New Harbor - Antarctica

My week in New Harbor was simply amazing. We worked so so hard, but the payback was awesome. Paul Dayton is a joy to work for, he is so excited about the work we do for him that you finish the day feeling like you did something awesome for him. Plus, who could complain about having to work in a place so gorgeous you can't believe your eyes? I loved waking up to views of Mt.Erebus smokin' everyday. Ahhhh....

A typical day might start with a 3am run on a skidoo out on the ice to fuel and check our generator that runs the "hotsy" (a machine that melts a hole in ice for divers and SCINI). Back to bed for a few hours and then grab some oatmeal before heading out for a morning dive. There was only one hut here and we were not doing much work out of it. We didn't do a ton of dives here because SCINI was doing most of the diver's work. SO I would either dive and collect stuff for Paul off of his old experiments OR I would be the scientist for the SCINI crew. I would record the waypoints of interest and help guide the SCINI pilots around experiments. If we were lucky there would be a break at 6 or 7pm for cocktails on the ice before we would head to dinner. Then we would work after dinner to clean up photos, draw underwater maps, bicker (this would be the chiefs), and maybe check email. The days were long and hard, but they felt good.

Typical transportation to a dive site

Kevin and Jennifer get ready to dive on a gorgeous day

Paul and Stacy having fun

Team meeting - David, DJ, Jennifer, Stacy, Bob, Paul, and Julie (Kevin took the pic)

On our last day in New Harbor, Kevin and I did a morning dive for Paul. When we finished the dive we headed off on a hike for a few hours to the Commonwealth Glacier. WOWWWW. This was a huge glacier that you could walk right up to (frozen solid compared to glaciers in Alaska). This hike was one of the best treats yet during my time here. You can see why from my photos....

The Commonwealth Glacier

Mt. Erebus

Kevin and I left New Harbor today, trading places with Tina and Kamille (they were in McMurdo last week). The rest of the team stays out there until next Monday. Kevin and I have some tasks to accomplish here - in fact we will be diving tomorrow at Hut Point (right by Discovery Hut). But the week will be fairly mellow with just the two of us here. I think we are both looking forward to that.

My pictures from New Harbor are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/AntarcticaNovember