Some days it's harder to get to work than others, due to certain seals who think they own the road. This happens often around here since the seals like to beach themselves for days at a time, whether there are buildings there or not. Occasionally we have to move them if they're in the way of operations or an incoming tour, but otherwise we'll just walk around them. They blend in with the rocks pretty well, so you have to be careful to look up occasionally when you're clambering around within about 30 meters of the shore. They tend to smell and make belching and farting noises which are helpful clues that you're about to run across one.
They really seem to like the walkway to the seawater pump-house, probably because the rocks leading from there to the ocean are pretty smooth and not too steep. You can tell that these two are female since they don't have the huge nose that the males do (like this guy).
You can see that the seal in December has a grid pattern on her belly from sleeping on the walkway for so long. The walkway tends to tear up their skin as they flop across it, but they don't seem to mind. I suppose the same thing happens on the rocks they flop across and they're built for that sort of thing.
Alrighty, my blog-break is over and I'll be uploading pictures and accounts of the last two months. Chronology's going to have to take a back seat for the few posts as I put stuff up in whatever order I finish it.
A tradition around here is that when the LMG pulls out after a port call, the braver souls on station jump off of the pier to see them off. I'm not sure how this tradition started, but I'm guessing a few a few bad-asses back in the day were looking for a chance to show offand the thing kinda snowballed. It's a good in a way because swimming in the ocean here is something I wanted to do, and a dose of peer pressure/support can be a good motivator when the moment comes.
So as the ship chugged away this morning, carrying the waving figures of our formerstation-mates, a group of us doffed
most of our clothes, jumped out onto the bumpers, and took the plunge. The water was about 29F (-1C) which
After
On a final note, some people wear costumes as they jump. I grabbed an apron, but realized after the fact that it looked more like a bizarre dress than anything else. Oh well.
We’re on our way back now from Petermann island, having moved about 2500lb of gear and set up some tents and a tent cabin. The scenery was amazing and the weather was perfect: no wind and warm sun. The exercise from hauling and digging was nice and since we had a ton of people helping, things were pretty easy and quick. There are a ton of Gentoo and a handful of Adelie penguins on the island, though it used to be the reverse. It’s an overlap of both species’ breeding ground, but the line is moving further south as the climate changes and it’s harder for the Adelies around here now. There are also Blue-eyed Shag, Giant Petrels, Sheathbills (also known as Poop Chickens since they eat penguin and seal droppings), and soon-to-arrive Skuas which feed on the penguin eggs and chicks (gotta eat cute to stay cute).
The water is so clear that you could see the groups of penguins flying underwater as we were coming in, as well as them doing their jump-swimming routine. The most amazing sight was as we arrived: a penguin was zigzagging through and leaping out of the water. Looking closer there was a dark mass, a leopard seal, chasing it. The chase went on for about a minute before it ceased with no sign of penguin or seal. Score: Penguin 0, Seal 1.The leopard seals are fierce and agile hunters, and penguins are lucky if they escape. The seals have been known to attackpeople and even Zodiacs in the water, sometime puncturing the thick rubber tubes (Zodiac, not people).
I feel becoming one of those people who take thousands of pictures of the same thing, so I'm trying reign in the number of iceberg and penguin shots. It's hard because they're both everywhere and very photogenic. We had to pass through a narrow passage to get to the island which offered cool ice formations and mirror reflections.
The LMG (Lawrence M. Gould) is arriving today to drop off some bollards to replace the mooring hooks that broke a
After the bollards are dropped off, the LMG will continue on to Petermann Island where a crew from Palmer (including myself) will help 3 researchers erect their field site. Petermann’s only about 40 miles (20 or so as the crow flies) but I’ve run around station to make sure nothing’s going to explode or die in my absence. This will be a nice chance to see a cool Penguin nesting ground as well as a beautiful straight that we pass through. Life is good.
The days are getting longer and longer now and we’ve reached the point where it no longer gets dark; there’s a slight glow to the sky, as if dawn is approaching. It’s not as bad as South Pole station where the sun circles the sky or below the horizon giving them months of day and months of night. The copious daylight does make it hard not to stay up into the wee hours though, especially since that’s when it’s easiest to things that require quiet and time (such as this little time-sucking blog :-) ). I definitely need to start getting more than 5-6 hours of sleep since I’m starting to feel a bit tired during the day.
We’ve been briefed on the tours ships that will be coming to visit. Something like 10,000 people tour the station a year; there are a total of 10 ships scheduled for this season. The bigger ones don’t off-load passengers to tour the station but instead have station scientists give lectures on board. It’s a pretty major operation to give these tours and takes a lot of staff time, but it’s tax money paying for the station and I assume the NSF feels it’s good policy to show the tax payers what they’re getting. Palmer costs about $3 million per year to operate including fuel and salaries. The total NSF budget is about $6 billion per year, so it’s a pretty good deal considering how much science of different varieties is done there (all you US taxpayers, give yourselves a pat on the back). I’ll be either giving tours or helping in the station store (the cost to the station of giving the tours is mostly offset by the proceeds from the gift shop which sell Antarctic-ly branded items, made in the usual places but shipped here instead of to some American shopping mall).
The IT dept went for a little boating trip after work the other day. We went to a few islands and passed past the wreck of the Bahia Paraiso. The Bahia was an Argentinean ex-military vessel that came into Arthur harbor and then tried to leave during low tide. It seems that Palmer radioed them saying that the passage was too shallow and they responded that their charts indicated otherwise thank you very much. They then ran aground and the ship eventually sank, leaving 314 passengers including 81 tourists and the shaken/embarrassed crew stranded at Palmer until a sister ship could pick them up. That was back in 1989 and the thing is still leaking diesel. At the time, the 200k gallons of spilled oil and fuel decimated the cormorant and invertebrate population, and killed many penguins. These days the upside-down hull just breaks the water. When you pass by the hull these days, you can still get a headache if you’re downwind too long.
You know you're living the small-town life when a survey plane comes over and everyone runs out with cameras...
Halloween was last night. Industrious folks who'd been down before brought costumes; the rest of us had to scavenge through the fairly large box of costumes from years past. I carried on what is apparently an IT dept. tradition of wearing the Liger "costume", which I realized after I put it on was a form-fitting tiger-striped dress. I did find a grim reaper-style cowl to give it a menacing air though.
Today was mostly spend doing GSAR (Glacier Search And Rescue) training. In the morning we practiced climbing ropes using friction-lock knots and in the afternoon we went partway up the glacier and practiced pulley systems using ice screws. It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun. I'm not sure that this is exactly a skillset that I'll be using a whole lot, but it's good to know if you need it. A bunch of the people on the GSAR team are very experience rock or ice climbers, so I'm learning a lot.
I've been getting a lot of questions by email now that I sent out a contact update, so I'll try to answer those tomorrow.
Link to all Halloween pix (potentially scary)
Link to GSAR pix (potentially icy)
Ahh, the weekend. George, Adam, DJ, and I took a boat and cameras and headed out to Torgersen Island where a bunch of penguins are mating and building nests. Half the island is off limits except to the birders (our ornithologists) but we could wander around the rest of the area, keeping a respectable distance from the penguin groups.
A cool bonus was that what appeared to be a huge outcrop of rock turned out to be an elephant seal, about as long as a Volvo station wagon. He/she had managed to bounce all the way up from the shoreline and was hanging out near the top of the island. This was an animal that could easily squash or fling anyone dumb enough to approach or be in it's path, so I kept a good distance.
After almost 2 hours of watching penguins fight and hook-up, we met up
with Kristen and Jen (the birders) and headed over to another Humble
Island before dropping off Kristen at Old Palmer to join the extreme
skiers. It had snowed the night before, so the powder was fantastic and
it renewed my desire to learn how to ski. I'm a little afraid of
killing myself, but not knowing how to ski here is like living on a
boat and not knowing how to swim.
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