I'm not sure why that was so surprising. I wintered over at McMurdo about 16 years ago and we had 250 people on base through the season. The PX had condoms out for sale and they were certainly purchased.

Hell, you gotta do something besides drink and watch videos.

'course there ain't all that many womens in Antarctica, even during summer, so it's probably mostly the homo-sex.  In all fairness, when you're wintering over on a nearly-uninhabited continent of ice and darkness, I'd imagine the homo-sex starts looking mighty tempting.  I mean, it's that or rape penguins but I think they probably have protected species status.

When I was there, women had only been allowed to winter over for the past couple of years, but the percentage of women was rising pretty quickly. In fact, I recall very little gay sexual activity taking place although, of course, it was happening. I was was personally responsible for, alas, only two incidents. I was working construction on new research facilities and while everyone was pretty easy going - we smoked a lot of grass - you didn't want to make a mistake when you hit on someone.

As one of my female coworkers noted: "In Antarctica you can hide but you can't run."

I've posted this in the past, but it's apropos.

Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off - To the Arctic

Last edited by whosasailorthen (2008-06-10 21:05:59)