Antarctica
December 2007
It is
summertime in Antarctica. That means it
is not dark and absolutely freezing. We
have daylight until about nine or ten at night and then we have dusk until
about four in the morning.
During
the day, we have everything else:
snow, gale force winds, near gale force winds, calm seas, rough seas, snow, 30F
and -5F temperatures. We have bright
sunny days and cloudy days and dreary days.
It can be clear and beautiful in the early morning and by midmorning,
we could be called back to the ship because the weather is dangerously changing so
quickly. Sometimes
the water is clear of ice. Other times,
it is packed with ice.
The
snow is deep, light and hard to walk on. I could be walking along and all of
the sudden; my right leg sinks in about 1 ½ feet. I try to drag it out by putting all of
my weight on the other foot and sure enough, both feet are then buried up to my
knee caps. Now I try to use my
arms to get me out. And then my left arm
is down to its elbow in snow. So I
have to wait until someone wanders by to give me a hand. Then I move on, take another dozen
steps and some variations of this effort repeats itself.
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