Titanic 2, Part II

BRRRRRRR!! That is pretty much all I can say right now, but I will try to muster up a blog entry. Right now I am sitting on a cot inside Halley V, a research station in the southern part of Antarctica. Halley I, II, III, and IV were built directly on the snow and were each abandoned within ten years, having been crushed by the overlying ice.   I'm glad the British hired better architects for Halley V.  It is really warm in here but really cold outside.

This is the building that Anna and I are staying in.

  Anna is out there presently, taking a sample of the ice. She will do so everyday until we leave, then someone else will continue this study. My job is to walk 2 miles out of camp each day and take an ice sample out there.

This is my view when I walk the 2 miles.

 

This is a girl we met named Emma who is from England. She is down here for a college study.

When I walk everyday, I think about our horrible experience on the Titanic 2. I remember having I really fun pillow fight with Anna in our first-class room. I remember thinking everything was going to be just fine sailing down to Antarctica on the Titanic 2. But then we heard yelling and screaming from the deck. We quickly stopped our pillow fight, calling it a tie (but I knew I had won); we grabbed a few of our precious belongings from Truckee and looked at the door. Water was seeping through the cracks and we knew we had to get to the deck as soon as possible. When we finally reached the deck, we were drenched in water. The crew was letting the women and children from first class on the lifeboats first. Nervously, Anna and I jumped aboard. The night was as crisp and as cold as I had ever felt and the waters were hungry for us and the Titanic 2.

When the lifeboats were lowered into the water, they hit ice! So, as you can imagine, the lifeboats sank!! Then we had to rely on our life jackets. But, the life jackets popped! :(   All that was left were our floatable backpacks and our healthy selves to help us survive in the freezing and churning water. But after just 2 minutes, the backpacks stopped working! At least they were water-proof so they kept our things dry. Women and children were sinking below the surface and not returning to the air (that part was pretty depressing and sad). At that point I felt like I was going to sink as well because my muscles were so weak and cold.  After a little while, we saw some penguins coming our way!! We hitched a ride and they led us to shore. Usually, in movies, you crawl desperately onto a sandy beach in the middle of the ocean, but in this case, we crawled onto the ice shore of Antarctica at the bottom of the world. It was not at all satisfying. But, I am very thankful to be alive and well writing to you all.

Have safe travels!!
Eleanore