October 21, 1975: Tuesday

Up at about 2:00 am. The sun was either coming up or going down. Didn’t stay around to figure out which.

Roommate Steve took off for Cape Crozier.

Weather today was clear, windy, not too cold. Dr. Treves got off about ten o’clock, after giving me numerous instructions and incidentals to bring along. Mike Wing borrowed my jump suit.

Calvin, Don Murray (a driller), Howie, and Otis took off about eleven. Howie and Cal came back about 11:30. Never did figure out why. But by the time lunch was over, they were on their way across the ice.

That left me in charge. Sort of. I did two thin sections, listened to Dr. Treves’s radio and Cal’s tapes. I’m going to take the radio back to the room with me. Hope Dr. Treves doesn’t mind.

These things I’m in charge of:

A. Getting the New Zealand surveyor over here for a nine o’clock departure. And to make sure he only has one theodolite.

B. Jim the Kiwi and Terry and their survival gear.

C. A three hundred pound winch, plus tripod, wire meter, C rats, juice, chain saw, chain saw fuel, oil, and Nansen bottles.

D. Making sure three barrels of oil and a hurdy-gurdy are brought out when they pick us up from the drill site. Delegated that to Mike at the BFC, who delegated it to Pete.

E. Lining up transportation to get all our gear down to the helo pad and picked up on our return. Jack and Leon are responsible.

F. Deciding that sleeping bags are primary survival gear.

G. Showing the pilot how to get to the drill site.

Besides all that, I went over to the machine shop to get some slide holders. 590 is in the garage and 587 is a real bummer to drive. No emergency brakes. Glad there isn’t much traffic in McMurdo.

Dave pulled down a news bulletin right in front of my face while I was reading it in the Chalet.

At 6:15 p.m. I picked up the field party’s signal super well, but words were garbled. I couldn’t get Scott Base at all. I did get the impression that their “110 volt electric ice drill” was broken or something.

Called Scott Base. They confirmed it (much to my surprise), that I had to take one with me tomorrow. Dave said he put Pat Hagerty on the job of finding one.

Went over to the Bio-lab and read some history on Iowa and the U.S. Presidents. Nartsiss cut his own hair. I asked him to cut mine and he laughed. “It would give me great pleasure,” and he went to get his scissors. He showed me an ad for a pipe. I told him it was propaganda. He said my blue hat was one like Lenin wore.