A Month, A Plunge, A Seal

Welcome back to Antarctica,

A month has passed, and the sun has been replaced by stars. I can name almost none of them, and I think I like it that way.

A month in this place can be long. Yet the days and nights melt together, and it’s easy to lose track of time. We never saw the last sunset. Changes in temperature this time of year make for nasty weather. I should have expected that. Visiblity was under a quarter-mile that day, and a week had passed since the sun had even shown itself. That last, 30-minute "day" passed by almost unnoticed.

Almost. I’ve learned that people down here will use any excuse to have a party. Birthdays on Ross Island can become full-blown, station-wide events. So imagine what we planned for our last sunset. . .

THE POLAR PLUNGE:

The National Science Foundation (and Raytheon) would never allow us to do anything dangerous at McMurdo Station. Off-station is another story. No one owns Antarctica, or any part of it, but many nations have made territorial claims. Ross Island is claimed by New Zealand, which built Scott Base, a small science station near here on Ross Island. (You can see Scott Base from the top of Observation Hill.) Nineteen New Zealanders, or "Kiwis", are stationed there this winter.

The Kiwis have a tradition at Scott Base called the “Polar Plunge”. I’m sure you can figure out what that means. Each winter they cut a hole through the sea ice, and let anyone who is stupid enough - jump in.

And so, shortly after sunset, I ran my naked butt 60 feet off shore to a hole (in front of a cheering crowd) and jumped through it. The water was 28 degrees, and absolutely black. That wasn’t the hard part though. The hard part was the wind-chill factor. When I jumped in, it registered at -72 degrees! While climbing back out, the glove liners I was wearing (so I wouldn’t stick to the ladder) instantly froze to my hands. By the time I had stumbled, half-blind, to the warming shack, my beard was frozen solid. Here is a picture of my friend Brent enjoying his polar plunge:


Brutal, yes? The picture just doesn’t do it justice. I will never, ever, ever be that cold again. An ambulance was standing by, but its services were not required. I have since learned that no one here has ever heard of a colder polar plunge. Here is my patch:


I stopped writing this letter a few hours ago because of our weekly science lectures. When I first arrived, I was disappointed to learn that most science stops here in the winter. Luckily, the weekly science lectures get recorded each summer, and I’ve been showing those recordings in the galley every Sunday night at 7:30. To do that, I have to help clean the galley at 7:00, then set up the AV equipment. Each week I select a lecture, and make a sign for it that I post around the station.

This week’s lecture was on the Weddell Seals of Erebus Bay. As I was giving the introduction, Brent came in with his digital camera and showed me pictures of a live Weddell Seal that he'd taken just 2 minutes earlier. Weird coincidence, yes? A young seal had wandered into town, and was resting under a streetlight near the helicopter pads. I couldn't leave to see it myself because I had to run the equipment. At 8:00 the lecture ended, and I ran to my room to get my camera.

This is what I found when I got there, less than an hour ago:


It's a young one, maybe a year old, and we're confused as to why it's here. All of us hope that it disappears by morning. If not, it will almost certainly freeze to death. The seals all went under the ice before sunset. They'll keep little breathing holes open all winter, but won't return to the surface until the ice breaks up in September. This one is either lost, sick, or just really curious. To tell the truth, it didn't seem sick to me. It followed us with its eyes, rolled around, and made lots of cute noises. Just getting to where it was would have taken a huge effort. My hope is that it turns around and finds whatever hole in the ice it squeezed out of.

(Before you ask, we are not allowed to interfere with the animals, even to save them. I kept my distance. If an animal reacts to your presence in any way, you are too close and must back off.)

Perhaps seals have their own "Polar Plunge" - in reverse :o

UNITED STATES ANTARCTIC PROGRAM

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