Well, I wish I had a camera for this one but I didn't.

I was watching a group of penguins inch up to the ice edge like they were looking at going fishing soon. They usualy all kind of gather close, stare down at the water for a while and then leap in rapid fire style. Well, today they were doing just that, getting close to the edge, ready for a swim and then whale popped up.

Now, killer whales (Orca) eat penguins. They are known to be nasty bastards. They fly up on the ice or up on to the beach and devour penguins five at a time. They have been known to tip over sheets of ice to make the penguins fall in the water. The short of it is penguins dont like whales. They are not friends.

So anyway, this group of penguins is secconds away from a merry fishing trip and they see this 5 ton beast not five feet away. And they ran, and ran, and ran, then ran some more. This is running at full penguin waddle speed. I was watching through binoculars but I could see thier little penguin beaks open and screaming 'run away'. These penguins were sprinting at like five or six miles an hour, everyone of them. The funny thing is, they didnt just run a few feet a way. No no. They ran a good fifty yardss, not stopping. Now, this time, the whale wasn't looking for a meal, just taking a breath. But those little guys were not taking any chances they ran as far as thier 2 inch legs could take them.

Hmm, what else is new?
Wednesday I went on a group snowmichine ride out to the base of Erebus and the Pegasus crash site.

Way off in the distance you can see the edge of the open water and the channel cut by the ice breaker. The Kiwi military brought down their P-3. They are tracking illegal whaling and cod fishing.
The sun is starting to get low in the sky late at night. In a couple weeks we get a few false sunsets before the official sunset on Feb 20th. Sunset here is more a a seasonal thing than a daily thing. The area really just gets a couple months of one big sunset before total darkness.
And the Research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer arrived while I was typing.
Temps are now down to about 20-25F. Its been windy and cloudy mostly. 26 days to go.

My Department

The Ice breaker out clearing the ice to make a turn around area.

Ghost plane

I like how every flight tha rolls in includes 80% of the people immediatley walking around to the nose of the airplane and taking pictures like a bunch of Japanese people.
My roomates -Andrew (Heisman trophy pose)

Roy - he was watching tv like that

Check out what these guys cobbled together from old snowmobile parts, a chopper-sled. With that rigid tail its just asking to be balled up by the first idiot that gives it full gass.

Ship Arrival

The first of a few ships docked just a few day ago. This one is an ice breaker 'The Oden', later on we will get a couple research vessles, a supply ship and a fuel tanker. In other news, I haven't put anything up in a while because I've been out sick. There was a nasty little bug going around. What seems to have happened is this: The station shrunk down to a population of about 800 over Christmas was recently swelled back up to about 1050. The 800 of us that had been here for three months had been well adjusted to each others germs and had no immunity built up to the new crop of viri moving in. We are also in a unique environment where all the newcomers are exposed to the northern and southern hemisphere flu viruses. So I was down and out for about a week, but feeling better now.

We have had some pretty we weather lately. Summer is for sure over. The last storm dumped a good 8-10" of very wet snow here, old timers said if was very rare to see such wet snow and so much. It is snowing again today, not as wet though. Temps are around 30F. I was supposed to go on a short snowmobile trip up Mt Erebus today but the snow canceled that, next week we try again. All the moisture means we don't have to go far for ice for drinks though.

NASA is here testing out their inflatable lunar habitat. They plan on leaving it here for a year to see how it holds up. They are also testing a small version of their next mars/lunar rover I forget which.

So thats about it. My day to leave is the 21st of Feb, subject to weather. Travel plans right now are a few weeks in NZ, a week in Australia then home, that could change too. Almost a month away.

This guy is worth mentioning. Ben might be the worlds only professional hitch hiker. He even has corporate sponsorship from the company that made his hitch hiking suit. He was kind enough to put on a hitch hiking class for us not too long ago. Once he thumbs a ride in Africa this guy will have hitched on every continent.

Not much going on lately. Hilo hangar party was last night with live bluegrass music. Our room is back up to four people. We got a New Zealander from the NZ Army here to check things out for about 6 weeks. The kiwis are going to be doing their own air transport soon so they are taking a look at how we do things.

Got to take a snowmobile out today for work, but it was more fun than work. Heather, from the VMF shop, and I went out to inspect the runway, but also managed to find some good snow drifts. If they were just a little bigger we could have been airborne... But they frown on breaking the sleds here. Sundays we don't fly but just in case somebody has to drive out to the runway to make sure everything is still there, fuel a generator and let the people higher up know that everything is ok. Since this equates to a couple hours worth of snowmachine time, I try to volunteer as much as I can. Its a chance to ride when no one is looking also. Speed limits be damned!