Day 13 - October 23 '11

Day 13- October 23 ‘11

Sunday. Finally a day off. I sleep in hard- like til noon hard. I spend a huge amount of money at the store and attend a penguin lecture by a scientist that evening.

The lecture, along with fuzzy inferences from my lead Tom, are leading me to believe I may not see the actual South Pole, penguins or leopard seals. I find this absolutely unacceptable.

 A few species of penguin are only found on the other side of the continent, leopard seals are illusive and special off site trips are usually reserved for supervisors, leads and returners-generally not first year newbies.

 Off site trips are called Boondoggles. These trips are taken if there are many extra seats and little cargo going to a site or a site requires physical manual labor, like shoveling out machinery or fuel caches. They are also used as a morale /thank you for a job well done trip or rewarded for exemplary work, an awesome idea or lots of volunteering.

Emperor penguins and Adelie penguins are known to come to McMurdo. The Emperors are generally only loner males, not families with fuzzy gray chicks. The fuzzy babies will start molting, losing their fuzziness in November. They are a ways away around the corner at Cape Royds. Normally, morale trips would be taken over there, but the only way there is by way of sea ice or helicopter. Helicopter is too expensive and that sea ice broke up last year after being there for several years, so all the ice is new and not thick enough in that area to support vehicles needed for the trek.

I must trust God that I will see these birds. I must trust Him that I will see magnificent ice bergs, ice caves and wildlife.