24 October, 1998

Well today is the end of the workweek for most people here at McMurdo. The workweek here is 6 days. I think I explained that in an early journal entry. Our research team even took some time off tonight. I have been working in the lab all day again removing gills from fish. At 9 pm we all stopped and walked over to a peninsula about a mile from here. The tip of the peninsula is called Hut Point. There is also a historical hut there that was built back in 1902 when the Captain Robert Scott's ship the Discovery was trapped in the ice for two years, thus giving the point it's name.

The weather here is quite cold. It got down to about -14F. The walk out to Hut Point was quite cold because I did not dress properly for it. I figured that since we were staying nearby I would not get cold just wearing a coat. The air was biting cold. On the way back we stopped at the only greenhouse in Antarctica. Some of the cooks here have a few vegetables growing in it and some flowers. It is not glass enclosed. It is enclosed in a small building. No light can get in. The light inside the building is supplied by large grow lights. Since it does not get dark here for part of the year and does not get light for the other part of the year a glass enclosed greenhouse would not work. Glass would not work anyway in this extreme cold. It was quite novel seeing green plants growing here.

Well that ends another day. I will be going on a little adventure tomorrow, putting work aside for awhile so I should have more to tell then. Bye again.