Blizzardy Day and the Possibilty of Walking on Ice

finally, it's the continent that most people read about. it's white, it's blowing, and it's cold. we can no long see our ocean as the ice has now stretched into the horizon. this all happened in the course of a little over a week. the past week-ish. i haven't really been posting a whole lot lately, given that life here has it's ups and downs. the past several days has been quite a roller coaster for operations and events.

one of the scientists on station decided (not our group cuz we don't fish) that he would tie a weighted long line (literally a long fishing line with lots of hooks and weights attached to it.) to the pier and leave it there for days on end. with the Gould coming down with supplies and more folks, this line became a problem as the weather turned and the ice approached. sure enough, the Gould arrived and found out that it can't tie up to the pier because of the line. the captain of the Gould was worried that the nylon line would get wrapped around the prop shaft of the boat and blow a gasket on the shaft. the ice would have been no problem at that point in time, but as time went on it was clear that the ice wasn't leaving and the line will remain frozen in the ice.

now, as i write this (in between incubations), there are folks on the ice with a chainsaw, cutting through the ice to cut the line til 50ft out and letting the line sink (if it can). this way the Gould will be able to tie up at the pier. we'll see how that goes.....


LMG doing doughtnuts in Arthur Harbor