The Ob tube and dive hut 19

So, when you're the safety guy, sometimes you get asked to give training, in this case, I gave outdoor safety training to a couple of Colonels and then got asked to take them to the observation tube.  It was a great time and an even better excuse to get out of the office.  The observation tube is just that.  A tube about 20 ft in length, that is frozen in place that allows you to climb down through the sea ice and have a look at what the divers get to see.  My photos didn't turn out that great but it will give you an idea.

Ob tube, top view

Looking up from the bottom

Below the ice

Divers descending

It just so happened that luck was on my side this day and while we were visiting the observation tube, a dive team was just getting geared up.  They invited us into the dive hut to have a look around and talked to us about their dive objectives for the day.  The water temperature in McMurdo Sound is -1.8 degrees so the dive gear is dry suits and extra regulators in case one freezes up. If there is an equipment failure there's no where to surface, so equipment is checked and double checked before each dive. I was lucky enough to be at the bottom of the Observation tube when the divers descended the dive line.  I went to the surface after I watched them go out of sight and was in the dive hut when one of the divers came back up through the access hole.  Apparently -1.8 degree water isn't pleasant to dive in when your glove leaks.  She surfaced pretty quickly and mentioned that it felt like electrical shocks on her hands.  She couldn't get out of the water quick enough.

Piston Bully, divers transportation

Inside the dive hut

Access hole 

Diver surfacing

Cold hands

Dive Hut 19

I talked to one of the divers who wore his go pro and he told me he would post some of his videos on our shared drive so I grabbed one of him going up to the ob tube while someone was in there.  What a cool view.  Believe it or not, that's green algae growing on the underside of the sea ice. I'm guessing the ice is somewhere around 15 ft thick.

So that's about it for the tour of the observation tube.  I'll take you on a hike up Observation Hill in the next couple days and we'll take a look at Capt. Scotts Terra Nova and Discovery Huts. Stay tuned.