Delays and the Ross Dependency

We've been delayed for a bit in launching the gliders.  Our original plan was to helicopter out to the ice edge on the northeast side of Ross Island (about 60 miles from here) and then deploy the gliders from a small boat a little away from the ice edge.  We don't want to put the gliders in the water right at the ice edge in case the currents carry them under the ice before we can do all our communications checks with the satellite before the first dive.  Unfortunately, the ice edge where we wanted to put the gliders in wasn't really thick enough to safely operate with a boat and a bunch of people.  It took a while to come up with a backup plan, but we have one now where the glider is going to be carried out from the ice edge by a remote controlled little submarine (the one we used through the seal hole).  If the weather holds, we'll fly out there on Monday to launch the first glider.

In the meantime, we've been somewhat busy with meetings (mostly trying to figure out exactly how plan B is going to work), calibrating the backup glider, some final tests with all the gliders and packing up and weighing everything for the helicopter flight. 

We were calibrating the gliders near the end of the sea-ice runway, so I got this picture of an LC-130 (you might be able to see the skis on the bottom) overhead.

However, we have a bit of free time.  So on Thursday after dinner, we went over to Scott Base.

The Ross Dependency is a slice of Antarctic that was claimed by New Zealand in 1923.  Nobody else recognizes the claim and all national claims to the Antarctic are on hold currently under the terms of the Antarctic Treaty.  The New Zealand base is called Scott Base and has signs declaring it as the capital of the Ross Dependency:

I don't know if the base actually has some official status as a capital, but I like the sign.  Americans aren't normally supposed to go over there without an invitation.  However, Thursday night is American night and we're allowed to tour the base (including the bar and the gift shop).  It was a nice night, so we decided to walk there and back (they do run shuttles on American night).  It's a lot smaller than McMurdo (less than 100 people vs. about 1000 here), but I think they're at least on a prettier spot:

Scott Base

Also, in the comments of an earlier post, I answered a question about how electricity is generated.  Most of the power at McMurdo is generated by diesel generators.  However, there is a brand new wind farm (I think it was turned on just this year) on the ridge between McMurdo and Scott bases:

Wind driven generators

The electricity generated here is shared between the two bases.  Apparently, it generates about 15% of the power used by the U.S. base, but almost all of the power used at Scott.