Field Report, Thursday, July 6, 2000. This is the first field report of the season. The first field members arrived at base camp Friday, June 30th. There were 11 of us to start. Our camp has since grown to 30 including five Marines. Due to poor weather conditions - including a windstorm with gusts up to 100kph - deployment was slower than expected. In addition, some of our supplies have had routing problems on their way to Haughton Crater. Our satellite communications links were established on Tuesday, July 4 at 23:24 PM CDT. The quality and bandwidth are exceptional considering where we are. Yesterday was an extremely busy day as the United States Marine Corps paradroped supplies and gear in an operation that lasted much of the day. There was a lot of excitement as we watched the Marines fly two C-130 Hercules in formation and drop our supplies. (Video footage and pictures will be available tomorrow.) During the course of the field season I'll be posting these daily reports along with as much video and pictures as I have time for. Of course, science is the primary reason we are here. As such, I will be posting reports from all the disciplines being studied. New sections to the site will be added as the season progresses. Marc Boucher HMP 2000 Webmaster