Boondogle!

On Saturday I got to go on a boondogle. This is otherwise known as a working morale trip, or when we go do something random in the community that some department needs help with. It typically involves going outside, or doing something very different then our regular DA duties. We get one a season, so it was a little early to get mine, but the timing really couldn't have been better. It was the coolest thing too, I got to go dive tend.

Dive tending is when you go out with the divers and help them in and out of their suits when they are getting in and out of the water. First I went to the science lab, Crary, and met all the people. There were 2 divers, and two other tenders besides me. Then we went to the next building, where the divers got into their dry suits, and gave me a run-down of my duties. Basically the suits are really bulky, and the more gear they put on, the less they can put on themselves. So, we help them with their gloves, their weights, their tanks, etc. when they are about to get in, and help get all this stuff off them when they come back up.

To give you all a visual, this is one of the divers as she is about to get in- still needing 2 more sets of gloves and googles.

After loading up with the weights and the tanks, and after the divers were in the suits, we went out to the dive site. It was out on the ice, and this is the vehicle that we got to take out there. It was really cool to get to go out on the ice and see the mountains from a little bit closer, and see base from farther away.

When we got there, we suited the divers up some more, and they got into the hole. The ice was 20 feet thick! The man on the left was another one of the diver tenders. He is a diver himself, and had tagged some really cool specimens on a big ice wall decades ago (including a carnivorous sponge!) These divers were going to see if they could find any of his old tags, and tag the specimens again. They were later going to go down and take pictures, to see the changes over time.

This was the "hut" that they dove from. It was a really nice hut for this place. The plastic bag over the ice hole has a fan above it blowing hot air onto the hole so it stays melted while no one is there. While the divers were under, we scooped the forming ice out of the hole with nets.

And, saving the very best for last, a seal kept coming up the hole to breathe! Apparently the seals enjoy using the diver's holes as breathing holes. This little guy is a weddell seal and is about a year old. It was absolutely incredible to see.

This was a truly exciting, incredible Antarctic day. I was really reminded of all the reasons that I came down here, and why I love life here. It was absolutely amazing.

I love Antarctica.