18 October 1999
On the morning of October 18, we flew to Explorers Cove flew in a Bell 212.
All the gear was off-loaded while the helicopter rotor was turning. The first
task upon landing is to make radio contact with MacCenter, which is 
the
communications hub of the station. If communications cannot be made, the helicopter
will not leave. We made radio contact with the hand-held radio, which was sufficient
for safety procedures. The next task was to move all the cargo into the hut.
We also set up the standard field radio (PRC 1099) checked that it functioned
properly by calling MacCenter.
A second helicopter arrived with a dual sling load and more internal cargo
for the camp. A third helicopter, an A-Star, arrived with a sling load fuel
from Marble Point. Dr. Bowser looked at the ice and the general condition of
the camp. The sea ice has more vertical relief than last year; some of the pinnacles
were over six-feet tall. In contrast to last year, however, there are much larger
spaces between the pinnacles. This made the siting of the dive hut much easier.
It appears that last year the surface melted extensively, leaving many large
melt pools. All of these froze into very smooth surfaces. Surprisingly, we quickly
located guy lines from last year's hut frozen in the ice. Finding this old hut
site, and assuming that it had not moved very much, made siting the hut this
year simpler. Just to be sure we checked its location using GPS. On the surface
it looks like the ice 
was
pushed a little toward shore, since there are numerous 8 to 12-foot tall vertical
slabs of sea ice that has been upturned by the pressure of the ice along the
southern edge of the cove.
The ice over Explorers Cove this year is 9 to 11 feet thick, which is less than we had anticipated; it's about the same thickness as last year. The depth under the test hole for the sea ice hut was about 81 feet, which was exactly what was needed, so blasting proceeded. The resulting hole, after two shots, a 45-pound shot and one lighter clearing shot was about fifteen feet in diameter. We cleared the surface where the dive hut will be located. The jumble of broken ice in the hole was allowed to refreeze, so it can be sawed out the next day.
19 October
Three other dive holes were blasted; these were near locations studied last year. The main dredge hole as chain-sawed and cleared. Many routine chores were done: unpacking gear, cleaning out the snow from the hut, starting the generator, starting the oil-fired heaters, unpacking food, clothes and all the gear transported in the flight yesterday.
20 October
Three other carpenters arrived in the morning, bringing their field tool boxes.
Their primary task was to build an eight-section Jamesway tent over the dive
hole that had been blasted and cleared two days previously. The materi
als
for this task had been stored on shore from the previous season and this required
one hour of helicopter "close support" to sling these materials to the site
on the ice. They set down 20-foot-long, 4" x 12" timbers on the ice for the
foundation and proceeded to set up the hut. We helped as necessary, but were
primarily concerned with creating more holes in the ice for diving.
After a hard day's work, the carpenter's foreman cooked pizza for everyone. We also moved the telephone line to the radio table, making a central "comms area" and set up Dr. Stockton's computer to get the e-mail system running.
21 October
Dive hut constructed on the ice; some dive holes cleared and the shore camp was reorganized. In the early season, the dive holes, if uncovered, require constant clearing. An exposed surface will develop a layer of ice that may be as much as a foot thick. This year has been unusually mild, so the ice that forms each day is thinner. Also, the open holes are covered with a lid of thick polystyrene foam sandwiched between plywood. This insulates the upper surface, so the task is only to break this free from the frozen area between the lid and the surrounding ice edge.
The
shore camp requires constant work, too. We share in responsibilities, cooking,
washing dishes, sweeping up the constantly accumulating dust and dirt. Drinking
water is brought from McMurdo, but dishes and hands are washed with water that
is melted from sea ice. At some time during each day, someone takes a 30-gallon
steel pot and fills it with ice chipped from ledges of clear ice or one of the
ice pinnacles. This is placed on the top of the preway stove and melts. All
wash and rinse water is collected in waste water barrels and returned to McMurdo
Station.
22 October
One of the distant dive holes, which had a water depth of 50 feet, took five shots to clear. The ice shattered when blasted -- by far the hardest ice in the area. Apparently the water and ice was trapped in that area, so with the last several years of melting and refreezing, it had turned into very clear, hard ice. This was the most difficult drilling of the season. Although we began the blasting of the two holes in the early afternoon, it was not until 10:00pm that we returned to camp for a much appreciated dinner.
The seal that had appeared in "The Seal Hole" so named because it took up residence for two days, finally decided it was time to leave. It had been fortunate that it decided to get out of the water and take an extended snooze; we knew exactly where it was while we blasted the other holes. We watched its behavior during one of the distant blasts, and it did not seem to mind the noise. In fact, it never opened its eyes, just snoozed, stretched in its sleep, curling its flippers, half scratching itself.
Later this evening, it found upon lumbering down to the ice surface, that the mushy ice had frozen solid, so it proceeded to cut a hole of its own. It basically gnawed and rasped its way through the ice, in the process creating a hole through which it could squeeze its very rotund, bluberous body. In the late stages of the process, it would open its mouth and rub its teeth against the edge of the hole it was working on or shove it's head into the slush-filled hole to its shoulders. It would shake its head violently rubbing its teeth against the ice for eight to ten seconds and then rest for perhaps thirty seconds, all the while oblivious of our observation. When it was done we were amazed that it was able to squeeze through such a small hole.
23 October:
Dr. Bowser cooked breakfast for Marty and Mike (the blasters) as a token of
appreciation for the excellent work they did and then cooked breakfast for everyone
else. Omlettes of various descriptions were made with fresh eggs brought in
by helicopter the previous day. Marty the Blaster and his assistant departed
about 9:00am flying back to McMurdo in an A-Star.
The morning tasks were to clear the remaining outside dive holes. The Seal Hole had not been cleared. Yesterday, it spent more than two hours cutting a hole with its teeth to get back through the ice. It had returned to the hole it had created at least once to breathe. The ice covering the hole was now at least a foot thick; its breathing hole was sealed with several inches of ice with a good deal of slush under it, indicating that the seal moved to a different area. A six-foot square hole was sawed into the frozen surface. This took a good deal of time because the chainsaws were difficult to start. After all the large chunks of ice were removed, about 500 scoops of slush were dipped out of the hole with a large hand-held scoop net..
The next task was tending a 3-person dive: Sam, Doug and Neal confirmed that our hut was situated perfectly for our bulk sampling work. The ice was littered with layers of sand, making it very dark and spooky down there!
Lunch was makeshift, mine was three year-old frozen burritos heated in a microwave -- not exactly tasty, but they were food. While these were cooking and then cooling, the task was to pack for the helicopter arriving at 4:30pm. Everything must be ready when the helicopter arrives. After everything was packed, there was time to clear another hole.
The helicopter picked us up per the schedule and we flew back to McMurdo a trip that takes about 25 minutes.
