Wow, Long time

So sorry I haven’t posted for quite some time, have been super busy here. With my last post being from the end of April there has been a few things that have gone on here. Also If you check near the page title I have a new section called “Latest pictures”. I’ll be uploading the pictures from the past few months there, as there is just too many for the blog, and hopefully I can get back to a regular updating schedule.

Here is what’s gone down, as taken from my monthly contributions to the antarctic sun:

Probably the most talked about event on station this past month has had to have been Oprah. Palmer’s own research associate Neil Scheibe was chosen to participate on a segment entitled “Where the Skype are You” during a recent taping of the show. Because Skype is normally banned under the NSF entrob, a great deal of work was required by Palmer’s IT and Communications departments.

To ensure a successful Skype with Oprah, a special laptop was set up to have top priority on the network. A side benefit to this was that the laptop needed to be tested for usability with Skype and Palmer’s internet connection. To do this several station personnel were able to contact and talk with friends and family back home though a service not usually open to use.

In the short time that Skype was able to be used on the laptop beside to call into Oprah, science personnel were able to perform several outreach Skype sessions with schools back stateside. The use of Skype was a great benefit to all who where able to use it for the short time it was available. When it came down to the big day Palmer was lucky enough to have a clear day that enabled Oprah and her viewing audience a view of the glacier behind Palmer.

Appearing with Neil on Oprah was Dr. Bruce Sidell from the O’Brien science group. Both Neil and Bruce did a great job telling Oprah and her audience about Station life and the effects of global warming to the environment around Palmer. About two weeks after taping the show aired to a packed Palmer Lounge. While Skype enabled Neil and Dr. Sidell to talk to Oprah, a Slingbox enabled the station to watch the show.

For the past few months a group of “wasties” lead by Mark Furnish have been hard at work consolidating and getting ready for shipment all of the hazardous waste here on station. For the waste crew, just about every hour of the last months have been spent working outside in and among the mil-vans housing the haz waste, and moving it down to the Palmer pier to be loaded onto the LMG. Once loaded on the LMG, it will make its way northbound to the United States for disposal. All the long hours of work finally paid off with the Gould’s arrival just before mid-winter’s day. Even with the ship being slowed by sea ice and a side trip for some science related repairs, the waste crew along with help from Palmer Logistics managed to complete loading of the waste mil-vans on the pier and finally onto the ship.

On the days preceding the departure of the Gould word had made it’s way to station that the ship might have to leave a day earlier then was planned. It turns out that one of the Chilean stations, O’Higgins, had lost power and would need the Gould to bring them parts. To do this the Gould will need to travel to Frei Base to pick up some equipment that is being flown there from Punta Arenas, then loaded onto the Gould and brought to O’Higgins to unload it.

Before going to Frei base the Gould attempted a landing at Hugo Island to try and repair a gps unit, installed earlier this season. The gps is used to measure ice-sheet loading and the unloading of the the landmass. Unfortunately due to the ice and weather they were unable to land at Hugo for the repairs.

From Hugo the Gould made its way towards Frei Base, only to have to backtrack and take an alternative route due to ice. Eventually the mission would have to be canceled altogether because the pack ice at Maxwell Bay would prevent the Zodiac operations needed to get the replacement parts to the Gould. Because of this the Gould would now make its way to Punta Arenas some 72 hours behind its original schedule.