Same Season - Different Purpose

Click on Photo To Enlarge

I found this photo on the Common computer drive here
at McMurdo. It shows the difference only a few months
can make in the activities down here. Where there was
once an Ice Runway, there is now a shipping channel!
I stood on that ice many times this season and it actually
supported a small town dedicated to supporting the planes
taking of and landing here. However, in December, the
ice begins to thin and will no longer support aircraft. It
begins thin enough that Ice Breakers can plow through
it, creating a channel for ships to arrive. In the second
photo is the research vessel, Nathanial B. Palmer, on it's
way to dock at the ice pier at McMurdo. This water is
hundreds of feet deep here and still just above freezing.
I'd hate to try to land a plane on it now!

Troubles at Black Island

I had one of those days yesterday at MacOps where things
seemed to happen from beginning to end. Things weren't
happening to me...just things happening during my shift.
While wrapping up the transfer of the Medical patient back
to the Nathanial B. Palmer, we received a call from the IT
department that the ventilation system had dropped at Black
Island and it was getting difficult to remotely operate
the equipment there. Almost immediately a Helo transport
was arranged for 1600 hours and when our friend Antz got
out there, it looks like he had to shut the system down to
begin fixing the problem. This caused us to lose communications
completely on the station except for Iridium phones and a
more difficult method of connecting through the NZ lines at
Scott Base.

"A satellite dish problem at Black Island has caused all
McMurdo Off-continent communications to fail".

My boss, the Site Manager, came to Mac Ops to call his
boss in Denver via Iridium to tell him all was well and
we were still here, albeit hard to contact. About an
hour later, comms was restored, but it sounds like they're
going to have to replace some equipment that helps them
run the Communications center via remote control.


Black Island is about 25 miles due south of McMurdo and
is fairly easy to reach (if you have a helicopter).
Otherwise it's a 7 hour drive over treacherous and
bumpy frozen ice, travelling over McMurdo Sound. On
a clear day, you can just see it as a tiny dot on the
horizon from McMurdo. It's one of the most important
facilities in the area though. Communications signals
from McMurdo bounce off the satellite dish at Black
Island and up to space, coming down in Australia.
This process is reversed for incoming communications.
This includes phone, several types of radio, television,
email, internet...the whole works. We are far enough
north that we can "see" the correct communications
satellites on the horizon, while the South Pole, which
is 800 miles farther south, is out of these satellites'
range. So when something goes wrong at Black Island,
it takes us back to the old days in a hurry.

Look Who's Back

Just when you think that winter is settling into
McMurdo, a visitor from the summer cruised into our
turning basin last night. The Nathanial B. Palmer
diverted from it's planned route and made course for
McMurdo when one of the folks aboard suffered a
non-life-threatening injury. However, it was determined
that it was beneficial to the patient to set heading for
the small Medical facilities here, as opposed to making
way for Lyttelton New Zealand, which at the time was
about a 12 day journey. The patient was brought into
town last night via helicopter and berthed in Dorm 155
(where I was enlisted to make up their room and bed
before they arrived). After examination last night
and follow up this morning, the patient was transported
by Haaglund over the ice to the waiting Natty B where
they then boarded. At 0905 the Nathanial B. Palmer
radioed it's intention to leave the turning basin and
immediately headed north to Lyttelton.

It was interesting to see a ship in the McMurdo vicinity
this late in the season. It hasn't happened since the
fuel tanker MV Richard G. Matthiesen visited the area
in 2003 during the over-ice fuel transfer of that year.
What was fun to see was the twinkling lights of the Natty
B. as she sat in the basin. Since most ships visit during
the 24/7 daylight summer season, their running lights are
never a factor during their visits. Although it was fun
to see, let's hope that this is the last visit from a
vessel to the McMurdo area for the next few months.