Hey! We really did go on a Three Hour Tour today!

Well if you didn't get enough of me after the last 1423 word essay (would someone please call any of my high school English teachers, I believe that I made it through school in just under 1300 words total) here is another review of a big day here in MacTown.

Today was cruise day. What is cruise day you ask, well it is when we all go for cruises. Duh! 400 people from town get ranomly selected to go on a three hour crusie on the Coast Guard Polar Sea. This is called ironically a 'Morale Cruise'. Ironically because as much as it helps morale, it also brings out most of the whiners in town that don't like how it is run, exspecially if they don't make the list. So there were two lists with 200 people on each, one for the 8am crusie and one for the 2pm cruise. And then there was a list of 100 alternates in case the full 200 didn't show up.

Well I was selected for the 2pm cruise and Paula was not on any list. So she would not get to be on either cruise. And so Paula decided to walk down to the Ice Pier with me and see if she could scale the side of the ship while no one was watching.

Here I am standing in line with 200 of my closest friends.



This is the indoor helicopter hanger/basketball court. They can fit 2 helos into the hanger. None were present today. We all were huddled into the hanger for safety instructions and generally wasting time and meking everyone sweat.



Please note here that I am in the photo. This is their one piece fire gear. All they need now is some sewn on booties to look really stupid. I don't know what the reason for the one piece suits are but that is what they have. I didn't take a photo of the MSA cartidge masks that convert CO to O3. The one crew member proudly told me that they would soon be switching to SCBA's. Welcome to the 1980's!?!? I know nothing about shipboard firefighting other than if you wait long enought it will sink and then the fire will go out. So I am just kidding with them.

Ok, so the reason that I am in the last photo is beacuse Paula is taking it. She did scale the side of the ship!!!



Here we are with the Polar Sea mascot. You can't even tell that Paula's clothes are all wet from swimming the channel.



Ah, a Diet Pepsi at last. It has been about 5 months that I have been waiting for this. I bought another one just to bring it back to town. It only has to last me until Feb. 14th.



Anyone need some Ice! Hey Al, TC is still in Antarctica. (Not you Burf, sorry for the confusion)



Here is a photo of the open channel. It is very wide at this point, probably 1000 to 1500 feet.


Here is the highlight of the day. Did I mention that I am watching ebay for a used Ice Breaker? The Captain took three runs into the ice to show us what it is like to break ice. That was GREAT! We were about 50 feet back from the bow of the ship and as the ship hit the ice it wasn't a sudden jerk, but instead we suddenly started going up. We would raise about 5 feet as the ship ran up onto the ice. And just as the ice edge would go past where we were standing, you would hear some loud cracking and then the ship would start to drop straight down. And you could watch this huge block crack off and get pushed out into the channel.

If you closely at this photo you can see the V on the left where the hull had ridden up on the ice. All of the broken ice that you see here is from one pass into the ice. Very Cool.



This is a Russian based cruise ship that is visiting the McMurdo area. I really know nothing about it, but it was cool to see. And they waived at us.



More ice cubes. Some of these are the size of our house. We took a walk down under the deck to listen to the ship go through the broken ice. Even though it is broken ice, it is still very hard hitting.



A profile view of the right side of the ship. I remembered the nautical terms for about 20 minutes. They are long gone now.



And Paula allong the right side as well. Did I mention the whinners before. Well the real reason that Paula got on the cruise was that so many of the 200 people on the list didn't show up, and so many of the 100 on the alt. list didn't show up that everyone standing around on the pier got to go on the cruise. Ok, now raise your hands if you really believed that she scaled that side of the ship. (Please note that my hand is up now.)



Here is a view of the upper deck. There is a stupid naudical term for this as well, it is the upper deck here.



And you all felt sorry for her when you thought she wouldn't make it on the ship. She has been on the Polar Star once before as well as on a Russian ice breaker back in the day.



Some wildlife was in the area, We saw several Minki whales surfacing along the trip, as well as a few Emperor penguins swimming in the channel. We have photos of seals sleeping. They are much easier to photograph.



A nice view off of the front of the ship with a good view of Ob hill in the background.



And a nice view of the left side of the ship. I like the open water trail where the breaker has been. The ship is 399' long and 83' wide. That is a wide channel.









And back to the Ice Pier we are.




This is a nice little chunck of ice left over from the ice cube that blocked the pier last week. Notice the vertical distance above the water line. That is a big chuck of ice underneitht.





And we round out the post with a few more photos of the Ice Pier. You may have noticed the five 6" hoses running off of the pier over the bridge and to the pipeline. These are for the offload of the fuel tanker. The tanker should be in port on Thursday of this week. But first on Monday the science ship the Palmer will be in port for 3 days.

That is all for today.
16 days left.
R.J.