Today was a re-famaliarization day. We wanted to get re-acquainted with all the surface supply gear and jump in the lake and look around to get a feel for the "lay of the land." Peter and Kay (pronounced Kai) also had to do their "check out" dives today. We waited for Steve to arrive from town, then we headed out to the dive hole. I must admit, it takes a little getting used to the idea of bundling up, driving right beside glaciers, and going SCUBA diving! Peter and Kay sailed through their "check out" dives, and we each (Peter, Kay, Ian, and I) took a turn swimming in the lake (OK- SCUBA diving) to get a sense of what the bottom was like and to scout out good areas for collecting samples. Steve also made a dive; he had never been to the Dry Valleys before, so he was curious about what might be down below the lakes. It is more comfortable and easier to focus on the science experiments if we are already familiar with the area. All went well; we are ready to start collecting!
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Peter is very excited about the "frother" he brought to camp this year. A touch of cinnamon tops it off!
This is the common cooking/dinner area at Lake Hoare camp. It is very nice to have a place where people can gather, warm up, and socialize.
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Steve arrives on an A-star helicopter. He will be doing the "check-out" dives for Peter and Kay, and setting up our air system and compressor.
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Steve gives us all a refresher course on how to run the surface supply system.
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These are the surface supply controls.
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This is the communications section of the surface supply controls. The cables connect to the diver's helmet so we can talk back and forth between the diver and the tender(s) on the surface. We can also control the volume going in each direction.
I'll tell you about the other controls in subsequent journals.
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Before we can dive, we have to chip off the surface ice that has frozen in our hole. The surface ice is about 2-3 inches thick. Do you think it's wise for Ian to be standing on the block he's trying to chip out?.........
Neither does he - this is only a joke - he's not really chipping!
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This is how it's really done!
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Peter is getting ready to make his dive. I wonder if he's dreaming about his frothy coffee?
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We are securing Peter's helmet. Moments later... he was in the water!
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I took this picture on my way down the dive tube. This is looking into the lake ice from the tube. Don't be fooled - the bottom half of the picture is also solid ice! Doesn't it look like you could just swim right through there? Try it and you'll "bonk" your head! It is SOLID ice!
(My camera battery died just after I took this picture. I'll post more "under Lake Hoare" photos tomorrow!)
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After dinner, we went back out to the lake and refilled the air tanks for tomorrow's dives. The later evening (don't be fooled by the light - remember, the sun doesn't go down... it was almost 10 pm when I took this photo) was spent preparing equipment for the work to be done tomorrow. This is Ian checking the view finder for the underwater camera we will launch in the morning. The lights are on the camera.
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