Life goes on here in the land at the bottom of the globe. During the last couple of weeks it has started getting colder again. The icebreaker has come into town, followed by a fuel ship that spent the last week replenishing all of the diesel, jet fuel and automotive gasoline needed for the next year.

This photo shows the icebreaker (Polar Star) on the left and fuel tanker arriving in McMurdo. Both of these are U.S.-registered vessels. The Polar Star works in the Arctic when it is not working in Antarctica. The fuel ship had arrived from Greece, where it had just completed a fueling mission.

Last week McMurdo was visited by the first of several cruise ships that are expected this season. This ship was the Kapitan Khlebnikov, a Russian icebreaker with room for 100+ passengers that has found gold in bringing tourists down here. For US$12,000 to $20,000 it takes passengers on a 21-day cruise of this area. This is quite a good cruise ship for down here because this ship can break through ice when normal cruise ships have to turn back because their hulls aren't strong enough. This ship has two helicopters on board that can each hold about 10 passengers. For shore visits, the helicopters fly back and forth ferrying the passengers on and off the plane. This was quite efficient. In 30 minutes, they had deposited 100+ mostly elderly travelers in red parkas similar to ours (which each passenger is required to purchase) into our little town of 1000 people. These people spent a half day touring around the town before heading off to see the Dry Valleys, Scott's hut at Cape Evans and the penguin rookery at Cape Royds. All three of these places were covered in previous emails that we sent. So, you can see all of these places from your home and save lots of money by looking at our website "www.jeanbert.com".

This photo shows the Kapitan Khlebnikov in the background and one of its helicopters landing and dropping off more passengers to join the ones already waiting for the tour to start.

Last week, Bert visited AGO6, an Automated Geophysical Observatory located about three hours flying time to the North West of McMurdo. The map of Antarctica that is included with this email on our website shows more of where AGO6 is located and has several other photos of the little unattended hut that Bert visited. Once each year, each of the six huts like this is visited by a 3-4 person crew that refuel it, swap hard disks so that the data can be given to the scientists and make any repairs and improvements.

This photo Bert in front of the LC130 Hercules plane that took him to AGO6 and back. The flight back was somewhat eventful because the plane required eight attempts before it could take off. Each time, more cargo was left behind in order to lighten the load. They could have also waited a couple of hours for the weather to cool off, but this was a Saturday, and the National Guard people flying the plane wanted to get home. Along the fuselage in front of the rear cargo door you can see four rockets. These are ATO (Assisted Take Off) rockets that are fired to get the plane off of the snow. The plane must be moving 58 knots/hr on the snow before these can be fired and ensure that the plane will become airborne. They give 12 seconds of extra power (and a big push) at the critical time to lift the skis off the snow.

This picture shows what an AGO looks like. It is a 7 ft x 7 ft x 12 foot box that sits on stilts above the snow. Inside it is heated by propane. A thermoelectric generator converts some of this heat to electricity to run the unit in an unattended fashion throughout the year.

Here is a map of Antarctica which shows each of the AGOs as well as other major landing sites for U.S. National Guard planes. To help orient you, NPX is the three-letter international airport code for the South Pole. ZCM, NPG and NGD are the three airports we have in McMurdo. VOS is the Russian station at Vostok, which is now supported by flights from McMurdo.

A while ago, we received an email from one of Bert's relatives asking questions about what life and work are like in McMurdo. Here are some of his questions and our responses:

Q1. What is the housing situation? Do you have a room together?

The two of us share a dormitory room that has a toilet and shower shared with an adjacent 2-person room. Each dorm room does have its own sink and mirror. We also have a refrigerator in our room, but haven't found any use for it. The room is about 60% of the size of our condominium in Boulder. The dormitory buildings are large two-story or three-story buildings.

Q2. What are the work times, are they flexible?

We work six days per week for nine hours per day. The work schedule for us (and for many others) are from 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM. About 20-25% of the people here work the night shift. At the South Pole Station, there are about as many people who work nights as work days and construction goes on in three shifts around the clock. They are in the process of building a new South Pole Station and it is expected to take until 2006 to finish this project.

Q3. What do you do for meals?

We eat in a large cafeteria-style hall called the "Galley" (named during the time that the U.S. Navy ran this station. There are three normal meal times during the day and a fourth one at midnight for the people who work the night shift. All the food is free for all you can eat, and this year the food is outstanding (comparable to a Club Med). We don't have fresh food flown in every day, but we seem to be able to have "freshies" most days.

Q4. What do you do when you're not working?

We often have long dinners in the galley. Then Bert usually goes to work with his email or onto the web to read the newspaper. Jean has already read a number of books. One can also play basketball, volleyball or bowling. There are all kinds of possibility for crafts. We now go to the gym to work out on exercise bikes in the mornings before work. There are three bars here--one for smokers, one for non-smoking drinkers and a coffee bar. About twice a week there is an optional evening science lecture. Tonight's lecture is by an astronaut that was on MIR. Another evening each week there is a travel slide show, similar to Changes in Latitudes in Boulder. Tomorrow night's slide show is being given by Bert's boss and is entitled "Travelling Through Africa on a Dump Truck." It is also possible to take hikes in the area.

Q5. How big is the library? How big is the video library?

The library has quite a few books that people have left here over the years, but there are few recent best sellers. It is possible to order books here from amazon.com. We tried this and the book arrived about two months later. The video collection is reasonable and it costs nothing to check one out. There aren't any recent releases, but in the last couple of months we've managed to see most of Stanley Kubrick's eleven films and some other classics.

Q6. Is there radio and TV?

I think we have three radio stations--National Public Radio, Armed Services Radio and a locally-produced broadcast that uses volunteer disk jockeys. I believe that there are two TV stations. The first is Armed Services Television, which has lots of football. The other is a local station that plays videos.

Q7. Is the alcohol rationed?

Each person can buy one bottle of hard liquor or two bottles of wine or a case of beer each day. When the freight ship comes into port during the next couple of weeks alcohol sales are stopped at both the store and the bars. Hard liquor at the store is much less expensive than it is in the U.S.

Q8. Is there an alcohol or drug problem?

I think there is a bit of an alcohol problem, but people who can't fulfill their job duties are sent home. There are almost no illegal drugs here because it is so difficult to get them here. New Zealand customs is quite strict. After getting it by their sniffer dogs, etc, you have to get them onto a military transport down to here. They have however, discovered marijuana plants in the attics of some of the dorms.

Q9. Are there places where one can smoke, or is this only allowed outside?

There is one bar that has smoking inside. Otherwise, the smokers congregate in the porched areas outside of the buildings. Here is a picture of a dormitory. The smokers hang out on the small balcony at the front.

Q10. What is the situation with intellectual snobbism?

There are some scientists that stick more together, but for the most part everyone talks with everyone. It surprised us that there are quite a few people here who are not that interested in the science here (preferring to go bowling instead, for example). Bert learns a lot about the science here because each time a science group breaks an instrument, they have to explain what they're using it for so he can fix it.

Q11. Is there hierarchy (formal or informal) and are there group meetings about the business?

There is an enormous formal hierarchy in Antarctic Support Associates (ASA), the company we work for that provides all the support functions here. In an organization of 600 employees, there are five levels between Bert and the top ASA manager in McMurdo. Every level of management has its own meetings and sends out minutes of their meetings.

ASA is not a very efficient organization. They are directly by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) for all of their costs. They get a percentage on top of this as their profit and management fee. Thus, the more I spend on instruments and parts, the more "profit" that ASA earns. (It isn't quite this straightforward, but it does appear to work roughly this way.) There are also complex politics and negotiations that occur between ASA, NSF and the National Guard (that makes most of the flights).

Since everyone here has no place to spend their money on, status is determined by two factors, the quality of your housing and the "boondoggles" you get to go on. Regarding housing, some people get a dorm room of their own (the National Guard). Others get double rooms with a toilet/shower shared between two rooms. Still others get a double room and have their showers, washing facilities and shower down the hall. The lowest level people get rooms with more than two to a room. The room you get is determined by the job you have and how much "ice time" you've accumulated. We made it to one of the higher rungs immediately because Jean's job as a doctor gave her lots of "points." This has caused resentment with some of our co-workers.

A boondoggle is a nice trip out of town that you might be sent on. In some cases this might be related to your job. In other cases, it is just for fun (at the taxpayers expense). For example, our trip to the penguin rookery was a boondoggle. A helicopter trip is a boondoggle. Here everyone knows who got to go on which boondoggle. There are meetings to decide who will get to go on which boondoggle. People get jealous if someone gets to go a boondoggle and they didn't. One can measure a person's status by how many and what kinds of boondoggles they go on. It was interesting to note how some of the top managers in McMurdo managed to go to the South Pole for the New Years celebration. Incidentally, we also have U.S. Senators, Representatives, and their staff visiting us here in McMurdo on "boondoggles."

Q12. What is the situation regarding personal privacy?

Whatever we share between the two of us remains private. You have to figure that everything else interesting is known by the rest of the station within 24 hours.

Q13. How is Bert doing as an electronics tech. Can his hands do hands-on work?

Bert can seem to get through most electronics problems OK. Every once in a while he runs into a problem that takes an inordinate amount of time. Some of the problems can best be solved by sending the instrument back to the manufacturer. Every once in a while he quickly solves a problem. It helps that his lab is well-equipped with all kinds of instruments and spare parts.

Our season is progressing quickly. Tomorrow, Jean travels to the South Pole for five days to relieve the doctor there before he starts his 8-month winter-over period. We hope to have some pictures of this in our next message. We plan to fly to Christchurch on February 16th and then spend almost three weeks cycling through New Zealand before heading back to Colorado on March 10.

We hope that you are enjoying these emails. We appreciate all of the messages we get from you. Feel free to let us know if there are other things you'd like for us to cover in our next (and possibly last) email newsletter from Antarctica.

Best regards, Bert and Jean

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This page was last updated on 02/20/00.