Dive Tending Boondoggle!

My first true boondoggle happened yesterday. Dan, the retail manager, called the store at 8am and asked if I wanted to go on a boondoggle (do you have to ask?) and could I be ready in 15 minutes (of course). I raced out of the store, took a taxi to my room for warm clothes, then down to the dive shack. Once there I was introduced to Neil Lucas whom I later found out is a producer for the BBC currently working on a new show called “Life”. It’s a follow up to his other shows, “Blue Planet” and “Planet Earth”. Also along were Rob Robbins, famed Antarctic diver who has been diving here for over 30 years. Ben went out with him last year & blogged about it. John, a grantee with a $22,000 underwater camera seeking amazing underwater photos, primarily of seals. Steve, also an Antarctic diver, and Andrew, a cargo handler and fellow dive tender.
We drove out in a piston bully and arrived by Little Razorback to find 4 fat seals and 1 baby. The baby was born the day before, weighed 55 pounds and is every bit as cute as the pictures. Near Big Razorback there is an 1100 pound seal with an 80 pound baby! We chatted up the seals researches, that’s how I have these facts & figures.

After watching the baby for a while, the divers were ready to suit up. Our job, as dive tenders, is to help them with their gear and once in the water put the kettle on. 2 of them were down for 50 minutes, and the other 2 for 30 for their first dives. We used this time to take some pictures & hang out in the warm hut. The inside of the fish hut

The view out one of the windows.

We help the divers get ready & we also help them when they surface by grabbing their tanks, weight belts, and fins, just as you do in every other dive situation. The difference here is that we have to stand on the 1 foot wide ice with the hole one step down and the wooden floor 1 step above. The goal is to grab their gear & not fall in the hole. Also of note is that their weight belts are up to 50 pounds. I wont go into the details of their gear as Ben did that last year, instead I can focus on the projects these folks were working on and the scenery.

This is the fish hut & piston bully we rode out on.
After the first dive Doug Allen and Hugh Miller, both from the BBC, drove up on their snowmachines. As you can tell from the shots of the interior of the fish hut, they are not that large, so now we were 8 in the hut. Doug has been diving since 1968, has worked with polar bears, and is featured in the BBC programs mentioned above. Doug & Hugh were there setting up a time lapse camera focusing on a rock with star fish. The camera takes one picture every 10 seconds and they were leaving it down there for 3 hours in hopes of getting about 30 seconds of decent footage.
It was a busy day at the hut. The seal researches were in the area, Doug & Hugh came out unexpectedly, then 2 carps came out to check on the propane tanks. I came outside to see who it was and there stood Jesus – aka Michael McCracken fresh back from a winter at Pole. It was our first time seeing each other since February and it was great to meet again outside of town & really rather randomly!

After the 4 divers were back from the second dive (I want to mention here that the water was about 45’ deep at the hole and so clear we could see a star fish from the hut). We loaded the gear and headed home. But our adventure was not over! we had a....

Boondoggle within a boondoggle! We stopped off at the ice caves! They haven’t been able to open any ice caves in years and this was a special treat. It was a little like being underwater with respect to lighting because according to John the ice looks more like cumulus clouds underwater.

All in all it was an amazing day. It is really easy to get wrapped up in town life & our jobs and to be able to get out of town and see Antarctica not only helps lift the spirits, but reminds us all why we’re here.