It's So Good, You get two in one day!
Suggestion: Go to the first entry that I made today titled "Life on the Ice, Literally!" and then come back and read this one. It will all make more sense that way. Enjoy.
The original title of this post was "Lavocat! Where is my hound dog and rocking chair!" But I will save that title for another day. And the reason for two posts in one day is my lack of time in MacTown lately. I wrote my last blog on Wednesday and I didn't have time to post it on the web that day. And the last entry ended with "That is all of the excitement of last week. So far this week I have been in the shop all of the time and nothing to interesting to report." That all changed Thursday.
Anyone want to guess where I went, and what I went to go rescue, and why it needed rescuing?
Yep, we went north on Evans Road to Razorback Island, but it was Little Razorback Island this time.
And you area correct that we went to save another Pisten Bully with a leak. But I got you on the last one. It is a fuel leak instead of a hydraulic leak this time. The suprises never end here!
So Josh, myself and two Haz-Team members left at 3PM on Thursday to go asses the scene. We cleaned up what we could and determined that the fuel tank ruptured. So we found that the tank still had 68 liters of diesel fuel left in it. Luckly the tank also had a drain plug in it and we had two 55 gallon drums for contaminated snow on the trailer. No problem, just drain the tank and put it in the drum right? Well the PB is about 8" off of the ground and the drum is 4' tall. Not a good thing for draining the tank. So if you are an hour north of town on the sea ice in Antarctica and you need a drain pan what do you use? Well how about a tool box. I chucked all of the tools out onto the ice and pulled the plug. My index finger served as a stopper as the others dumped the toolbox full of JP-8 into the drum. Nothing like having a bath in fuel out on the ice in 5F weather.
The good part about this trip was that the PB was parked about 150' from several seas. And so I will have some really good photos next week.
Well we rolled back into town about 11PM. Remember at 11PM it looks the same out as it does at 11AM. Brught sunshine. Very interesting. The night foreman took us to Mid-rats dinner at Midnight. I have heard about Mid-rats before, and everyone says that is a very good meal because it is made in much smaller quanities than the day time meals. The dinner lived up to all of the hype. So that was one good thing about being out all night.
Then on Friday Josh and I took a Challenger out to drag the PB home. I won't get into all of the details, but it was a very look and frustrating day. We left the shop at 9AM and returned at 6PM. But we got it home.
If you click on the map and look closely you should see the areas that I have been talking about. The road heads straight from McMurdo to Tent Island and then to Cape Evans. You can see the Ice Tounge that we pass all of the time. It is a very nice drive in good weather. It is miserable in cloudy or bad weather. Oh and I get to drive it again on Sunday as a Cape Evans trip leader. I am hoping that they will soon change the neme to the RJ Road.
And for everyone's entertainment here are a few photos of our room. Paula is watching football and talking to Bill Reed on the phone.
Go Sabres!
R.J.
The original title of this post was "Lavocat! Where is my hound dog and rocking chair!" But I will save that title for another day. And the reason for two posts in one day is my lack of time in MacTown lately. I wrote my last blog on Wednesday and I didn't have time to post it on the web that day. And the last entry ended with "That is all of the excitement of last week. So far this week I have been in the shop all of the time and nothing to interesting to report." That all changed Thursday.
Anyone want to guess where I went, and what I went to go rescue, and why it needed rescuing?
Yep, we went north on Evans Road to Razorback Island, but it was Little Razorback Island this time.
And you area correct that we went to save another Pisten Bully with a leak. But I got you on the last one. It is a fuel leak instead of a hydraulic leak this time. The suprises never end here!
So Josh, myself and two Haz-Team members left at 3PM on Thursday to go asses the scene. We cleaned up what we could and determined that the fuel tank ruptured. So we found that the tank still had 68 liters of diesel fuel left in it. Luckly the tank also had a drain plug in it and we had two 55 gallon drums for contaminated snow on the trailer. No problem, just drain the tank and put it in the drum right? Well the PB is about 8" off of the ground and the drum is 4' tall. Not a good thing for draining the tank. So if you are an hour north of town on the sea ice in Antarctica and you need a drain pan what do you use? Well how about a tool box. I chucked all of the tools out onto the ice and pulled the plug. My index finger served as a stopper as the others dumped the toolbox full of JP-8 into the drum. Nothing like having a bath in fuel out on the ice in 5F weather.
The good part about this trip was that the PB was parked about 150' from several seas. And so I will have some really good photos next week.
Well we rolled back into town about 11PM. Remember at 11PM it looks the same out as it does at 11AM. Brught sunshine. Very interesting. The night foreman took us to Mid-rats dinner at Midnight. I have heard about Mid-rats before, and everyone says that is a very good meal because it is made in much smaller quanities than the day time meals. The dinner lived up to all of the hype. So that was one good thing about being out all night.
Then on Friday Josh and I took a Challenger out to drag the PB home. I won't get into all of the details, but it was a very look and frustrating day. We left the shop at 9AM and returned at 6PM. But we got it home.
If you click on the map and look closely you should see the areas that I have been talking about. The road heads straight from McMurdo to Tent Island and then to Cape Evans. You can see the Ice Tounge that we pass all of the time. It is a very nice drive in good weather. It is miserable in cloudy or bad weather. Oh and I get to drive it again on Sunday as a Cape Evans trip leader. I am hoping that they will soon change the neme to the RJ Road.
And for everyone's entertainment here are a few photos of our room. Paula is watching football and talking to Bill Reed on the phone.
Go Sabres!
R.J.
posted by R.J. at 9:29 PM
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