The Ob Tube

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• Entry from McMurdo Station

Trip Start Nov 15, 2010 Trip End Feb 28, 2011

  McMurdo Station, Ross Island
Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The OB TUBE!!!!

So when I arrived on the Ice this year I'm feeling well rested from my extended stay at home. I'm so full of energy in fact, that the first 3 days I was here I climbed Ob Hill, once every day.

Ob Hill is the largest and steepest peak here in town, at the top of it is a great wooden cross that was placed there about 100 years ago in honor of Robert Falcon Scott and his team of Antarctic explorers. They perished on their way back from their traverse to the South Pole and back. (WALKING that is). Incidentally R.F. Scott lost the race to the SP for the British, to Roald Amundson, Norwegian Polar explorer and team.

So on my way back down Ob hill, on the second day, I stopped in to say hi to my friend Megan. She works in Science Cargo. Megan starts telling me about her experience at the "ObTube". Completely confused, I ask "What is the Ob Tube?" She goes on explaining that the divers have installed an Observation tube into the sea ice down by Hut Point. It's metal tube, probably steel or steel alloy, ¼ to ½ inch thick , with small re-bar handles digressing down the tube creating a ladder. At the bottom is a small four step rope ladder, and a step stool. Then you just sit on the stool and observe. Looking out 6 viewing windows inside a small hexagon, to witness the life beneath the sea ice in the Mc Murdo sound.

I'm immediately obsessed with getting my chance to go down the Ob Tube. It's sounds so amazing. But I can't go until I've had the outdoor safety lecture (OSL), which is only given on Tuesday and Saturday. UGH! Today is Wednesday and I'll have to wait. It's a race against the Sun, before the sea ice gets too thin and they take it out. I'm already getting here late in the season and many people have reported that it was already unusually warm for as early in the season as it is. Although at the time this was going on we were having normal weather. Around 0-10 Fahrenheit.

Finally Saturday rolls around and I get to the 1030 am class. Even though I'm on nights and technically that is 1030 pm to me.

So, on my very next day off that I had I convinced Luke and Tracy to come with me to the Ob Tube. I didn't have to twist their arms much. Incidentally, you have to have at least one other  person with you when you go. And you have to go to the Firehouse, sign out the key, and then take a radio with you just in case anything should happen. Also we are reminded that if we aren't back by the time which we have given them, the SAR team (search and rescue) will be immediately notified and sent into action. "So if we need more time, just radio in and tell us." This is all very standard for Mc Murdo Procedures for having fun.

So, we jump quickly through the hoops and soon we find ourselves walking through, and out of town, moseying on down to Hut Point, where we find a trail of red flags leading us through the safest path down onto the sea ice. This alone is cool as hell! Walking down onto the sea ice near Hut point has never been allowed since I've been coming down here. It gives you a great view of the point and the airfield, it also gives you that feeling of being small and insignificant. Because of the great expanse and view in front of you.

So Luke and Tracy have already done this, and Luke says, in his best Midwestern accent (Wisconsin). "We'll since your the only one who hasn't done this, looks like you'll be first!" Somehow, this alone raises my excitement level as if I'm a kid who gets to go to the front of the line. Luke unlocks the pad lock with the key and slides the cover over. All three of us naturally look down into it, putting the crowns of our heads together.   You can hear an echo too. It's slightly eerie also, it looks dark, you can't really see the bottom. Mostly due to the Snow blindness.

I climb on in, and start my way down the re-bar ladder.. It's pretty tight too. I can press my back up against the tube and hold myself in place without my hands. But, I keep descending. As I get closer to the bottom, I can see the step stool. It's well lit down there from the ambient light of the Sun, that's radiating on down through the ten to fifteen feet of see ice that I am currently climbing through. Subconsciously I whisper out loud to myself "this is so fucking cool", and much to my surprise, Luke responds from the top, 20 feet above me..."Id'nt it?" Surprised he could hear me, I gasp a little bit. He tells me when I get to the bottom I should roll the ladder up so it's not impeding my view and then he will slide the lid closed so my eyes can adjust faster.

As I sit down and tell him to close the lid, my jaw goes slack. I'm just dumbfounded by this experience. It's so cool to get to go beneath the ice of the Mc Murdo Sound. "Otherworldly" is the word that comes to mind.

The lighting is an ambient aquamarine, which is lighter and greener at the top and goes bluer and black down below and in the distance beyond your visibility. You can see the shore line and there is no beach. The land continues on a steep slope down and out of your view, much like your hanging over an abyss. The water is super clear, so the visibility is easily 50 feet or more. But I really don't know how far I could see. It's really hard to judge distance in water through half inch glass.

You can look up and see the bottom of the sea ice, maybe ten feet or so above you, where the ceiling is completely covered in ice crystals. In some places it's growing crystal chandeliers that are hanging in big Chihuly, glass looking shapes. You can see 360 degrees around you as well through a series of 6 windows

The first moving life that I notice down there are these clouds of small white things floating in the distance, most of them evenly spaced and mostly not moving, although some are making quick dashing movements and then stopping again. Some of them are fish, some, might be krill, it's hard to tell, but all of them are pale white little blobs floating. Almost still. Not much of a current down here, I'm thinking.

A small angel like creature flaps by in a vertical posture, amazing! What is that?

Then I notice up in the ice crystal ceiling, small minnow like fish using the Ice crystals as a protective refuge, only darting out to eat small things floating by, that I can't even see with my naked eye. They're all over the place, I start to notice. Up in the ice crystals, and there is one right near me, hiding in the ice crystal that's growing right by the window I'm looking out. It's a fish living in ice! I'm blown away. WHAT????

Soon a Jellyfish pulses by the window and I try to take a picture, but the windows are so thick and the water is bending light so much so that my camera is having a helluva time focusing. But I get some vague shots and then stop to enjoy the scene as the jelly passes by.

Then something strange happens. I hear this noise, like my belly is growling, but it's not. I'm full, and I feel good. It's a long gurgle noise with a tick, tick, ticking at the end of it. Tick, tick, or knock, knock. Is this tube gonna hold up? I thinking to myself. I'm not deep enough for pressure to cave in the tube and I'm sure "They" have engineered this thing to strength. Wait, there's another noise. This time, a high pitch noise descending into a low pitch, "Beeeeeyoooouuuuuuuuuu, tick, tick, tick." Each tick taking just a little bit longer of a pause before the next tick. The whole sound maybe lasting 20 to 40 seconds. It's barely audible. I hold my breath and stop moving so I can listen more clearly. There it is again, and this time much more clearly. It's the Weddell seals, or at least one of them. These are the types of noises they make underwater. It's so hard to describe, but it's like a whale song, only in a different language. I hope I see a seal out there. I know one is there, somewhere, out there beyond that dark green, blackness. Or maybe it's right behind me. Or below me. My head is darting around frantically, hoping to catch a glimpse of a seal in action underwater.

Tracy had later showed me her video of a seal that she saw when she first experienced the ob tube. The seal came swimming by the window, probably coming to see what that strange tube like thing, sticking down through the ice, might be?

Well, all in all I was down there for 20-30 minutes, I didn't get to see a seal, but I will, because I'm coming back to the Ob Tube until I do.

Meanwhile. Luke and Tracy were waiting for me above in the Antarctic elements. It was a nice day that day the Sun was shining and they were just perched up on the roof of the dive hut waiting and laying out in the Sun in full Carhartt get up and boots.

"Next!" I yell, as I pop my head out of the Ob tube. "Take as long as you want." It was so cool. But I'm not satisfied. I'll be back for more.

And I did. I came back 4 times in all, day and night, whenever I had time off. Each time, convincing the some new partner, jumping through the hoops, and moseying down to hut point. During my day off for Thanksgiving I went twice, and it paid off. Because I got to see a couple seals both on the Ice and underwater.

One was sleeping on the ice next to the dive hole where the dive hut used to be. We got up close, but not interfering, or even being noticed. The seal just slept but, he/she kept changing breathing patterns, and it slept rolled over so it's face was shaded out of the Sun. Since the Sun never sets. I assume.

Later after they moved the dive hut, another seal, came up in the dive hole for air while I was waiting for someone to come out of the Ob Tube. We were all just standing there watching it breath and exchange the Carbon dioxide for Oxygen as if it was taking it's first breathe ever.

Then a minute or so later that person did come out of the tube. Thinking to myself, this is my chance to see a seal underwater. So I ran to be next down the tube. I went down tube next and stared in the direction of the dive hole from under the ice. Just waiting for him or her to come back down. Then it happened. Briefly I saw it come back down. It descended backwards without enough room to turn around in the 10 foot deep dive hole, and it pointed itself in a seven o-clock position for the deep, disappearing withing seconds.

Now, NOW, I am satisfied. This Ob tube experience is one that stupid rich people would pay ass-loads of money for. And middle class people would pay $100-$200 dollars for. I did it 4 times for FREE!

Within the next few days, the ob tube was declared closed, due to someone falling through the Ice and getting a wet foot. It was getting thin in places. I was noticing a lot of changes in the sea ice in just those few weeks that I was on my Ob tube, Ob-session. Which easily ended up being one of the top experiences of my life so far thus far.

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Piston Bully racing across the ice.	Dive hut and the Ob Tube	Luke opens the Ob Tube	Brenda descending into the Ob Tube
Seal and Fata Morgana	Roll over and play dead	Sleeping seal from a different angle	Tidal crack and hut point
Ice crystals forming on the window	Ceiling of Ice crystals	Close up of Ice on the window	Look out there.
Mt. Discovery across the Ross Ice shelf	Me waiting patiently	Black Island and Fata Morgana	Tracy in the Dive hut