last flight

The last couple times I have been to Antarctica, there have been a number of winter-overs who line up to say goodbye to those who are exiting the continent for the winter. I never had a huge desire to be one of those people; in fact, I sort of felt sorry for them. But, when the time came for the last flight, I stood in the cargo bay at MCC and gave a few hugs and wished the folks happy travels as they loaded Ivan the Terra Bus to be whisked off to the Pegasus White Ice Runway. That was probably the point at which I felt the finality of my situation.

After the goodbye, I made my way back to the galley to leisurely enjoy my Sunday afternoon. When I got there, I realized that many of the winter-over had been hiding out during the week, waiting for everyone to leave. There were more people sitting around eating Sunday brunch than I had seen in the galley all week.

From there, we had a gathering on the Chalet deck to toast the last flight's departure. Usually all the flights out are by C-17 cargo plane, but this year, the Antarctic program contracted a number of other countries to support personnel flights. This last flight out for the season was an Airbus, sent by the Australian government. The people on board were able to have stewardesses along with beverage service!

In any case, the final farewell to the plane was sealed with our champagne toast and a fair number of pictures. The Airbus flew overhead on its' way north to Christchurch. We hope we don't see another flight until August (if one comes down it will be out of desperate or terrible circumstances). There were a few tears, but I didn't feel any of that emotion. I thought I would feel stranded and stuck here, but it's just my place in life right now, so I embrace the experience!

As if to add a bit of humor, or irony, to the day, nearly as soon as that flight took off, there was a power outage on station. What a fantastic way to start an Antarctic winter! The summer-over lineman was on the plane and the winter-over lineman was being transported from the plane when it happened, so there was a bit of hustling to get him into town and on the job right away (poor guy, it's his first time down here)!