16 October, 1998

What a fantastic day.  Today was another fishing expedition.  Our entire
research team of 5 people loaded up a sled, took 5 snowmobiles and headed
our to Cape Evans for a day of fish collection.  I keep calling it fishing
but what we are doing is collecting fish (alive) for our research.  For all
of the researchers to conduct their various studies several hundred fish
are needed and various sizes are also needed.  My research only needs small
fish, 5 or 6 inches long.  These smaller fish seem to be the most hardy and
survive better on the return trips to the aquarium.

The hour it took to get to our destination was like riding a roller
coaster.  Dr. Petzel decided that since I was older than the others I would
follow at the rear on my snowmobile.  The first two snowmobiles carrying
the 3 graduate students left first and then I followed Dr. Petzel who was
pulling a large wooden sled with our gear.  The sled resembled a dog sled
seen in movies about the North.  I figured that we would have a nice
leisurely ride to the cape.  Boy was I mistaken.  Dr. Petzel is like a
demon on a snowmobile.

The trip out to Cape Evans took about an hour and it was across sea ice
that ran past glaciers, islands and mountains on both sides of the bay.
The only trouble was I was too busy hanging on for dear life and trying to
keep up with Dr. Petzel.  You would think that sea ice would be pretty
smooth.  Again not so.  Now I am from Kentucky where we do not get enough
snow for snowmobiles so I had no experience on these vehicles.  We were
given a one hour lecture about snowmobiling when I first arrived and that
was the extent of my instruction.

Sea ice has what are called pressure ridges where the two edges of
different areas are pushing together and form rising ridges.  The big ones
you can see and avoid, in most cases.  Snow covers much of the ice where it
has blown in.  The snow forms mounds and valleys which cannot be seen very
easily.  At a nice leisurely speed they are easy to ride over.  In my case,
I had two choices:  drive at a nice leisurely speed and fall behind or keep
up with the pack and hang on for dear life.  Since I did not know where we
were going I had to make the latter choice.  Believe me some of the ridges
and mounds had surprises for me.  I would go up and the snowmobile would go
down or vice versa.  It was ratherfun sort of like a roller coaster and as
jerky.  I survived and was no worse for the wear when we arrived.  Dr.
Petzel has to be part madman.  The sled he was dragging was veering crazily
back and forth.  A couple of times I thought the sled was going to flip but
he made it. Oh yes, we were flying at 50 miles per hour!

Located at Cape Evans is the hut that Captain Robert Scott built and set
out for the tragic trip to the South Pole.  We were able to walk through
the hut.  It was really a trip through history.  Everything has been left
there.  The original food containers, stacks of seal skins, the science
laboratory, their beds.  One could almost hear the voices of hose five
early explorers.  The building actually housed 25 men and 19 horses.  It
was amazing to find so much history still intact.  Although the hut looked
pretty run down and gloomy to us in 1911 it was home for two years to 25
brave men.  There is a hill behind the hut where a cross has been erected
as a memorial to two other explorers who perished on the sea ice in a
blizzard in 1916.  This was another reminder of the price paid in the
attempts to conquer Antarctica.

After our journey through the hut we had to get to work and drill holes in
the sea ice so we could fish.  The ice here was about 8 feet thick.  The
jiffy drill bit comes in pieces each a yard long.  Putting each piece
together as you drill down through the ice is quite difficult.  Since we
needed six holes Dr. Petzel and I decided to not take apart the drill bits
each time.  We, instead positioned two of the snowmobiles together and
stood on them while we drilled the other holes.  I am sure that if anyone
else saw us they would think we were crazy.  We did however manage to get
all six holes drilled and caught quite a few fish.  I think I caught 12 in
an hours time.  We were quite successful in our fishing trip bringing back
several fish to add to our growing collection.

The trip back to McMurdo was much like the trip out only going out there
was no wind so I did not get cold.  On the trip back the wind picked up and
I was a bit chilled driving at 50 mph in a blowing snow.  There was not a
lot of snow in the wind but it went right through my clothes.  As we
returned we saw the C141 cargo jet taking off from the sea ice.  That was
only the 3rd flight that has been able to land in two weeks.

In the last week the population at McMurdo has gone from about 150 people to
over 800 people so McMurdo is getting crowded.  There are lots of new faces
and lots of new research getting started.  It is becoming quite a busy
community.

Well that is all of the adventures for a few days because for the next
three days at least I have to start my research and that will take every
bit of those days.  There will be no time for outside activities.  That
ends another day.  I have about three weeks left so stay tuned for more.