LETTER FROM ANTARCTICA LEE ANN PIPKIN
Hello everyone...
It's a blustery Sunday morning here in Antarctica. Snowing lightly - I think. It's hard to tell whether it's dropping from the sky or blowing across the ice. A little of both probably -- 27F with wind at 15 kms.
I haven't attended any services, so I can't give you a report. I doubt the place is packed, since half the station was up 'til
the wee hours last night, drinking margaritas. Most work areas that have a big enough space host a party. Every Saturday there is a party somewhere.
The first party of the season was at the carpenter's shop. They had barbecue, a disco ball, and dance music. The next one that I attended was at the "Heavy Shop." This is where the mechanics fix the Caterpillars. More barbecue, beer, and hard rock.
Last night's party was at the FMC (Facilities, Maintenance, and Construction). FMC are the plumbers, electricians, and welders. They move all the equipment over to the edges of their shop, cover it with tarps, put on a little music, and -- instant party.
The centerpiece of the FMC party is the Tin Man. It's a life-size tin man made from aluminum pipes with a copper spigot for a, well, you know...from which the margaritas are dispensed. I was too embarrassed to get a margarita so I stuck with beer.
The beer is mostly CD, Canterbury Draft, from New Zealand. Barbecue yet again, and this time Mo-Town music. The best part is the Antarctic Cod. When a work area is having a barbecue, they ask the scientists who are studying Antarctic fish if they've got any specimens in the freezer that can be grilled up at the party.
It's pretty tasty. Antarctic Cod will end up in the news eventually. It's protected by the Antarctic Treaty, but very tempting to fisherman. It's a large fish -- the scientist I talked to at the party said the last one they caught was 138 lbs. They live to be very old, about 30 - 50 years. It will be hard to keep commercial fisherman from coming down here to catch them.
Skuas look exactly like dirty seagulls. Apparently they are not gulls but a close relative. Skuas in McMurdo, like seagulls back home, spend a considerable amount of time hanging out at the dumpster. They enjoy the Saturday barbecue as much as the rest of us and I hear they can get pretty aggressive. It's great to see something alive down here.
I've seen seals, but only from a distance, and they don't move. It would be hard to tell a seal from a rock if they weren't out on the sea ice.
One great thing about coming down here is that there is so much nothing you appreciate the small things -- a little moisture in the air, a bird.
Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. Lee Ann Pipkin supports computers in McMurdo Station, Antarctica, where it will soon be summer.
Pictures | Stories | Letters | Stuff | Main Contents Copyright © 1998 Lee Ann Pipkin Log Cabin Chronicles/11.98 |
Sunday is our one day off here. On my way over to the office to send this e-mail I heard the church bells ringing (canned bells). Our Chapel of the Snows is a small clapboard building, white with blue trim and a steeple. There are three services on Sunday - Catholic, Protestant, and everybody else.
Speaking of wildlife, I saw my first Skua of the season last week. I was walking back to the dorm from the coffeehouse one evening when a shadow crossed overhead. And there it was! An actual, living creature! A warm, feathered bird here in this icy gravel pit of a town!