Things have been a wee crazy around here lately. For a week, all the flights were getting cancelled and people who had been trying to leave were stuck because of weather in McMurdo. FINALLY a Herc made it in with 25 new people, but never made it out with the 25 people it was supposed to take away in exchange, because the weather shifted unexpectedly. Usually the Hercs never even turn off their engines in the cold of South Pole--they land, stay on deck for an hour while cargo and people are off-loaded and on-loaded, and then take off again asap. But this Herc had no choice but to park for the night, and by the morning its crew members had timed out on their on-duty limits and couldn't be the ones to fly the plane back. But also by the time the plane had been sitting here for just one night, it wasn't going to be able to start up and fly again safely without some help/repairs. So counting the flight crew, we had about 30 more people at the base than we could accommodate with rooms. People were sleeping in out-buildings, on couches in common areas, on mattresses in the gym. Amid all this chaos, we had a near-tragedy: a Twin Otter plane, trying to take off to evacuate a solo trekker in distress, lost a ski just before lift-off and veered off the runway. We had a full station emergency response, not knowing if anyone on board had survived. Miraculously, none of the three crew members on board had even a scratch on them. So scary, though. So then it took a couple more days before they were able to complete the investigation of that incident, fly in parts on a Basler, and get the Twin Otter away from the runway. (Until all that happened, another Herc was not going to be able to fly in and use our runway to land and finally take all the extra people away.) In short, insanity. The galley has an electronic scroll that runs 24-7 with weather conditions, galley menus, recreation schedules, etc., and one of the slides on the scroll shows flight info with station population on the bottom. The station population cap is supposed to be 150, but we were already a bit higher than that when all this craziness started, and at some point the person who updates that scroll gave up listing the population and just wrote this:
Which I'm assuming means: "Too F**king Many."
But as I write this weekly snapshot, things have calmed down a bit. A working Herc finally made it in and out again, and our station population is down to a manageable 156. While the Herc that overnighted here is still stuck/parked here for reasons I'm not really in the loop on and we're still in need of more planes to get all kinds of backed-up cargo and people in and out of here, we're quickly barreling toward the end of the summer and station close. Less than three weeks to go, now. Summer-only people's redeployment dates back to New Zealand and subsequent travel plans are the major topic of conversation. And yesterday I took the pre-winter pregnancy test that all women who are wintering are required to take, so as to be sure there is no labor and delivery going on here before the station re-opens in late October/early November. I've been hearing people joke and talk about this rite of passage into winter since I was here last summer and now it was me actually taking the test. Hard to believe.
And, of course, the weekly snapshot. A gorgeous day, as usual for Tuesdays this summer!
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