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over and down, for now
Jul. 31st, 2004 03:42 pmThis morning, sunshine streamed into my tent... light breezes and partly cloudy. So after the 8am breakfast meeting, I thought I'd set up the gravity meter and then do my laundry. Fine. I plugged in the meter to charge the batteries and went to get my clothes. Only underthings and socks -- external fleece and such doesn't smell, even if it is dusty. Plus two shirts that the camp dog had sprayed when he marked my duffel just after arrival a week ago. These had been sitting in my tent.
Fine... after breakfast, we still had hot water. Fill a basin. Add some shampoo, for suds. Dip clothes in the basin and rub them and squish. Wring dry and set aside while doing the next handful, then repeat all over again with clear water. Then I hung them up on an outdoors clothesline behind the kitchen. And the weather changed... became overcast, the wind picked up... orthogonal to the clothesline. It began snowing. Then snowing heavily, blown by 30-40 knot winds nearly horizontal. The clothesline pole fell over, and my stuff fell on the muddy ground. Sigh. Well... more dust won't hurt. Re-brace the pole. Ten minutes later, it falls again. The wind is shaking the tents.
After the seventh time, I gave up and took down my now-wetter-and-dirtier clothes. I hung a few things inside the dining area...
The meter is ready, I have picked a grid for measurements... just waiting for others, and the weather to improve, before going across the crater for a long traverse. I hope to map the central anomaly, as well as filling in some spots on the north and east sides of the crater.
Since last night, the hilltop relay link to the satellite dish has been down... so camp is offline, cut off except for our MSAT phone and HF radio. So I'll post this later, after/if we're back up.
We're back up now... 3pm. No gravity traverse after lunch... high winds, still. The meter needs relative calm, not being shaken by 50 knot gusts (the wind turbines are rated to 45 knots, and they are overspeeding in gusts). I just reinforced my tent with some big rocks, then hung out my socks on the guy ropes. ;-)
Fine... after breakfast, we still had hot water. Fill a basin. Add some shampoo, for suds. Dip clothes in the basin and rub them and squish. Wring dry and set aside while doing the next handful, then repeat all over again with clear water. Then I hung them up on an outdoors clothesline behind the kitchen. And the weather changed... became overcast, the wind picked up... orthogonal to the clothesline. It began snowing. Then snowing heavily, blown by 30-40 knot winds nearly horizontal. The clothesline pole fell over, and my stuff fell on the muddy ground. Sigh. Well... more dust won't hurt. Re-brace the pole. Ten minutes later, it falls again. The wind is shaking the tents.
After the seventh time, I gave up and took down my now-wetter-and-dirtier clothes. I hung a few things inside the dining area...
The meter is ready, I have picked a grid for measurements... just waiting for others, and the weather to improve, before going across the crater for a long traverse. I hope to map the central anomaly, as well as filling in some spots on the north and east sides of the crater.
Since last night, the hilltop relay link to the satellite dish has been down... so camp is offline, cut off except for our MSAT phone and HF radio. So I'll post this later, after/if we're back up.
We're back up now... 3pm. No gravity traverse after lunch... high winds, still. The meter needs relative calm, not being shaken by 50 knot gusts (the wind turbines are rated to 45 knots, and they are overspeeding in gusts). I just reinforced my tent with some big rocks, then hung out my socks on the guy ropes. ;-)
