The 2022-23 McMurdo Shipping Season
Continued...
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 0520 on the 28th...the causeway has been rotated/moved into position. |
 A bit later in the day, the loose piece seen in the photo at left has been added to the assembly. |
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 By 0830 things are ready for... |
 ...a bit more positioning... |
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 ...and moving a bit of ice out of the way. |
 An at midday on the 29th, Ocean Giant had moved to the causeway to begin offload. |
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 1630 on the 29th. |
 Morning of 1 February...things are moving. |
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 1000 on 2 February...the hatches have been open for awhile...watch the vessel rise in the water. |
 0800 on 3 February...offload continues after an overnight dusting of snow.. |
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 1500 4 February...the vessel continues to get lighter. The next vessel Happy Delta is supposed to show up soon. |
 1400 6 February...all the hatches are now closed. |
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 1900...containers are being stacked on the deck and hatches. |
 0600 on the 7th...a forward hatch is briefly opened. |
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 1000...the hatch is closed... |
 ...so containers can be stacked on top of it. (1400) |
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And Ocean Giant completed its mission and departed on 2/9 per this DVIDS article which details the offload; it arrived back at Lyttelton on the 14th. Next up, the Happy Delta which was to bring material from New Zealand for the rebuilding of Scott Base. | ||
 Here's Happy Delta on the afternoon of the 9th. |
 0930 on the 11th, Polar Star is back at the pier waiting for Ocean Gladiator. |
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 The cruise ship National Geographic Endurance stopped by for a day on 13 February...not sure what the passengers did as they could not visit McMurdo Station due to COVID restrictions...but they would have been allowed to visit the Discovery Hut on Hut Point. Interestingly, after leaving Winter Quarters Bay the vessel headed for the Bay of Whales. The final USAP supply ship Ocean Gladiator was scheduled to show up on 17 February after leaving Lyttelton on the 10th. | ||
 And here it is, around 0800 on the 17th. |
 An hour later, Ocean Gladiator was docked at the pontoon causeway. |
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 A bit after noon, unloading is underway in full sunlight. |
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 What's this...another cruise ship! This is the Heritage Adventurer which is doing a return Antarctic cruise out of Bluff. It actually passed by McMurdo briefly twice...this time (around 1800 Saturday 18 February) was for a medevac. A C-17 stayed overnight at McMurdo to pick up the patient. | ||
 Noon on the 19th...I'm thinking the offload is almost done, and that those containers still on shore will be backloaded. |
 0200 on the 20th...primarily to note that this was the first time the sun has set since late October. |
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 1600 on the 20th. Backload is underway as the stash of containers close to the waterline is diminishing...but there is now another stash of containers away from the waterline at lower right. |
 0800 on Tuesday the 21st...backloading is obviously done as Ocean Gladiator has moved away from the pontoon pier. |
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But there's more to come...including a surprise or two! Continue... | ||
