Delayed....

The wake up call at midnight last night came to inform me that our C-17 was delayed for unknown reasons, more to follow in 12 hrs.  I woke up later and called my contacts to find that the main ice runway -- their is no traditional runway at Mcmurdo, everything is crafted out of the existing sea ice or glacial ice -- had melted a bit and would cause the flight to reduce the available payload by about 80-100K lbs -- i.e. less fuel and higher likelihood to turnaround and return should any delays occur prior to arrival at their go/no-go point in the flight.  

The temp is about 33 degrees now and looks like we'll be taking off at 2300 local tonight.  The bad news is that I will land at 0400 and have a field survival class scheduled for 0800.  Fun!  The class will be fun, I'll just be a bit tired.  Anyhow, off to try and watch the Pats game somewhere in Christchurch!  Go Pats!