Nights Fly By and Days Don't Exist

I just finished up my 5th (I think) night shift of the offload of the vessel.  The first few days only a few shipping containers came off, but now there are 80-100 containers coming off per 12-hour shift.  It is amazing how fast 12 hours goes when there is actually stuff to do.  The nights are starting to fly by.

The shipping vessel waiting to offloaded with containers sitting waiting to be shipped off the continent.

My days don't exist because I only have a few waking hours outside of work and those are spent just starting to realize that I am awake and the need to get ready to go back to work.  I should only have a few more nights to work and then I can go back to being a normal person...if spending a winter in Antarctica counts as such.

The lowest the sun got a few nights ago.

The last plane leaves the continent in only 2 weeks, but McMurdo is busier than ever.  There are large trucks and heavy equipment cruising around everywhere dealing with unloading almost 700 containers and then loading hundreds more back on the ship.  When this is all over hundreds upon hundreds of people will suddenly leave and McMurdo will turn into the winter ghost town that I am excited for.

Not long after the ship hit and grounded the ice pier, delaying offload for a day and half.

The nights right now are beautiful.  The sun went down tonight for the first time in 2013.  Therefore, it was the first sunrise of 2013 and it was amazing...a storm had cleared and pink light on the lenticular clouds above the Ross Ice Shelf welcomed the last half of my shift.  The transition of light over the next few months will be pretty spectacular.

Shouldn't be long before the perpetual sunset/rise