Nightshift Routines

Ben thinks my nightshift routines are different and interesting enough to share with you, so here’s what I do on my nights off. Usually I sleep in until Ben comes home, about 5:45 pm. I eat my breakfast about 6:15 pm in our room because the crowds and noise in the dining hall are a little more than I want to participate in during my morning, which is their evening (I do this on my workdays as well). I’ve been attending some talks in the evening put on by fellow McMurdo residents on such things as hitchhiking, and floating a river in Madagascar. After the talks, about 10pm, Ben and I spend time together until he is ready for sleep. Then I pack my backpack with computer, movies, workout clothes, books, journals, food, etc… and head over to the galley. There is a nice back room where I take over a table for 4 and spread out. There is no one in this room during the night and it’s spaced apart from the main room by glass block so it lets in a little light, but not a lot. I eat lunch from midnight to 1 am with the other nightshift workers, and visit with the drunken people who wander in for food. Then I workout from 2-3 (or thereabouts) and then set up camp and watch a movie. I usually hang in the back until 7am when Ben comes over for his breakfast and we visit for 20 minutes until he has to leave for work. It’s a good thing I love breakfast foods because, while the galley puts out breakfast foods for us in the evenings when everyone else is eating dinner, they don’t put out dinner type foods in the mornings so I end up eating 2 breakfasts a day. I usually head to bed between 8 & 9 am. I only have 2 more weeks on the night shift and while it will be great to spend time with my day shift friends, and much better for spending quality time with Ben, I will miss the quiet evenings of nights, and the special things we see at night that don’t happen during the days.

One of those special things is watching the C-130’s do “combat offloads”. Another term for this is a “drift offload” as they use this technique in the field to let the cargo loose onto snow drifts. They are encouraged to use the “drift offload” term as this is a non-combat zone, but the techniques are the same. The plane taxis on the ground and while it’s still moving they open the back, speed up and release the pallets. The pallets just spit out and the plane keeps on moving. It’s pretty cool to watch. As you can guess from the terminology this technique is used frequently in combat zones to offload cargo as quickly as possible without shutting down the plane so it can take off immediately. In McMurdo they use this technique to make things easier for the cargo people, as well as quicker for the flight crew. They use it in the field because there are often no loaders or other ways to get the cargo off the plane.

The runway moved at the beginning of the month to the continental ice shelf. We have one for C-17’s called Pegasus, the one Ben flew into with the downed plane (see earliest blog entry) and another one for the C-130’s called William’s Field, or just Willy Field. We can no longer go out on the sea ice, where the old runway was, as the ice is melting rapidly. Our temperatures have been quite warm, above freezing, for over a week now with full on sun 24 hours a day. Day or night all our drives to the runway are done in Delta’s and people really like to complain about it. Granted, it’s not the smoothest or fastest ride, but we all try our best to make the journey fast and smooth. It’s 7 miles and takes about 30 minutes. The main reason we have to use Delta’s, as opposed to vans, is due to the transition area between the sea ice and the continental ice shelf. It’s a 4-wheeler’s dream complete with ice, snow, water, slush pools, dips, holes…
The water comes up over the Delta tires and if you go too fast it’ll splash up onto the passenger cab. I like going through it, it’s like a Disney Land ride when you go down and don’t really know when you’ll hit bottom. Keep in mind, the “bottom” in this case is ice. Under that is the ocean.

I like watching the way the sun hits the pressure ridges and how every time I drive by they change. There is more water, just melt pools not open water but water non-the-less, and the pressure ridges are becoming less pronounced as the tension eases off.

The clouds, too, are just incredible. Doesn’t this one look like the Starship Enterprise?


There are lenticular clouds that sit on top of one another, halo clouds around Erebus and Mt. Terror, ribbon clouds that look like a rhythmic gymnast’s ribbon, swirly clouds that are in constant motion moving and changing by the minute. They are just incredible.

Ben is scheduled to leave for the South Pole (locally referred to as "Pole") tomorrow. Flights are often cancelled, for a variety of reasons, so we'll see what actually happens.

Hope you all have a wonderful, snowy Christmas.
Gretchen