Monday, January 30, 2006
posted 1/30/2006 11:42:00 PM UTC+12, McMurdo Local Time

Relatively painless day back at the pits - working with Matt again until we're done with the tanker offload, so that's cool. Just had two LC130s and one twin otter to fuel. Fortunately, the planes lined up nicely such that we were able to grab dinner at Willy, pack up, and head home. Once back in town, we helped out with a few little projects to get set for tanker; drained some fuel out of the dive team's generator so they could fly it home, erected a little windbreak for the person who stands by some valves, and moved a big heater over to the booster pumps.

Things are finally moving again with the ship situation. FESCO decided to run on a three bladed prop rather than removing the opposite blade. Krasin left town yesterday night and escorted the Palmer into the ice pier this evening. The Palmer has offloaded some waste, switched out crew, and should be leaving within the next several hours with Krasin blazing a path out. Krasin and the Kapitan Khlebnikov (the Russian icebreaker/tour ship) will work together to bring in the Gianella (tanker.) Hopefully tanker offload will finally get rolling tomorrow so we won't run out of AN8 afterall.

Nathaniel B Palmer parked at the ice pier, which is a bit hard to see in this picture since it's made of rock and ice just like everything around it, plus the ship is in the foreground. The open water by the Palmer was cleared out by plowing all the ice near the pier into a corner with Krasin, most of the shipping channel looks like the icy mush in front of the ship.
Nathaniel B Palmer

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