Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 19:50:16 -0400
Subject: Gorgeous day at Palmer
Pictures: Ship Lab Set-up and chlorophyll rig, Iceberg

Yesterday turned out to be quite a busy day, and I did not find time to write an update on the trip... so here it goes: We arrived near Palmer Station (the American research station in the Antarctic) early in the morning. In reality, Palmer is not on the peninsula itself, but on a small island named Anvers Island. I have been fascinated by the names I discover on the maps, and wonder if somewhere there is a record of who named different places, when and, especially, why? For example, you can go from Cape Disapointment to Exasperation Bay, reach Point Shiver (only if you have survived Erebus and Terror gulf), and also visit islands named Elephant (here?) Island or Powder Puff... This morning, we stopped at Victor Hugo Island: I wonder if some sailor of the past was an admirer of his?

Anyway, we reached Palmer and our ship stopped in the harbor, since it is too big to go to shore. The sun rose over a beautiful land and sea scape: on one side, a glacier tumbled big ice boulders directly into the sea, providing a whole palette of blues, from baby to turquoise to deep blue. On the other side, Palmer station stands on a small promontory next to the water, and behind it there is a whole mountain range of tall peaks, which turned pink in the sunrise before becoming white for a few hours, and again offered us a technicolor sunset before disappearing into the night.

Finally, looking toward the ocean, I saw my first real icebergs, and they were impressive: massive structures of many shapes and heights, imitating castles, cathedrals, and also reminding me of Monument Valley, frozen in time. I could not stop taking pictures, as the light changed through the day. One good thing about the digital camera: you don't have to hesitate, knowing you can delete and edit afterwards. By the way, we are putting all pictures on a CD-rom, so the ones not used on the web will still be available. I'm starting to enjoy technology... And while I am on this topic, living this experience gives me a whole new sense of respect for the people who did this in the past centuries: I cannot imagine crossing the Drake on a sail ship, nor can I start to feel what it must have been like to be in these parts with no contact whatsoever with the rest of the world, in a time when radars, computers, satellites, phones, etc... did not provide you with an umbilical cord. Read, if you have not, Endurance, the odyssey of Shackleton, whose boat got crushed by the ice... Amazing men!

While we were in Palmer, divers went out to explore the waters, while others went to shore to get some needed equipment. By nightfall (4pm) everyone was back on ship, and we proceeded south along the peninsula. It was time to start scientific measurements and experiments. Let me see if I can explain how it works: on the maps, there are a number of straight lines, more or less perpendicular to the coast, which have been chosen. I believe they are 100kms apart. On each of them are several points, also decided ahead of time. These are called "stations", and form a grid. When we get to one of these, the ship stops to allow different instruments to be lowered into the water: they record various bits of information, such as temperature of the water at different depths, conductivity, salinity, etc... The instrument I am mostly "attached" to is called a CTD, and consists of 24 cylindrical containers which can be remotely controlled to open and close at different depths, bringing back samples of water on its way up. Once it is back on ship, several groups of people, all studying different aspects of these water samples, gather around the CTD and collect water... For my part, I analyse it for fluorescence. Some other time, I will explain how this is done. For the next couple of days, we are on a 24 hours a day schedule, since these samples are collected at regular intervals, day and night. So we are divided into shifts, and work either midnight to noon or noon to midnight. The ship is alive and awake non-stop! As a matter of fact, besides breakfast, lunch and dinner, the kitchen crew provides a "midnight rats' snack"! Today, I'm on duty until midnight, with Ray and a scientist from Japan named Jinro. Tim and Sharon, two other members of our team, will take over at midnight.

We are going south toward Adelaide Island and Marguerite Bay, and hope that we will reach the edge of the ice in about 30 hours. The main purpose of this cruise is to observe the formation of ice, so people are excited about getting there: after that, we will have to hammer our way into it! Our ship is an ice breaker, so can do that. More on the subject as it happens. I will stop here for now, since this message has gotten quite long. I'm still adapting to a brand new way of looking at and doing things, but I am having a great time!

Just a couple more items: This morning, as I mentioned earlier, we stopped at Hugo Island: it is a tiny island where a weather instrument has been put. It is not working properly and the hope was to land a few technicians to repair it. They attempted to get there in a zodiac, but the swell, plus the ice on the rockes, made it impossible, and they had to give up. On the positive side, we have seen quite a number of birds (I learned that Antarctic birds have a sense of smell, absent in other areas, which helps them locate scarce food), and two Minky whales. At one of the stations, large nets were lowered into the water, to scoop out whatever might be there: a small fish, little strange jellyfish-like creatures, and tiny shrimp-shaped animals. As they repeat the process, I'll learn their names.. Bye for now. Domi PS: no penguins yet, but hopefully later!