Always summer, never warm.
This is the mantra painted in the Coast Guard's
Polar Sea Icebreaker. While enjoying warm summers up north I've chosen a second chilly summer in McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

eyes on the skies

Ironically, today the weather looks miserable outside. We've got blowing snow and low visibility next to yesterday's brilliant clear day that never turned stormy; well, it was a touch windy, but a plane could have landed. I say 'ironic' because the C-17 is in the air today to pick us up. I'm having a hard time packing up the few things into my carry-on bag or take the sheets off my bed because I don't quite believe it will actually land.

However, I will prepare for the 1230 transport time to my plane and hope we get off the ground at about 1530, or so. The ride out to Pegasus airfield is about 1 hour long and skirts around the edge of the temporary sea ice on the Ross Permanent Ice Shelf.

If we transport for this flight, I sure hope the plane doesn't boomerang back to Christchurch, because then we'd have to head all the way back into town and do our goodbyes another day!

But, I'm sure there is a weather window the observers have spotted in the next few hours, and my next post will be from New Zealand.

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