McMurdo Dispatch
Weather: 22F, Winds 5, Scattered, Unrestricted
Greetings All,
I hope this DSP finds everyone happy, stuffed and enjoying a long holiday weekend. Our current weather looks more like a Colorado fall day rather than an Antarctic summer day. As you can see I am still sending email, which means I am still stuck at McMurdo Station; not my favorite place to be stuck, if you know what I mean. We have had a great deal of headaches getting out of town and getting our camp put in. I will do my best to summerize whats been going on down here.
As I had mentioned before, some critical equipment has not shown up here to enable us to head out, including all of my medical gear. We have several basecamp structures, heaters, generators and such still enroute from God knows where. So, for the past two weeks we have been sitting in conference call meetings with the NSF guys in Washington trying to put together a reasonable plan to make this a successful science season, which is what we are here to do. However, its getting a bit out of control. I have never sat in more than two meetings in my career down here upon arrival; we take care of all that before arriving, so this has been, to say the least, a bit of a nightmare. Our latest plan (there have been 6 as of Friday) is to head South to the Pole to acclimatize and then move to our 13,000 foot camp and build it out for science. This presents a bunch of new logistical issues as we had not planned to go on a camping trip to the South Pole on this outing.
Now, due to the Thanksgiving holiday and the time/day differences from here and D.C. our crew has been anxiousely awaiting this next Tuesday's meeting to see what has changed since Friday's meeting. Its all part of the job, but lets get it done already.
We enjoyed Thansgiving yesterday and it was a hoot. You can not imagine the food that was prepared for the folks down here...really great. So it was a good relaxing weekend with a little work thrown in to remind us where we are and what we are doing here.
As mentioned, I hope everyone had a great holiday. I will keep in touch and fill you all in when we have a plan.
Take care and be safe up there!
Cheers,
Tayloe
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Finally Made It
McMurdo Station Dispatch
Weather: Sunny, Winds 8NNW, 4F
Greetings all,
As you can see from the weather report I have made it to Antarctica, a Good thing as the surf turned up flat in NZ the last three days I was there. We flew via C17 airframe, which is a super huge military aircraft that delivered an uneventful, 5-1/2 hour flight.
Our crew has been stymied since arrival as our basecamp gear has not arrived in Antarctica and support is limited from departments here on station since we purchase all our gear ahead of time and expected no station support. We have no tents, medical equipment, sleeping bags and the such, so we are chasing our tails trying to come up with other plans. This isn't usually the drill for our crew!
A Recce flight to our proposed altitude camp was done last night and did not look as good as we had expected. Soft snow at one site and bulletproof at the other. Here was the conditions at our 1,200 foot camp: Temp. -45F; Winds 30 knots; Pressure Altitude 1,300 feet. We did expect cold windy conditions, but -45 with pressure altitudes of 13 grand was a little surprising. As this is a high risk, high altitude camp and with the current gear issues we are facing we have just about decided to change the whole plan as in, a Christmas back home in Colorado would be pretty cool nice right about now. In all seriousness, we may decide to do a light basecamp and sort things out up there for next season. Possibly no science this season, just our crew going up and checking the situation out. A little camp-out session you could say. But we shall see.
We will find out a lot more this evening as we have several meetings with the pilots and crew. Either way I still have to make my way out to Kristin's camp that she set up two seasons ago to check on our other medics who are there now. That camp is a world a part from this project.
Hope all is well up there and life is treatin' ya fair.
Tayloe
Weather: Sunny, Winds 8NNW, 4F
Greetings all,
As you can see from the weather report I have made it to Antarctica, a Good thing as the surf turned up flat in NZ the last three days I was there. We flew via C17 airframe, which is a super huge military aircraft that delivered an uneventful, 5-1/2 hour flight.
Our crew has been stymied since arrival as our basecamp gear has not arrived in Antarctica and support is limited from departments here on station since we purchase all our gear ahead of time and expected no station support. We have no tents, medical equipment, sleeping bags and the such, so we are chasing our tails trying to come up with other plans. This isn't usually the drill for our crew!
A Recce flight to our proposed altitude camp was done last night and did not look as good as we had expected. Soft snow at one site and bulletproof at the other. Here was the conditions at our 1,200 foot camp: Temp. -45F; Winds 30 knots; Pressure Altitude 1,300 feet. We did expect cold windy conditions, but -45 with pressure altitudes of 13 grand was a little surprising. As this is a high risk, high altitude camp and with the current gear issues we are facing we have just about decided to change the whole plan as in, a Christmas back home in Colorado would be pretty cool nice right about now. In all seriousness, we may decide to do a light basecamp and sort things out up there for next season. Possibly no science this season, just our crew going up and checking the situation out. A little camp-out session you could say. But we shall see.
We will find out a lot more this evening as we have several meetings with the pilots and crew. Either way I still have to make my way out to Kristin's camp that she set up two seasons ago to check on our other medics who are there now. That camp is a world a part from this project.
Hope all is well up there and life is treatin' ya fair.
Tayloe
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Almost Flying
New Zealand Dispatch
Weather: Not worth mentioning
Hey All,
Still in NZ waiting a flight down. Next flight is Tuesday and I have ben cleared to fly. Surf has dropped so I will stay out of the water and be a good steward to the United States Antarctic Program!
Cheers,
Tayloe
Weather: Not worth mentioning
Hey All,
Still in NZ waiting a flight down. Next flight is Tuesday and I have ben cleared to fly. Surf has dropped so I will stay out of the water and be a good steward to the United States Antarctic Program!
Cheers,
Tayloe
Friday, November 9, 2007
Sick from Surfing
New Zealand Dispatch
Weather: Blue skys, 74F, No surf report
Greetings All,
Sorry all these emails are from NZ; our flight got nixxed again this morning. I guess the weather is really bad down South.
I guess that I should not have been rolling in my own good fortune surfing my days away since I spent the today at the medical clinic due to a sinus and outer ear infection...YES, due to cold water surfing! THE BAD NEWS...So I've managed to get myself pulled from all flights until Tuesday to let the meds do their job. THE GOOD NEWS...The Doc seems to think because I am on antibiotics and steroids that surfing should not be an issue as long as I wear ear plugs. So it all seems to work out in the end for me to surf some more. On that note, big swells are heading this way and should make landfall Sunday morning. So I'm headed out to Taylor's Mistake to stay with some surf buddies until Monday night.
Hope all is well, be safe out there and roll Steady,
Tayloe
Weather: Blue skys, 74F, No surf report
Greetings All,
Sorry all these emails are from NZ; our flight got nixxed again this morning. I guess the weather is really bad down South.
I guess that I should not have been rolling in my own good fortune surfing my days away since I spent the today at the medical clinic due to a sinus and outer ear infection...YES, due to cold water surfing! THE BAD NEWS...So I've managed to get myself pulled from all flights until Tuesday to let the meds do their job. THE GOOD NEWS...The Doc seems to think because I am on antibiotics and steroids that surfing should not be an issue as long as I wear ear plugs. So it all seems to work out in the end for me to surf some more. On that note, big swells are heading this way and should make landfall Sunday morning. So I'm headed out to Taylor's Mistake to stay with some surf buddies until Monday night.
Hope all is well, be safe out there and roll Steady,
Tayloe
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Surf Report
New Zealand Dispatch
Weather is clear and 60F temps.
Off shore winds with surf 4-6 feet, beach break - sand bar and peeling left handers
Greetings all,
Well, as you can see by the weather and wave report I am still in NZ. Thought that I would post the lastest surf reports until I get down South as surfing is all that I am doing while waiting for our flight out.
Our plan is to depart tomorrow at 1:30 a.m. to try and sneak out before the next weather hits. I'll send more on arrival to MCM (McMurdo Station).
Hope all is well where you are and be safe out there.
Roll steady,
Tayloe
Weather is clear and 60F temps.
Off shore winds with surf 4-6 feet, beach break - sand bar and peeling left handers
Greetings all,
Well, as you can see by the weather and wave report I am still in NZ. Thought that I would post the lastest surf reports until I get down South as surfing is all that I am doing while waiting for our flight out.
Our plan is to depart tomorrow at 1:30 a.m. to try and sneak out before the next weather hits. I'll send more on arrival to MCM (McMurdo Station).
Hope all is well where you are and be safe out there.
Roll steady,
Tayloe
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Greetings from New Zealand
New Zealand Dispatch
Weather is overcast, with nightly rain and 60F temps.
Greetings from New Zealand,
Once again this morning we all got up before the sun was out to learn that the flight South was nixed due to weather at McMurdo. Four full days here in New Zealand is usually a good time with good food and a great city to be in, but it’s time to get on with it…I am ready to head South and take care of business.
Here is a picture to show you just how hard I am really working while here in NZ.
When the weather is crap in Antarctica and pushing to the North the surf builds and slams into the coast of NZ so we naturally take advantage of it. We have to do something while awaiting our ride!
Cheers,
Tayloe
Weather is overcast, with nightly rain and 60F temps.
Greetings from New Zealand,
Once again this morning we all got up before the sun was out to learn that the flight South was nixed due to weather at McMurdo. Four full days here in New Zealand is usually a good time with good food and a great city to be in, but it’s time to get on with it…I am ready to head South and take care of business.
Here is a picture to show you just how hard I am really working while here in NZ.
When the weather is crap in Antarctica and pushing to the North the surf builds and slams into the coast of NZ so we naturally take advantage of it. We have to do something while awaiting our ride!
Cheers,
Tayloe
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)