Location
Sorry about the sluggish reporting, but somehow we are still managing to fill our entire days and most of the nights with training and field preparation. Some of this training, however, is very exciting, in particular when it involves diving under the Antarctic Sea Ice! Hotel Sierra is going through this dive training to be able to retrieve some of the Golf 439 experiments that were placed on the seafloor at Cape Evans. So far he completed two training dives at Arrivals Height, just offshore Hut Point at McMurdo.
Diving under the ice is quite an experience for any diver who never dove under the ice. One's first worry is the freezing cold temperature of the ice covered ocean. This turns out not to be so bad because the seawater never dips below 28.5 °F. And there is no wind chill! Yes, you can get cold in your dry suit but it is not as bad as one fears. The only part of your body exposed to seawater is the face, which does get a bit numb but it is manageable.
Diving in McMurdo is very different from diving in San Diego (duh!). There are no snorkels and you have to go down into the water through a dive hole that is about five feet across (or less) and seven feet deep. Once you clear this hole, an entirely new world opens up. The ice ceiling looks like a dramatic cloud cover. Snow drifts on the ice appear dark, and the snow-free areas give an eery bluish-white light. Visibility in the water seems near infinite, everything is as clear as we are used to seeing it on land. The seafloor is littered with animals (sea urchins, sea anenomes ) and there are some very large, up to human-sized white sponges that probably were sitting there hundred years ago when Scott sailed by.
We also dove over to the “Ob-tube”, an observation tube built by McMurdo Staff and placed in the ice so McMurdo residents can climb in and look at the ocean from underneath the ice (while staying dry). Some visitors even get to see some dive-trainees waving at them!
We are working hard down here, but have an incredible amount of fun!
Greetings Hubert Staudigel (Hotel Sierra)
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