14 November, 1999

Mcmurdo Station, Antarctica Sunday

I attended Mass this morning at the chapel. I had misidentified the name of the chapel in previous entries. The chapel is called "Chapel of the Snows". Father Bede Haughey, the Catholic priest from New Zealand, tricked me into playing the guitar! He asked if I played the guitar and I said yes but, I didn't have my guitar with me. He promptly turned to a closet and produced a very nice, tuned, guitar. I was stuck! It went well and a fellow TEA, Bruce Smith, kindly took two photos of me playing and singing in my hoarse voice, a result of talking over loud music the previous night! Looks like I'm going to be the sole musician for our little congregation at next Sunday's Mass, as well! Thirty or so people attended Mass and, as you can see from my attire, it was a casual atmosphere. Father Bede wore gym shoes! After Mass, we attended a very nice brunch in the galley. They served Eggs Benedict, Eggs Florentine, Fritatta, and even prepared home-made waffles! The food was exceptional!

I spent my lab time setting tubing on valves and attaching the valves to our sampling bags. When I completed this job, I came to the computer lab to check on email from Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I also needed to load my digital images from snow school onto my zip disk. To my surprise, I had over 40 email messages to respond to! That, coupled with working on the digital images, took me 4 hours to complete! I returned after supper and wrote journals for Friday and Saturday, completing my task at 9:00!. Julie, Maite, and Steve had gone skiing, Bess and Mark had gone bowling, so I slipped onto a stool at our local tavern (Gallagher's) and wrote postcards.

Answer to yesterday's question: You must always approach a helicopter from the front so the pilot can see you. A Kiwi pilot told me to pretend that the helicopter is at 12 o'clock. You must come toward the front of the helicopter between 10 and 2 o'clock. Even though the blades of the helicopter rotor are well above your head, you should approach the helicopter hunched over because often the blades will be forced down because of the wind. Never approach a helicopter from behind. The pilot cannot see you and the blades on the tail section are low and difficult to see.

Today's question: We are getting prepared to work in a very remote area that is accessible only by helicopter. We must pack food for the day and extra food in the event that the weather changes and the helicopter cannot come to pick us up. What kinds of foods do you think we should bring? What should we drink? Remember that Antarctica is a desert. We will carry hot water with us.

Sharon

JUST FOR KIDS!!!!! Today I attended Mass and Father Bede asked me to play the guitar! I was not very prepared but everyone seemed to like it! Among all of the other exciting things I have done in Antarctica, now I can add that I played the guitar at Mass! Father Bede has asked me to play again next Sunday!

I worked in the laboratory putting tubing (like a garden hose) on little spigots. The other end of the tubing was put on our sampling bags. We are almost ready for our first field adventure scheduled for Wednesday! Only the weather can stop us!

I had over 40 email messages from Thursday, Friday, and Saturday! I answered all of them, put the pictures that I will include with my journals on the computer, and wrote some postcards.

Answer to yesterday's question: You must always approach a helicopter from the front so the pilot can see you. A Kiwi pilot told me to pretend that the helicopter is at 12 o'clock. You must come toward the front of the helicopter between 10 and 2 o'clock. Even though the blades of the helicopter rotor are well above your head, you should approach the helicopter hunched over because often the blades will be forced down because of the wind. Never approach a helicopter from behind. The pilot cannot see you and the blades on the tail section are low and difficult to see.

Today's question: We are getting prepared to work in a very remote area that only be reached by helicopter. We must pack food for the day and extra food in the event that the weather changes and the helicopter cannot come to pick us up. What kinds of foods do you think we should bring? What should we drink? Remember that Antarctica is a desert. We will carry hot water with us.

Sharon

Sharon playing guitar at Sunday Mass in Chapel of the Snows.