5 October, 1998

Today was the second day of the survival training course. It was another long day but it was full of essential training. We were trained in how to use the cold weather survival kits that each person must have when they travel away from McMurdo for any length of time. The weather is so variable here that you can leave McMurdo on a bright sunny day and get no more than an hour away and be hit by raging storms that can last for several days preventing your return to the safety and warmth of McMurdo Station. We had to problem solve several possible disaster scenarios and conduct a simulated search for a person lost during a whiteout. A whiteout occurs when the winds blow so hard that you can only see a few inches in front of your face during a blizzard. This can happen at any time of the year anywhere in Antarctica. We returned to McMurdo about 5 pm. The rest of the time I worked in the aquarium extracting blood from fish for our research. I will describe the research in better detail in a later entry. I am getting tired and want to get this on the computer so I can add it to my electronic journal. It is almost ll pm.