We have had a pretty slow week down here, at McMurdo. We competed our 5th flight last Friday, and were able to get some time at the tent on Sat. and Tues., in between minor weather events, to archive and QC the data, and do some tidying up. But, we couldn’t get any more flights off. The flights were delayed due to weather plus the lack of a day flight crew (the original crew returned to Christchurch and we are awaiting their replacements).
And then, “the big storm” moved in on Wednesday bringing lots of snow and wind, and bringing everything to a halt. It has been Condition 1 at the airfield and 2 up at McMurdo.
Everyone on the Rosetta team, as well as many other researchers, are all stuck in McMurdo station, wishing we were out at our tents or workplaces getting our flights done or collecting data. All the flights coming in from Christchurch have continued to be delayed– that means the fresh food, the new Air National Guard crew replacements (who will fly our day flights), and researchers on various projects are all stuck there as well.
But the weather is supposed to clear up tonight (Friday night)! So, hopefully, we can get to the tent soon and start cleaning up (dig out around some equipment and tent doors, make sure everything inside of it is okay, etc.), get our day flight crew in, and be ready to fly Monday morning.
In the meantime, we are all trying to keep busy in a variety of ways: catching up on some work back home, reading books, watching movies in the dorm lounge, going to the gym, typing emails, knitting, visiting the dorm library, catching up on sleep, and having fun over long meals with each other in the galley.
