Oct 25th – Day 20 of “The Commute”

Possibly the last day before heading down to Antarctica! Hurray!

Today was a long day, starting at 0430. I decided to stay up between then and the 0730 move-out (and actually did some work!). We’ve successfully moved from NZDF isolation to our new USAP managed isolation at the Breakfree Hotel; and of course I can’t help but sing “I want to break free” as though I were Freddy Mercury whenever I hear the name.

We got all of our ECW clothing and gear all set for tomorrow. That was a bit of a cluster since we had multiple groups get shipped out to the CDC to try and allow social distancing and things were a bit rushed because of that. For veterans of the program it’s no big deal — but for the new guys who have no idea what clothes they will even be getting, how they should fit, how to pack them efficiently so that they can wear the required stuff on the flight and check the rest — it’s quite stressful. I guess it’s all part of the “experience” :).

Back at the hotel, we have a semi-normal dining experience where we go down to the lobby and eat down there. Was really weird at first being in a room with a bunch of people after 3 weeks of pretty serious isolation. Dinner was pretty tasty – I got some salmon and potatoes w/ asparagus! just like home 🙂

Word on the street is that we’ve got checkout scheduled for 0515, and breakfast at 0430 — so I’ll probably head down for breakfast around 0445 and check on the status of the flight. I would expect that means something like 0900 departure, if we don’t get delayed.

The Basler flight transited through South Pole (no contact) on it’s way to, and arrived in, McMurdo yesterday, so that is all on schedule and expected to officially open South Pole station on Friday.

Next update from the Ice, hopefully.

I’d give it a 50/50 shot (actually I have no idea how the weather is looking / supposed to look tomorrow). But one ought not set their hopes too high!