I woke up this morning to 27.4 degree temperatures. I fired up my propane heater only to find that the flame was not as high as usual. I thought that perhaps I was running out of fuel. It took me about 5 minutes to realize that the propane was so cold that it was not vaporizing as quickly as normal. In fact the hose bringing the propane into the heater was ice cold.
It gives you an appreciation of how difficult it must be to make mechanical things work in harsh conditions like Antarctica and the North Slope oil fields. And no, Reboot was not in the mood to warm up.
Cruising my 1995 Catalina 42 MK II sailboat with my cat XO, the good, the bad, and the ugly of the open ocean world cruising life.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteFound your blog while searching for pictures of the sailboat Merlin.
Wanted to comment on Antarctica. My name is Kris Amundson and am currently at the South Pole working in IT. I'm also on the fire brigade and yes we do have to worry about our SCBA breathing gear freezing up when transporting to and outside location for drills or a real event (so far no real events). As Winter sets in it's getting into the -80F's. :)
I also have a Mercator Offshore 30 back home in Portland, OR and spend a lot of time here planning a singlehanded trip to Hawaii when I get off the ice in November (will re-fit the boat during the Winter and leave Spring 2013).
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Kris Amundson
krisa@subtend.net