my fueling sled has doubled its capacity giving me more time between fueling runs.
Two reporters from the Antarctic Sun arrived in camp with the last flight as well. They have been pretty low-key. They have been spending most of their time on the other side of camp at the Arch. But they brought nice weather with them from McMurdo. It was sunny and warm most of the week. We have been outside throwing Frisbee on most afternoons. Luci has been skiing around after work. She has been skiing out to the arch to watch the drilling or I take her out to the 1 mile marker and she skis back into camp.
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The other day I found a dime sitting on the floor of one of the tents. It was a weird sensation because my first reaction was to pick it up. But, after thinking about it, I realized I don’t really have any use for it so I just left it there. We don’t have any use for money out here. In fact, I came out with a dollar and I still have it. Hours before we were scheduled to fly out to camp from McMurdo I realized I didn’t have any money. But, the bank machine at McMurdo wasn’t giving me any money. I called my bank and they said they were changing processors and about half their cards weren’t working at the moment. Nice timing. So, ever since I have been almost entirely without cash. Apparently no one else does either because the dime is still sitting there almost a week later.
Today is overcast but still. I think we are all hoping that the sun wins out over the clouds and wind for next week.
Luke
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