The Oden and Fred

So, for the past 48 hours the Oden has been working its way to McMurdo. The Oden, is the Swedish ice breaker that is the first of many boats to come into McMurdo in the next couple of weeks. The Oden began its journey many weeks ago, and it finally came within view of hut point yesterday. The ice breaker basically will spend the next week or so here, constantly cruising around our harbor breaking up ice. It has a top speed of 16 knots and has roughly a crew of 80. What is really cool is that it makes a turn basin so that supply ship can turn around when it is done with its off load. Everyone down here looks forward to the Odens arrival. This is because that when it breaks up the ice often wildlife slowly comes in. I have heard that whales often show up in the channel that is formed by the Oden. There was a penguin who came in after the Oden. I have a couple photo of sleeping and this photo of his actually doing something is from another one of the firefighters down here. If you know an Adam Birzer from Colorado...give him a high five. The penguins name is fred. He also brought along 4 Skuas as well. So the wildlife is already kickin' up. Boo ya.

The next boat to come in will be Fuel Tanker and lastly will be Supply ship. The US navy to my understanding also makes an appearance down here to assist with the offload. The only negative aspect to the town is that during this entire process, the bar and the store stops selling beer and wine. This process can be over a period of two weeks. I don't think I personally will have an issue with this, but it is slightly annoying to the rest of the townsfolk. I just recently started to enjoy the Coffee house bar, which serves wine and "irish" coffee. This ship offload might affect where I hang out after dinner because of this no liquor policy. Why no liquor you might ask? I hear that a couple years back the off loading crew got a little rowdy and thus, we make McMurdo a dry town for a couple of weeks to prevent anything from happening.

I really like watching the Oden today, I think I may spend a little time tonight watching it from Hut point. Oh and for those of you who are having the case of the Mondays, enjoy this video of the ice breaker. Take care everyone and talk to all of you later.