BootsnAll Travel Network



Tanker and Vessel

Ships.JPG

We have reached our peak population of 1200 here at McMurdo for the season. There are swarms of NavCHAPs (navy cargo handlers) around. They have nothing to do until the big cargo vessel arrives and have been causing all kinds of trouble in their spare time. During the ship off-load, all the bars close and the store stops selling liquor which is supposed to reduce accidents. This will do very little to curb peoples drinking habits as opportunistic individuals have stocked up on beer and liquor and open ?private bars? during off-load and make a killing.
The cargo vessel arrival has been delayed a day. My personal thoughts are that it was postponed so as not to interfere with the most watched TV extravaganza in America; The Super Bowl. Word has it that all 300 Coasties are being given that day off to come into town and watch the game. Apparently, the Navy and the Coast Guard get into fights. If you throw alcohol, football and the Air National Guard into the melee there?s bound to be trouble. For some reason, they have decided to open the bars especially to accommodate this potentially volatile recipe for chaos. To an outsider this might seem nonsensical and even farcical but, it is entirely congruent with USAP policy supporting brutishness and alcohol induced misbehavior. For example, a friend and co-worker of ours was violently attacked last week by a known trouble-maker for no apparent reason. Our friend, who, I might add, is not predisposed to causing a fight, felt that he should report the thumping he received for the good of the community. When he did, he was told that he was going to be sent home. He left yesterday (with a completed contract and an offer to come back next year I might add) but the guy who attacked him is still here and is staying the winter. 0 tolerance is the policy towards fighting (but some tolerance is more 0 than others it seems).
In addition to the NavCHAPs and Coasties there have been numerous cruise ships in the area whose passengers have made town population seem a little bulkier though they rarely use our facilities. There was one out in the channel yesterday when I woke up; a converted ice-breaker with a steady line of zodiacs coming from it ferrying tourists to the shore. We have had to dodge them in the galley truck on our way out to the runway.
The tanker has come and gone. Fuel off-load operations finished up today. The tanker was here last week for about three days filling up our tank farm. It also filled the hold of one of the ice breakers which subsequently fueled the Marble Point Helo Facility in the other side of the sound which is the base of Helo Ops in the Dry Valleys. The tanker was then filled with waste fuel and sent back to Australia, I think.
I finally made it to Snow School. A bit late considering how much time I spend on the sea-ice. The two days of Snow School came right before my day off so I had three days out of the galley in a row. I can?t say I learned all that much new but it was nice to get out and build igloos and play around with the HF radio (I made a call to South Pole about 800 miles away).
We are still planning on buying a van in NZ and touring around for a couple of months. I have recently become obsessed with the idea of Traction Kites. A Traction Kite is one that, with sufficient winds, can pull you along on and number of vehicles. I have been shopping around for a good kite to bring down next year to use with short skis. Ice shelf is the ideal environment for this sport. With their rich history of sailing and adventure sports, NZ is the perfect place to get a kite and learn how to use it. As it turns out, Christchurch is one of the best places to Kite surf which is essentially wind surfing only with a big kite rather than a sail. This is high on my itinerary! I think finding a yoga retreat is high on Luci?s and Kite surfing is at the very bottom.




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