date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 17:02:31 -0400
Subject: Solstice Day!
Pictures: Ice Core

Not only is this day the shortest of the year, but it's turned out to be the darkest and dreariest too, so far: not a ray of light, barely a few hours of foggy grayness. After the beautiful day we had yesterday, we woke up to a real surprise: the ice all around us had totally broken up overnight, and we were really feeling the swell. It sure is a proof of the power of nature: apparently there is a big storm in the Drake, hundreds of miles away, and it managed to make itself felt here, under ice that seemed so solid!

This situation meant that we could not go back off the ship. The transect (100 meter line) which we had left in the ice and marked with little red flags, was broken to pieces, and floated away on an ice floe...

We did send the CTD down, and the people working it radioed that there was a seal in the water. I rushed outside (as much as you can rush when you have to grab coat and hat, minimally!) and by the time I got there, it was gone, but there was a single penguin standing by the side of the water, looking very small and forlorn: you wonder where it could have come from, when yesterday there was nothing in sight! Apparently the seal, a leopard seal, was very intent of making his lunch out of this poor penguin, but he had no luck!

The only people who went out today were the divers, who left the ship on the zodiac, pushed their way through the narrow channels of open water between ice floes, and dove in: just watching them from the bridge as they disapeeared under the ice gave me shivers!

I'm glad I got to take pictures yesterday, since today was definitely not a picture day! So I'll send one showing a few of us working on the ice: Jinro is taking measurements on the ice core which has just been drilled out, Dave is recording, and I am observing the procedure. Time to get back to work and process some more water samples, which just came back up: my fingers are still frozen from handling the CTD! Stay warm... Domi