Crazy from the Cold

[IceDog]

I spent the winter of 08 at South Pole Station in Antarctica with 9 months of isolation, 6 months of darkness and temperatures from minus 60 to minus 100 (F). About 7 months into winter I decided I was going to move to Costa Rica once I left Antarctica even though I had never been there before. Now my wife is in Costa Rica but I'm stuck in the desert in Iraq dreaming of Costa Rica, sailboats and cruising...Oh well, in 5 weeks I get to spend a few weeks in Costa Rica and even get to do some sailing. Meanwhile I can still dream...
-Kevin

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by IceDog

I spent the winter of 08 at South Pole Station in Antarctica -Kevin

I looked at the album on your profile - very nice pictures. I've never been to either pole (and I don't think I ever will), but I have straddled the prime meridian at Greenwich with a foot in either hemisphere.

[zopi]

Winter sucks....one of my goals in life is to be between the 20 degree latitudes all winter, every winter. we currently live in 130 year old farm house...wood heat..and I am freezing my skinny butt off.

[boatman61]

Thats nothing... I stradled the Lagoon in St Martin for 30sec's.....
then the dinghys went to far apart.......

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Thats nothing... I stradled the Lagoon in St Martin for 30sec's.....
then the dinghys went to far apart.......

Is it on YouTube? Please say yes.....

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by mintyspilot

Is it on YouTube? Please say yes.....

Sadly No... everyone was to busy rolling on the floor...
And no way was I gonna offer a repeat performance...

[Cormorant]

To make all our tropically blessed members feel even better . . .

Yesterday I was plowing the snow off our 700-foot driveway, and the 1/2 mile of our dead-end dirt road that the town plows too late in the day . . .

and the mounting frame that holds the plow to the truck broke.

So I removed the plow from the truck, cursing and fuming and bemoaning the expense of the needed welds . . .

and in doing that, I snapped a hydraulic fitting on the plow pump . . .

and cursed and fumed and bemoaned some more.

I then took the tire chains off so I could drive it down to the welder, which involved a lot of scrabbling around in the snow under the truck, with more cursing and bemoaning and cold fingers. . . .

And all of that somehow seemed like a normal winter day here.

Yes, I spend a LOT of time dreaming of cruising these days. A few more years and our kids will be out of school, and we should be able to migrate on our boat to southerly climes for the winter months.

[Liam Wald]

I know what you mean about "crazy from the cold".
I went sailing last Saturday and it was all the way down to 60 degrees on the Monterey Bay.
I need to move to Key West!

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Liam Wald

I know what you mean about "crazy from the cold".
I went sailing last Saturday and it was all the way down to 60 degrees on the Monterey Bay.
I need to move to Key West!

Sounds like a rough day. Monday it was a heat wave in Boston; 56 degrees! But now it's back to be a more reasonable 15-30.

[DeepFrz]

Cormorant, that sounds just like cruising (fixing your boat in exotic places).

[hummingway]

I lived in Edmonton Alberta for too many years. The day I left it was -50C or -58F and the middle of a snowstorm. It was so cold that one of the lugs on my pickup actual snapped clean off!!!! Now that's cold and to be avoided at all possible opportunity!

[IceDog]

"I looked at the album on your profile - very nice pictures. I've never been to either pole (and I don't think I ever will), but I have straddled the prime meridian at Greenwich with a foot in either hemisphere."

Mintyspilot,

I really loved my time in Antarctica, in spite of the cold. I got to straddle all of the time zones, walk backwards through time (by walking around the Pole), join the 300 club (sit in a sauna heated to 200 degrees followed by a naked walk outside to the South Pole and back at minus 100), see spectacular displays of Aurora Australis at the South Pole, journey through the Straits of Magellan and across the Drake Passage to reach the Antarctic peninsula (I wintered at Palmer Station also) do the Polar Plunge and tool around the islands off the peninsula in a Zodiac. I will have to upload some photos of the crossing even though we cheated by using a 325 ft ice hardened vessel, the LM Gould

[IceDog]

I just added some more photos of the Drake passage from Punta Arenas to the Neumayer Channel, including some stormy ones from Captain Mikes collection. It makes me cold just looking at the iced up ship...They are on my profile.

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by IceDog

I just added some more photos of the Drake passage from Punta Arenas to the Neumayer Channel, including some stormy ones from Captain Mikes collection. It makes me cold just looking at the iced up ship...They are on my profile.

Wow - great pictures, especially the Laurence M Gould ones. That looks like a stormy passage. I thought she was a powered boat, but given the angle of heel in the pictures she must be a sailboat.....

Thanks IceDog. Great stuff on a cold and wintery English night......

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by IceDog

I just added some more photos of the Drake passage from Punta Arenas to the Neumayer Channel, including some stormy ones from Captain Mikes collection. It makes me cold just looking at the iced up ship...They are on my profile.

When on submnarine duty we pulled into Punta Arenas. I was still cold from Chile and took a look thought the periscope and decided it looked like a good time to catch up on some sleep.