On the Road

Santa finds his way south….Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from McMurdo, Antarctica

Martina prepares for Santa’s arrival

Antarctic Road Kill–outrun by a Bombadier……stay tuned for New Years!!!

There is nothing so much more enjoyable than spending your sunny Sunday fishing with Art DeVries. He always catches fish (even has one named after him–Paraliparis devriesi) and if you are lucky you will see a seal snout or two. Art is reasearching glycoproteins in a fish called Dissotichus mawsoni, a big ugly fish that just so happens to be good to eat. You’ve probably seen this fish in the fish market as Chilean Sea Bass (really a Toothfish). It seems these and the other sea creatures down here can exist in supercold water–almost minus 2 degrees Celsius–without freezing due to this glycoprotein. We tow out a PolarHaven (Weatherport) on a sledge and drill some holes in the ice and start fishing….

It’s warm and snug in the tent and we jig off the bottom which is about 175 feet below the ice next to Inaccessible Island using Art’s Antarctic certified K-mart special spincasting rods which are about 2 feet long. This is a new site that Art is interested in and we pull plenty of smaller Trematomus newnesi and Pagothenia borchgrevinki (“borkys”) from the deep. These fish give their lives to researchers Clarabelle DeVries, Bryan Palmintier, Paul Sziko and Kevin Hoefling pictured here in an Antarctic Hot Tub …..

in their efforts to elucidate the molecular structure of AFGP (Antifreeze Glyco-Protien). Visit this field guide site for more info on antarctic fishes.

After catching about 60 fish, we’re plumb tuckered out and have to rest a bit before making the journey in the Pisten Bully back to McMurdo, 15 miles south. Stay tuned for Christmas!

It’s always an interesting week and this week was no exception here at McMurdo Sound. First a quick tour around our station. Above is Derelict Junction (meeting place/parking lot) with the galley off to the left and the housing on the right. Dead ahead are two old Seabee Quonset huts–the first is our local non-smoking pub called the Coffee House and just beyond is our two lane bowling alley. Finally the chapel which houses the only functional piano on the continent.

Thanksgiving day, we feast on canned turkey with all the canned trimmings….not bad actually. Our chefs do wonders with a can-opener and we are eternally grateful. Good wine helps, I might add.

On Sunday, our special guest is none other than Sir Edmund Hillary who most people associate with the first ascent of Mt. Everest. What most people don’t know is that he was the first to drive overland with a fleet of five farm tractors to the South Pole arriving in 1958. He arrived with only 18 gallons of spare fuel! If you think these Massey-Ferguson farm tractors were modern heated tractors with radios, guess again….

With a wonderful velvet voice and a tweed suit, he packed the galley with enthusiastic fans. Later, I was able to shake his hand and recall four years ago in Auckland when I was invited into his home to share a pot of tea and discuss his Everest adventures. “Did you get a good cup of tea?” he inquired. Indeed, I did.

Not to be outdone at age 84, he cut steps up a hillside with his ice axe and unveiled the new Hillary Field Centre. Then it was off in a helicopter to tour the dry valleys and a trip up Mt. Erebus. Upon landing, he exited the helicopter stepping on a specially built platform–dubbed the “Hillary Step” by the New Zealand carpenters.

The weather has been absolutely splendid this week with near 40 degree temperatures. The heat in our room is over 80 degrees with both windows open! McMurdo Station runs with small mountain streams, the sea ice is full of small lakes with breathing holes–enough to encourage the penguins to abandon their incarceration at the Penguin Ranch–a biologist research station about 6 miles north. 1000 lb Weddell seals lounge in the sun carelessly for they have no predators here. We expect the ice breaker Polar Star within a month to open the harbor and admit the killer whales. Then the seals will have predators, so stay tuned….next weekend we will go fishing at Inaccessible Island.