Back to McMurdo!

The flight south was uneventful. There were only 27 passengers and lots of cargo. Most of us had sling seats on the side of the aircraft. We stared at cargo, including the box containing Hal, our underwater lander that manipulates microelectrodes. Dale said that there was a bit of time when conditions looked too bad for us to land. However, we did arrive yesterday to blustery winds. It wasn’t too bad walking from the C-17 to the Terra Bus, but I felt bad for the workers on the ground moving stuff around:


The small grey hunched-over smudges are people fighting the wind. I know there is at least one person, two I think, to the right and farther back from the red frames on the left. I can’t really pick them out.

Meanwhile, we were cozy on the bus.


After our briefing, we got our room keys, linens, and luggage. We’re all in dorm 203c, which has double rooms with bathrooms down the hall. I don’t have a roommate yet, but the others do. We unpacked things in the Crary Lab. Steve and Tyler have Happy Camper right away, so I took them up to the BFC to get good sleeping bags (Snowy Owls from Feathered Friends again) and ThermaRests. Thus, I met many of my old friends as well as some new ones. I also enjoyed the sunset again, one of the last I’ll see for some time!

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