Opening up

This photo was shot with a 300 mm lens, so it's obvious that it's a ways away yet, but the season's first icebreaker is en route to McMurdo Station. This is the Oden, a Swedish ship that will assist a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker in plowing and maintaining a road to us. The preparations are for the annual cargo vessel and fuel tanker. Without those two ships, this station and the South Pole would face a difficult time continuing operations. It has everyone excited, partly because it's a big deal but, I suspect, mostly because the arrival of the icebreakers means the cargo ships will be coming soon which means most of us will be going home soon. Well, about six weeks soon.