Bill Radke from NPR's Rewind program interviewed me today and the show should end up on your radio dial this weekend.

To find out if Rewind is heard in your neighborhood, click on this link.
http://rewind.kuow.org/findus.htm

Two people from McMurdo have been selected to travel on the Polar Sea, the Coast Guard ice breaker, for a week.

These two highly trained people have to have an excitement for science, the knowledge to help filter plankton, the where-with-all not to get sea sick and, most importantly, jobs in McMurdo which are deemed "non-essential."

May I introduce the two newest "non-essential" scientists in Antarctica: Dr. Frick and Professor Frack.

Today we're a Janitor and a Dishwasher. Tomorrow we're scientists.

We will be sailing to the area on the right of B15 and also under all of the cloud cover.

B15 is the iceberg which broke off from Antarctica and is wedged in the opening to McMurdo. B15 has sealed off McMurdo from the open sea and could kill of an Adelie penguin colony because it has forced the penguins to march 15-30 miles to the ocean instead of hoping right into the sea at their local rookery.

We will be gone and without email for a maximum of 10 days. This is my final transmission until then.

All Aboard.

This week has been miserable and it's been great. The runway is closed. Which means we're an isolated community. The wind is blowing so hard it blows you backwards. And when the ice crystals hit you in the face, your lips will bleed. It feels like you're getting shot with BB pellets.

Here comes winter.

This is the first storm we've had in quite a while. For the most part, in the summer time, the weather isn't really too bad. Sure it's cold, but what idiot, besides myself, didn't come here and expect it to be cold. It's the wind that really bites and for the last few days it has been taking a chomp out of McMurdo.

The Polar Sea (pictured below) broke a propeller trying to make a channel for our supply vessel. The ice is 13 ft thick and a chunk of ice the size of a bus hit the propeller and one of the blades sunk to the bottom of the ocean (the blade weighed 5 tons and was one of 4 blades on a 46 ton propeller. The Polar Sea still has two working 46 ton propellers, but can now only cut through ice 6 feet thick).

So, the great part of the storm is it took a lot of the ice (over 30 miles) out to sea. Now there are only 18 miles of pack ice to cut a channel through. Mother Nature: 1. Man: 0.

The supply vessel and the fuel ship can't cut through ice so we'd be very hungry and cold this winter if a channel can't be opened (this is a possibility). It's strange to think what would happen if the resupply vessels can't make it to McMurdo. There are only two ice breakers strong enough to cut through this ice, one is the Polar Sea-and it has a broken propeller. The other is the Polar Star--and it's in dry dock. A third ice breaker, the Healy was only supposed to support the Northern Hemisphere because it can only cut through 6 ft of ice, but it has been sent to Antarctica and should be here by February 4.

In case you don't think this seems like a real life adventure, I'll tell you this: Yesterday, in the galley, we ran out of powdered whole milk. Until the resupply vessel gets to town, we're all drinking skim powdered milk.

Well, I hear it's only -12 outside, and the wind was just clocked at about 85 mph. I'm going back to my dorm, where the temperature is near 55 (the window on our room doesn't close real tight) and I'm warming up to my new I-Book computer.

here are some photos. Some you've seen. Others you haven't.

I'm around the world. In every time zone. I am the Prime Meridian and ultimate dork.

Reflected in the South Pole marker. This silver ball was used to photograph the night sky in antarctica before super wide angle lenses were invented.

Another pole shot.

Over my shoulder is the new South Pole Station. It will replace the old silver geodesic dome most people are used to seeing at the South Pole. This new building is built on stilts so it can be raised as snow drifts pile around it. Unfortunately one side of the building is sinking much faster than the other and their not quite certain how to handle this.

This is the cross Robert Scott's men erected on the top of Observation Hill in memory of his death while attempting to return from the South Pole.

Self-portrait while driving snowmachine to see penguins. There is a glacier in the background called the Barne Glacier.

This is how we have fun. We get a couple of dining trays from the galley, find a big hill and then slide, faster than we would have guessed, towards our near death experiences.

My new scarf (thanks Jen) is Penny's new noose.

The Coast Guard ice breaker Polar Sea arrived the other day. That's Observation Hill in the background.

Keep in mind, seeing this ship in our backyard, is like seeing a ship in your back yard. Although I know this is the sea behind the church, this is also the area where planes have been landing since October. I've hiked, camped and driven vehicles where the Polar Sea is floating. It's like watching a boat cut through a field of grass. Because of this, I think I've taken 197 photos of a boat and ice. Here's one of those.

This last week I went camping in Antarctica. I dug a trench and slept outside. The temps ranged from one degrees to 37 degrees. My camping leader kept saying how lucky we were because it was "So hot." There was not one bit of sarcasm in his statement. It was hot.

I'm also rebuilding my site. So, some of the older stories aren't on here anymore. New stuff is coming, though.

On Sunday night, January 12, PBS has a special on called "Under the Antarctic Ice."

I've seen the show (it had its premiere in Antarctica a few months ago) and you must check it out. There is film of McMurdo life and it talks all about the divers and fisherman I have been friends with this season. (it was filmed the year before I arrived here. If you think you see me, mom, that's not me.)

Check your local listing.

There are no movie theaters, restaurants or record stores in Antarctica. We create our own fun, trends and look. This photo could be from 1973, instead, on New Years 2003, 20 people entered a mustache contest. The Rule: You must have a mustache and pay $5 to enter the contest. Even women were not excluded.

At first the mustaches could look "hip." The cowboy mustache, as I was prone to sport, was okay. Slowly, though, the stakes are getting higher and the mustaches shorter.

Now, my mustache looks like an eyebrow. I feel like I have reached a new level of ugly. Off the charts, on a scale of 1 to 10 I'm the square root of negative 169. Ugly has never been calculated in the square root form, until this mustache hit the town.

Soon, in order to win the $100 pot, I'll have to have a blonde Hitler mustache. I prefer to think of it as a "Charlie Chaplin bleached" look.