The past few weeks have been a waiting game of trying to get the resupply vessel and fuel tanker into station. The sea ice has not broken up like they hoped and the ice breaker broke down which made it more difficult to get the two boats into McMurdo safely.
The icebreaker escorting the resupply vessel through the channel.
The resupply vessel brings everything down that the McMurdo, South Pole and all the field camps need for at least a year. They plan two years in advance so really there are two years worth of supplies on station at any one time. This is nice since it is unlikely that people will go hungry and have to go club seals, but it also means that the Coke that you buy in the store is the Holiday 2004 edition. The resupply vessel also takes back all of the trash, pooh cake and some science equipment/samples. It is really an amazing process to see how much stuff comes off the boat and how much it takes back to the States.
The resupply vessel at the ice pier, with the ice breaker and fuel tanker in the background. The orange and white millvans will be loaded on the boat to go back to the States. Each millvan is about half the size of a semi-trailer.
The fuel tanker carries a huge amount of fuel - at least four different types that are used for everything down here. Just about everything, except a few pieces of equipment at field camps, is run on some sort of fuel. They are talking about going towards renewable energy sources(wind and solar) but haven't made much progress yet.
On a side note, everything at South Pole gets there by airplane. We send millions of pounds of cargo and fuel to pole every year - in 25,000 pound chunks. The C-130 airplanes can carry about 25,000 pounds of fuel or cargo. It turns out that this is Mike's main job. Getting the cargo ready to be shipped on the planes to the South Pole.
This is one piece of cargo that we built (this picture was taken at 3 AM). This pallet train was about 25,000 pounds and completely filled the plane. We pushed the sled to the back of the plane and then pushed the cargo onto the plane.
2 comments:
Club SEALS!!!????? (Thank goodness this is highly unlikely!)But I wonder..isn't there a more humane way to find food? :) :)
I love all of your pictures and posts! I'm learning so much!
We have learned so much too! More than I ever dreamed. We are getting geared up for the mass exodus off the ice soon. We are flying about 250 people a week off the ice since winter is fast approaching. Today, the wind and cold is so bad I barely stuck my head out long enough to get from building to building. Mike and I should get to see the first sunset here though right before we leave.
See you in April!
Andrea
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