November 17 - Antarctica - The Last Day

It all went so quickly and I had so much to learn on my last day.

Our C-17 was leaving for Christchurch at 4:00PM and I had to pack in as much as possible in the few hours I had left.

At 7:00AM I met the head of the Carpentry shop for breakfast. We headed up to the top of the hill where I was able to have a first hand experience of the "coolest" department.

Stretch class at Carpentry...every morning at 7:30

I then went to visit Welding and met Henry Finch who is 73 and a retired welder. He teaches jewelry making 3 days a week at McMurdo and has been coming to the Ice for the past 8 years since he retired.

Some of Henry's creations...

It was then time to visit the Pressure Ridges for the last time. The day was warm (12 degrees), no wind, blue skies. This would be my 3rd visit to the Pressure Ridges.

McMurdo is a town with every service necessary to be a self-reliant town. It was particularly interesting to see how a town operates.

After eating a quick lunch (last meal at the Galley!), I squeezed in a visit to the Power Plant, Water Filtration facility and Waste Management.

The Power Plant has four huge generators that create so much heat that they provide most of the hot water necessary for McMurdo.

Becca is in charge of all of the Waste recycling at McMurdo... she is a Microbiologist and spends her day making sure that each microorganism is doing its job in getting rid of any organic waste.

This is the chart of the various microorganisms that are necessary to do this job.

After the solid is separated from the liquid, the clean liquid is deposited in the sea. The water that we drink is from the sea and is desalinated by reverse osmosis. Chlorine is added and we have our drinking water!

This is the solid waste left after all of the microorganisms do their work. It has no smell and is put into containers, which will be shipped with all of the other trash to California on the Icebreaker in December. This waste will be incinerated. Other waste will go to landfills.

It was now time to get into the Delta to board the C-17 to Christchurch. It will be the first time we will see dark since out arrival in Antarctica.