Yes folks, its that time of year...when the sun is high, and the winds are calm... as the Kiwis say, its time for the Midsummer's Dip!
Dave, at the critical moment of immersion!
The lovely venue for the 2008 Polar Plunge at McMurdo was at the edge of Scott Base. The Kiwis had lovingly created a hole in the ice, which looked to be about 8' deep, down to some frightfully cold, +28F water. Which is, by the way, crystal clear, and about 12' deep at that point. Other amenities included toasty warm dressing rooms, a cold, wet harness to place around your waist, and a metal ladder to climb up once you've hit the cold cold water!
sploosh!
The best way to do it was to not think about it. And of course, you had to do it in the nude! (which explains the lack of photographic evidence on this blog!)
Chelsea sucks air (check out the floating ice chunks!)
A whole group of shuttles drivers, and their SO's, took the plunge together. Although I guess there was quite a line early on (and lots of jeering people!), we caught the tail end of it, and basically closed down the place. Shuttle Gretchen, Ben, Shuttle Audrey, Tom, Shuttle Joe (hooray!), and Shuttle Jami running support.
Tom, Audrey, Gretchen, Ben, Dave and Chelsea
Shuttle Joe- Polar Plunger extraordinaire
The water was cold and salty! And you did NOT want to stay in it long! Notice the ice chunks bobbing at one side! Luckily, there wasn't much wind, and your feet didn't stick to the metal ladder, as I feared it might.
the hot tub
The best part of all was the homemade hot tub. The salt water in the tub was heated with that metal coil in the back- it is typically used to keep research dive holes open in the ice. Works great as a tub heater! The 7 of us closed the place down and spent maybe an hour relaxing in the hot tub after everyone else left. Lovely!!
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