Work Again

So I just had my first day of work, went kinda slow but I’m sure it will pick up. I’m busy trying to figure out what is going on sense the guy I’m replacing wasn’t here so I’m trying to figure out what’s going on and the questions I need to ask him when I give him a call.

Also the LMG has left for a short cruise for a few days to do science.

Did I mention the sunsets are nice?

This is PALMER STATION!

I have arrived and it feels good to be here.

En Route

We Are well on the way to Palmer we are supposed to dock at the pier around 7:30am tomorrow morning. The weather has calmed down a bit, Even saw a few whales, even took a few pictures of them, just wish that I was a bit closer. Over all it was a good day, and tomorrow I will be on station, can’t wait

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Time stands still in a photo.

Due to some nasty weather that moved into the area we are leaving Deception Island without landing again, this is Antarctica after all and weather changes can be both quick and violent. The winds have picked up so much that we are waiting near the exit of the caldera for them to die down enough to permit safe travel to our next destination. But more of that tomorrow, as I’m not exactly sure what is going on.

Part of me doesn’t want to even get to station, I’d like to just chill on the boat, but I know when I get to station and settle in that I won’t want to get on the boat. I know it was hard to leave my friends last year, so I will be glad to see them in a few days, even if it is just for a week or so. If the first few weeks go smoothly I think I’m gonna see if I can stay for a year, I’d love to see all the wildlife in the summer, would really be awesome.

Also for some reason today, I feel like I’m stuck in a time warp, or at least that time stepped into some gum and is having a hard time moving forward. With all the stuff we’ve been doing the past few days it is no surprise that a day of chilling out is taking so long, to move on.

I'm in a Volcano

Seriously! So Deception Island is a Volcano that has an opening in it’s side, which lets the ocean in and gives us this awesome place to hang out. Today we’ve moved to a place further inside the caldera to a beach that once was home to a base that was destroyed during the last eruption and now is a pile of stone, wood, and steal. The rocks near here are really neat and range from tiny pebbles to rocks much the same as you see else where, but a good chunk of them are porous.

I spent a good part of the morning checking out the ruins and the rocks, along with the little bit of wildlife that was near by. After lunch was spend laying in a pool of water that was heated by thermal vents from the volcano, very nice. The location of these pools was such that you could stand up take a few steps and you’d be in the colder water. So I spent the afternoon going from the hot water to the cold water, while not as cold as at Palmer it was still decently cold and was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Deception Island pt 1

Wow where do I start, today was the best part of the trip so far. Around noon time we entered into Deception Island, Whaler’s Bay to be exact, or at least I think it was Whaler’s Bay... Anyways I gave my cool Friend Lilly a hand getting the Zodiac ready and helping people into it once it was in the water. As soon as we landed I knew it would be an awesome time, to one side of the landing zone was a group of penguins, to the other side a group of Fur Seals, and about in the middle a penguin carcass and some only Whaling Buildings.

On the way down here I read the book Whale Warriors which is about the Sea Shepherd group trying to stop the Japanese from whaling of the coast of Antarctica. Was a good book and I wish them the best of luck in stopping the whaling. But with the book fresh in my mind still Seeing and being able to walk around an area where whales have be processed was kinda erie. One of the First things you see when you land is some storage tanks with some out laying buildings closely near by. After the whalers abandoned the buildings around 1930ish I think, the British used it as a base until the late 60’s when the volcano on the island erupted. So all the buildings are in fairly rough shape if they are even standing still. After checking out a few of the buildings and the Fur Seals around them, I decided to make my way down the beach to check out an overlook into a cove on the outside of the island. On the way there I came across a few seals hiding in some old rusted out structures.

In the sand I stumbled across the skeleton of a a whale partially sticking out of the sand. In my mind I was reminded that this was something that happened in the past, until I realized that The Japanese and a few other groups still kill whales. I hope that at some point soon that just like the whaling station on Deception, that all whaling would be a thing of the past.

Almost done

Yes, we are almost out of the Drake and will be at Deception Island tomorrow around 1pm. This be awesome, the Drake was not fun last night, we hit a few 30-40ft waves and everything not bolted down went all over everywhere. Walking on the ship today was a chore and a half, had to go with a wide stance and try and move with the ship. Couldn’t get more than about an hour of sleep at any one time, because of the rocking of the ship, kinda scary when you are on the top bunk and the beds are as tiny as they are, sometimes it feels like you’ll end up right on the floor.

The best thing to do in times like these are to get in the lounge and find your favorite spot, and watch movies or tv. I am now a fan of the show Weeds, one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while. The tv watching helps because you start to focus on that and not on the movement of the ship, though every now and again you get to feel the ship catching a decent wave, and feel like you will be catapulted right out of your spot, but it is still better than rolling around in your bunk trying not to fall out.

Tiny Bunks

The rumors are true...

I’m finding myself confined to my bunk, it is a self inflicted confinement, one that I’m sure most people would do themselves. I am now in the Drake, have a new patch and still feel off. I’m not sure if it is from the food or the effects of the ocean swells on the ship, that is mostly responsible for it, though I am sure it is a combination of the two. Either way I’m gonna just stay here as I feel better here than if I was to walk around, though I could use some fresh air, but I don’t know if I could make it there and back.

We are about two days from Deception island, maybe a little less at this point, I’m just hoping we will stop. At the point we get there it would be a much needed break from the trip over the Drake.

This is my least favorite part of going to Palmer, not once have I had a good trip across. The patch does stop me from getting sick but it doesn’t stop the feeling of wanting to be sick, but this is still better than being sick and wishing I was dead. Part of me wishes they’d just fly us in on some seaplanes or something, avoid the whole boat process. But I only truly feel that way when crossing the Drake.

A good example of a Drake Zombie.

Drake

So the rumor going around is that instead of waiting it out some more tomorrow we are gonna go ahead and try and slip between two storms systems, which means that we will be leaving for the Drake just after break fast tomorrow. I hope my medicine lasts long enough for this, or I will need to get more.

In other news we’ve found one of those atari joysticks with atari games on it, and hooked it up to the tv. There is something very odd about playing Pong on a 64in tv screen. We also learned that atari games suck ass, sorry to all you retro gamers out there but they are crap. I managed to score a 3 in pong, I used to be decent at it when I had the wheel controller but with the regular joystick and the pink backround I was doomed.

Missile Command

Good decision

As I write this we should be in the Drake but we are not, thanks to a weather system that would be moving through while we would be in there, something about not wanting to go through 30-40ft swells with high winds. Kinda glad they decided not to go through, I just hope it doesn’t impact our side trip to Deception island I’d really like to see it and land if I get the chance. So we are just gonna sit here and wait it out for a few days see what happens, and because my room mate has taken the desk for his I write this in my bunk no big deal

Chilling in my bunk
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On the Boat again

I didn’t wake up as early as i hoped to, but still managed to get out and take some pictures of the dogs, and get a nice hoody sweater for like $20 it’s a nice one too. I’m gonna have to look into calibrating the focus on the 16-45mm I have 90% of the pictures with it are out of focus... Could be me but I’ll have to look into it and see what is the problem. Just weird that they are all out of focus and I took my time to take some of the shots, hm...

Other wise it was a good day, walked around for a bit until the square was filled with all the tourists from the cruse ships. At this point the LMG is out of the straights and making it’s way along the coast to start crossing the drake tomorrow at some point.