Each year, McMurdo is supplied with food, tons of scientific equipment, and fuel delivered by a cargo vessel and tanker. The tanker is the first to arrive, I think, in a week or so; the cargo vessel will be in around the end of January. Of course, the sea here is frozen - in much of the Ross Sea an Ice Shelf hundreds of meters deep allows our planes to land. Closer to shore, the ice melts a bit by this time of year - which is good for the ships trying to make it in. The first ship through is an Icebreaker, this year it's the Oden out of Sweden. We've been able to see her getting closer for a couple days and yesterday she pulled up next to our dock. Oden will continue to work her way back and forth along the channel she's cut for the other ships that will arrive later this month.
Anything new here is nice, and the arrival of the Icebreaker means we are that much closer to the vessel getting here. Also, in years past, more wildlife sometimes comes in with the icebreaker: penguins and seals can get closer to us and therefore whales sometimes come in for supper. Today is a gorgeous and clear day here, so many folk are loitering on their way to work or between jobs to look for wildlife and watch the Oden.
The picture above is the Oden with Vince's Cross off Hut Point in the foreground. The Royal Society mountain range is in the back, partly obscured by the clouds we had yesterday.
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