Saturday morning we reported to the MCC for transport to the ice runway and the first of the four flights en route back to the US. As we drove from the MCC down to the runway I got a little bit nostalgic thinking again about the experiences we’ve had and what an amazing place Antarctica is, but make no mistake, I was ready, and thrilled, to be on my way home.

Yesterday I mentioned that the reason the Kiwi flights were delayed another 24 hours was because of “communications problems.” We later learned that a solar storm was causing solar flares that have been interfering with the HF radio signal, and that was why the Kiwis stayed grounded. Americans will fly with Iridium phones as a backup communications device, but the Kiwis will not. The new, cruel joke around town has become “What kind of bird doesn’t fly? A Kiwi Bird.” Get it?

It is currently 9:00am on Thursday, December 4th. We were supposed to be on our way home to Denver right now, but instead find ourselves still sitting in McMurdo with no sign of getting out any time soon.

It's currently 10:30am on Tuesday, 2 December. I was scheduled to leave this morning on a Kiwi C130, but that plane hasn't yet arrived from Christchurch due to the nasty weather we've had over the past few days.

I’m writing this on Monday, December 1st, reflecting on this past weekend and hoping our delay getting out of here doesn’t last more than a day. If that’s the case, this will be one of my last, if not my final, update from the Ice. More on that in a bit, but first a quick recap of the past few days.

Thursday was technically Thanksgiving Day, but since we’re not observing it until Saturday it was a normal workday for us. However, I was looking forward to this day quite a bit as we were scheduled to go dive tending with Rob Robbins, the USAP Dive Coordinator.

Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty basic, straightforward days, so I’ll try to keep this post brief. I’m treating this blog as my own online journal so that someday I can come back and have a nice detailed account of how I spent the trip. The problem with that is it sometimes makes for not so interesting reading for everyone else. However, Thursday’s installment will be a good one, I promise.

Every Sunday that I’ve spent in Antarctica has been pretty lazy, and this past Sunday was no exception. After the big night at the punk fest Scott & I slept in until 11:30, then got up and headed over to the best brunch south of 60.

Saturday morning was spent working on the new diving section that I discussed previously. I put together all of the files for the signoff process required for all new divers that want to dive in Antarctica. Then, at 1:00 we headed back up to the cargo building for our appointment with Michael Davis.

Friday marked three weeks to the day since I left Denver. It feels more like three months to me. It also marks exactly two weeks until I’ll be back in Denver. We’re on the home stretch now; the end of this long, amazing journey is within our sights. We were initially scheduled to redeploy on 5 December but requested to leave on 2 December instead. Assuming we get out on that date we’ll have two nights in Christchurch before heading back to the US. While we lost Halloween on the way out here we’ll actually return to Denver *earlier* than when we leave Auckland. If we have a 7:00pm flight out of Auckland we’ll be arriving in Los Angeles at approximately 10:30am on the same day, so we’ll essentially go back in time about 8 ½ hours.