Temperatures got down to about -35F and winds were gusting up to 30mph. I bundled up well today. This morning I had to attend helicopter safety school because we are going to be going out to a remote site to gather fish for our study. That only lasted about an hour but it again hit home with the importance of safety here in Antarctica and how important it is to follow the rules. There have been fatalities here from helicopter flights but not as many as there could have been.
Safety here is nothing to make light of.
After that school I had to attend sea ice school. After a morning learning how to pitch a tent on the ice, radio protocol, and types of sea ice cracks we loaded up into a Hagland, a two piece vehichle for traversing ice, we headed out to study real ice cracks. The weather was terrible. In these conditions dips and bumps in the ice cannot be seen so it made the ride very bumpy. The first place we went was to Cape Armitage where we drilled holes in the ice with a small hand held borer that drilled a hole about two inches or about 10 cm in diameter.