On their first full day on the ice the crew spent their time in meetings or classes.  Following a 9AM science inbriefing, Sally, Steve and Andrew went to a Sea Ice Refresher course.  Terry Palmer found out he had to attend Happy Campers School (Snow School) the following two days.  Not a too exciting first day on the Ice.

November 24th

All crew members started their day off with the yearly waste briefing to learn the Antarctic code of conduct and how to recycle and act in ways that least disturb the local environment.  After that Terry was off to Snow School, while Sally, Steve and Andrew prepared the lab for use (Room 310 in Crary, behind the aquarium in Phase III). 

In the afternoon, while Terry was away enjoying himself, Sally, Steve and Andrew helped Thomas the driller, use the Reed Drill to locate 6 dive holes.  First, Andrew sited all dive locations using a GPS. Then dive holes were placed directly over the three deep holes and in between the shallow and intermediate hole.  A new drill bit was in the Reed Drill and well, it didn't work so well so it had to be replaced.  However, with the new bit on, all six holes were successfully drilled.   As the ice has not cleared out of this part of McMurdo Sound for several years, ice thicknesses are considerable.  Off of Cape Armitage, ice thicknesses were nearly 18 feet, while off of the sewage outflow thicknesses were on the order of 15 feet.  Only in Winter Quarters Bay in area where first-year ice exists due to yearly destruction of ice by the ice breaker is the ice thickness much thinner (7-8 feet).

Andrew and Steve shoveling snow away from the hole as it is drilled so the sea water will be able to drain away when the hole is drilled all the way through the sea ice.	Water slashing out of the hole as the drill penetrates the bottom of the sea ice.
Leveling the snow surface around the dive hole in order that a dive hut may be easily positioned over the dive hole	Steve Sweet hard at work holding up a shovel...actually Steve is waiting for the Reed Drill to begin drilling the dive hole.

Following much shoveling of ice and clearing of ice from the dive holes, Sally, Steve and Andrew were exhausted, but happy with the progress made during the day.  All retired early to bed.

November 27th

The B-518 team enjoyed another quiet day as most of the support staff had Sunday off.  The crew took care of everyday chores such as laundry and housekeeping.  Andrew sent part of the day preparing the terrestrial sampling plan.  All members enjoyed the beautiful day in their own way. Terry played Rugby with Steve and Sally as spectators while Andrew participated in the first annual Antarctic Disk Golf Tourament.  The weather was gorgeous, but a bit breezy.  In the evening, the crew enjoyed pool and a movie.  A good day was had by all.

Disk Golf in Antarctica!

Andrew putts in

November 28th

The B-518 crew had a busy day.  Thanks to Rob Robbins and Steve Rupp the team had a highly successful day collecting marine stations. In the morning , Rob and Steve both did a 20 minute dive at the deep station on Transect D - site D3.  In addition to the site being a deep dive (120 feet) the divers had to contend with a hole that had not been cleaned out very well by the B-518 team. Despite the problems, the divers returned good cores and collected various organims.

Steve Rupp improves the large sampling tubes

who cleaned this dive hole out?

In the afternoon, the divers dove at the shallow and intermediate depths on Transect A in Winter Quarters Bay. First, Steve collected samples at 40 feet depth at site A-1 and then Rob collected the samples at the 80 foot A-2 site.  Because the sea ice had been removed in this area by the ice breaker last year it was only 8 feet at the dive hole and there was much less ice in the hole for the divers to contend with.  The diving went very smooth.  At this rate, the crew hopes to finish collecting the marine samples by Thursday.

what a nice clean dive hole!

Can you see the diver coming up to the surface?

Terry seperates a sample from the collection tube	Steve scoops out a sample for safe storage
Sally carefully labels samples

November 29th

Today, the two divers dove on the deep hole on the Winter Quarter's Bay Transect (site A-3). The depth at the site was 111 feet and the ice thickness was 7'.  The weather was beautiful - clear skies, low wind. 

Terry and Sally enjoying Winter Quarters Bay

Piston Bully and Dive Tomato in Winter Quarters Bay

The crew then helped the divers move the dive tomato (dive hut) to the dive hole for the shallow sites off of Cape Armitage. Many people happily participated in cleaning out the dive hole in the beautiful weather.

I know it is a nice day, but Terry is it that warm out?	Way to go Terry - scoop that brash ice out of the hole (while the rest of us look on)
Starfish we collected	Terry would you like a worm?
Steve attempting to revive his 1960's hippie phase	A Hercules LC-130 arrives from the South Pole
I wonder who won that snowball fight?	The crew enjoys the coffee house at the end of a successful day

November 30th

Unfortunately for the team, Rob and Steve had to assist other divers today and drove out to Cape Evans to do some diving with members of the USAP's diving control board. The team put their time in the office to good use. Sally and Terry processed microtox samples, Andrew worked with the GIS analyst on station and finished the terrestrial sampling plans. 

After dinner, the crew took a shuttle ride over to New Zealand's Scott Base and enjoyed Trivia Night. Unfortunately, the team's scientific skills appear to be better than their trivia knowledge.  While not quite finishing last, the crew did not finish near the top either.  Scott base is much different than McMurdo. While McMurdo has over 1000 people during the summertime, the New Zealand Base has less than 100.  All the buildings are connected and you shouldn't wear shoes inside. It is a clean and cozy place and the New Zealand people are really nice.

The Lounge at Scott Base

Terry and Sally laughing at a Trivia Question

The Dining Room at Scott Base

December 1st

The crew continued their work on the Cape Armitage transect. The divers completed the dives at the intermediate depth (78 feet) on the Cape Armitage Transect (A-2). The ice at the site was 13 feet thick. The divers then made two dives on the deepest hole on the Cape Armitage Transect at 118 feet. the ice at this location was 12 feet thick. Unfortunately because of the water depth the divers were not able to spend much time on the bottom and additional dive will be required to collect all the sediment cores.  The weather, while note as good as on the 29th and 30th was still pretty good.

A view of the McMurdo Dive Locker where Rob Robbins and other divers prepare, repair and store all their diving equipment.	Terry and Sally are running an educational website called Island to Ice 2005 for students in Texas and New Zealand.  The Texas students made a kite for them to fly in Antarctica
The Island to Ice 2005 Kite flies about McMurdo Station	Sally contemplates cleaning the floor of the Dive Tomato, but decided to wait until all sampling was finished

December 2nd

Today with the help of Rob Robbins, the B-518 Team finished collecting their last samples.  Rob made a brief dive at site F-3 and collected 3 small tubes of samples for microtox.  The sampling finished up just as the wind picked up and visability on the sea ice decreased dramatically so the crew hurried quickly back to station after collecting.



As the weather was sub-optimal for collecting samples, the crew spent part of the afternoon undertaking Microtox analysis and preparing for terrestrial sampling to begin including acquiring a GPS unit and contemplating the sampling plan. Late in the afternoon, Andrew and Steve collected 3 random terrestrial samples near the Crary Lab to see how sampling went.   There was plenty in the wind. Only 67 more random samples to collect, plus intensive sites and controls...

McMurdo can look very nice in the wind...

Blowing snow on the helicopter pad as seen from the B-518's lab

Dive Tomato and Piston Bully in the Snow

Some remaining Sand Wedge Polygons on the Observation Hill. The polygons are formed by periglacial geomorphic processes

December 3rd

Fortunately, yesterday evening the weather cleared very nicely and by 10 or so pm, all was bright and sunny allowing the low albedo (dark) basaltic rocks of McMurdo to absorb solar energy and heat up.  By midday, the surface layer of the ground had thawed sufficiently for surface samples to be acquired. The team did some microtox work in the morning and consulted with Chalet Personnel to determine who they needed to talk to in order to sample in restricted areas. That accomplished, the crew set off in the afternoon to sample at 3 intensive sites (two near the refueling station) and one in the parking lot. They also collected 12 random samples around town.  A thirteenth would have been collected by there seems to have been a collection jar left in the lab.....
The location of the completed sampling to date is shown in the map below. Green symbols indicate samples already collected, red symbols those that have not been collected.