Amazing Occurances

Even though we are but a tiny town of 198 hard-working people, there is quite a lot of activity here in McMurdo, much of which is absolutely amazing.

One such activity is the construction of the new Ice Pier. As the crew has to work with the tides and all sorts of other challenging conditions, much of the needed work occurs at night. Actual night night as opposed to daytime night.

This is a picture (I Drive Photo) of the Pier being flooded to form the next layer of ice. Amazing, no? I bet if you didn't know any better, you'd think we had a heated swimming pool.
Actually, the water is a nice +27°F whereas the air is around -40°F.

A view of the pumps that spray the top layer of water onto the Pier.

A masterpiece constructed in the dark!
The Fleet Operations crew is doing some very difficult and tricky work to build the new Ice Pier, as we saw earlier this month when the bulldozer (dozer) had a little run-in with a crack in the sea ice.

Ouuu...

Eeeee...

Wow...
As the old ice pier cracked in February, this winter Fleet Operations (Thank Goodness I work in Supply!) is tasked with building a new ice pier, a feat attempted only every 10 years! So far the temperatures have been pretty warm (if one can call -56°F warm) which has hindered progress on the Ice Pier. It needs to be REALLY cold for the sea ice to firm up. Earlier this week one of the dozers was turning around on the sea ice to start some grooming and drove parallel to an ice crack. The dozer weighs some 80,000lbs. Well, it slipped part way into a crack! It took 10.5 hours to rescue the dozer from the sea ice. The first attempt to pull it loose resulted in a snapped cable, hence the two doubled up cables on the final try. Keep in mind that all of this is done in total darkness, in the middle of nowhere on the ICE!!! The Emergency Operations Center Core Team was activated (I am on the EOC, but not the core). Thankfully the situation was resolved with no injuries and all is now right in the world. It's important to note here also that so many of the issues we have to address here have never been addressed before, and so it is truly a reflection of the amazing talent, knowledge and courage of the people working here when these issues get resolved. Totally amazing.

Finally, our most beloved and empathized with crew this winter is Heat Trace. The Heat Trace team works outside every day. With metal pipes. Sometimes they have to chip ice away from pipes with jackhammers and handsaws...

like this. And look at them smile.
Justin, Karen and Chantel are my heroes.
And to think I complained about working outside in the sunlight in 12°F (-2°F) all day for ship off-load. Wow.