Wanted: Cast Iron Stomach

After dinner, the lounge was pretty full with people for movie night.

Last night's feature was "The Big Lebowski". I started off doing pretty

good, then all the sudden I needed to lie down. I got and made it to my

bunk about as quickly as I could. After 10-15 minutes, I was doing much

better, but figured I was in bed for the night. My roommate had just

started watching the first season of Deadwood, so we stayed up for three

episodes until we reached the third disc. It was missing and in it's

place was a sticky with "I have the third disc, Phil". As far as we

know, there is no Phil on board. :(

I didn't sleep too much as I kept sliding around and rolling off my

side. I had also taken a couple of naps that day, so my body had taken

just about all of the lying down that it could. I can only lay in bed

for so long and then my insides seem to get sore. Not sure why, but

keeping my bladder empty seems to help. This was a no-win situation.

The Meclizine was making me very thirsty so I had to drink a lot of

water but then in order to sleep I needed to keep going to the bathroom

every hour which in turn made my stomach unhappy. Needless to say, it

was a VERY long night.

I got out of bed around 0930 this morning and went to the galley to find

some leftovers from breakfast. A few pieces of bacon and a slice of

French toast was all I figured I should eat. I'm writing this from the

lounge on the first deck which has been a chore. I'm in a chair without

casters and I'm still sliding around. Sometimes I have to hold onto the

table, which is bolted down, just to keep from sliding across the room.

The ship is two people short of maximum capacity, but you wouldn't know

it from the number of people not in their bunks. The ship seems fairly

deserted and for good reason. Speaking of which, I think I need to lay

down now.

"The Drake Will Be Nasty"

We left Palmer this morning. The wind was very strong which delayed our

departure a bit. There is usually a traditional 'plunge' done by some

of the residents when the ship departs. The weather was pretty nasty

with a lot of snow and a 35+ knot wind so we figured it wasn't going to

happen. However, right as we were leaving the pier, several figures

emerged from Biolab darting for the pier. All were in their skivvies

except one wearing a dress. Most were my cohorts from the previous

evenings jump.

The captains premonitions about the crossing appear to be true. It's

supposed to get rough about midnight tonight. This might be my last

post for a bit as the whiteboards around the ship are blank except for:

"Please secure everything tonight. The Drake will be nasty."

Polar Plunge

Just a quick update.  Last night I did the traditional 'polar plunge' by jumping off the pier into the water.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but there was alcohol involved which might have taken off the edge.  The roughest part was running the 50 yards barefoot in the snow to the hot tub.  I uploaded the pictures to the photo album.  I think they are still G-rated. :)

We leave Palmer tomorrow morning, so we have moved aboard the ship.  Last night was my last night sleeping on land.  For the next 4-5 days, my email will be back to:

mike dot forrester at lmg dot usap dot gov

The wind really picked up last night and it has been raining lightly on and off.  I don't think that I've ever had it rain while there is a lot of snow on the ground.  In any case, the captain said that the last crossing was probably the best in 12 years.  Then he supposedly said that because of unusually long string of fairly good crossings, he is due for a 'good shellacking'.  Hopefully not. :)

Back to Palmer Station

Well, I'm now back at Palmer Station while the boat heads to the Vernadskiy Station.  We actually had a chance to go, but decided it was better to get off the boat for a few days.  I've added more pictures to the blog's photo album.  Click on the picture on the left to see them.

Much Better Day

First, my apologies for the depressing nature of the last post.  Yesterday was a much, much better day.  We were invited to go along with the seal team to do their second capture.  It was at sunset and the scenery was amazing.  When they do a capture, then always send out two Zodiacs just in case.  We got to ride along on the second one.  It was a thrill to go along and watch them do the capture.  Being out among the ice with the sunset lighting really made it spectacular.  I think even I took a few good pictures with my point-n-shoot camera that could make my dad proud.  We'll see what he thinks.  I'm sure there is room for improvement, but I think it was one of those occasions that he talks about where it is hard not to take some great pictures.  I wish he could have been there to take some shots.  We'll be back at Palmer station tonight and I'll try and get all of the pictures uploaded.

Also, I saw penguins, but they were so far away that they looked like little raisins in the high powered binoculars that I was using.  Still, when they turned towards the sun and started walking you could tell that they were waddling.

Rough Night

Last night was definitely the roughest seas yet.  I seem to have kept my
sea legs and didn't need any Meclizine.  I did decide to stay in my bunk
for the afternoon and evening as I definitely had my moments.  The ship
was going up and down so much that I could actually feel my stomach drop
every now and then.  I think once I thought of it as am amusement park
ride, it wasn't so bad.  Except for a couple of days at Palmer where we
worked 9 hour days, Chris and I have been working 12 hours a day
everyday since we left Denver and it is starting to take its toll on
us.  As much as I've always wanted to visit Antarctica, the 'novelty' is
now gone because of the work and I'm definitely ready to go home.  I
have a feeling it is going to be a rough couple of weeks.  On the bright
side, it looks like we might have our first day off on Sunday.  Monday
is Memorial day which we might end up with off as well, I'm not sure how
holidays work while deployed.

We've left the area we have been in for the past few days and are moving
north a bit to see what we can find.  We saw a bunch of Crabeaters (aka
Crabbies(sp?)) yesterday, but they were either on small floes or jumped in
the water once the ship was near.  Maybe we will have good luck today.

Still no penguin sightings for me.

Good Weather

Well after last nights fury, the weather tonight is very calm. It isn't

cloudy for the first time in awhile. The moon and stars are out which

make it really seem the opposite of yesterday. It's still weird to look

up at the stars and not recognize anything. In any case, the weather is

supposed to be great tomorrow, so hopefully they'll be able to tag some

more seals.