Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 19:04:19 +0000 From: "Coronesi, Stephanie" Subject: Message 9 16:50 (2002.01.15) 65 Degrees 51.054' South Latitude 68 Degrees 21.785' West Longitude (Bellingshausen Sea) Air Temp: 2.8 Degrees C SST (Sea Surface Temperature): 1 C Wind Speed: 7 knots 165 Degrees Air Pressure: 986.9 mBar Hey Guys! Well, the seas have calmed a bit, thank goodness, though we seem to keep hitting swells that take us by surprise and send things flying. Eating in the mess hall is an adventure. There are these little plastic clingy place mats that keep your plate stationary, but you have to keep grabbing your water bottle as it goes flying by, and the salt and pepper usually pass themselves. With most of the ship being on different work shifts, lunch is one of the only times that you actually get to see everybody. There are three long tables in the mess hall, and the first two are generally filled up with scientists while the crew seem to gravitate more towards the third table. Breakfast is served from 6:30 - 7:30AM, lunch is from 11:30AM-12:30PM, dinner is from 5:30 - 6:30PM and evil, evil mid-rats is served from 11:30PM - 12:30AM. The first four seats at table 1 are reserved for Captain Robert and Tracy, Jay and Jesse, the mates, and you always check to make sure that they've eaten first before taking those empty seats. I'm sending along a picture so you can get an idea of what the mess hall looks like. There's a sort of low-intensity Saltine-eating competition going on. The goal is to eat six Saltines in a minute (without any liquid to wash them down). It sounds simple enough, huh? Only about a third of those who've attempted have actually achieved the goal. Saltines are apparently the driest food known to humankind. Do NOT attempt this at home without parental supervision boys and girls (and if possible, encourage parental participation!). ;) Rich and I have been having a lot of fun peeking in on the Zooplankton group to see what they've caught in their net tows. We've seen plenty of krill, and yesterday they found a baby ice-fish and a small squid. There are also these neat snail-like creatures called Limacina which have a shell and a modified snail-foot that looks like a pair of wings. They sort of fly-swim around the buckets with the foot/wings on top and their shells on the bottom, so they appear to be upside-down and not particularly comfortable. Last night we had a beautiful pseudo-sunset and a whole parade of icebergs, so we braved the sloshy seas to take some pictures from the 02 deck. I'll be sure to get you some more scenery shots soon. When I get back to the U.S. I'll be working with Karen Baker to get a whole slew of pictures put up at the http://pal.lternet.edu/field/0102season/02jan/outreach/ website, so be sure to check them out once they're up! Last week there were some great questions sent to me from Michelle and Randy in Mrs. Keane's seventh grade science class at MVRCS. Here you go guys! Q: Where do you sleep? A: I sleep in a bunk bed in a small cabin with my very own porthole and bathroom. The beds are actually pretty comfortable, though there's no ladder to get in and out of the top bunk, so it's a graceless operation both ways. I've only slipped once though, and my ankle's almost all better now. ;) Q: In the lifeboat do you have covers over the top? A: Yup, the whole thing is totally enclosed, so we'd be warm and safe should we ever need to use it. Q: Do people go swimming? A: No, not generally, though when we were at Palmer Station about eight people jumped in, then ran right back out into the hot tub. Paul roughed his shins up a bit on the icy chunks that were floating in the water and Kyle was about to jump in when a seal popped up right where he would have landed. I didn't go in, though I was tempted to. Maybe on the way back... ;) Q: Are there hot springs that people can go into? A: I don't think so, at least I've never heard of any, but I can't tell you for sure. Maybe you could do some research on the internet and tell me if you find anything? Q: How do people sleep in the summer, if there are 21 hours of sun? A: Well, if I'm tired enough I can sleep with sun streaming in through the porthole and two alarm clocks going off, but there is always the option to close the porthole cover. There are also thick drapes that pull closed in front of the bunks and render your sleeping space cozy and dark. Q: Where do people get their food? A: This ship gets totally stocked with food while in port, and it even brings fresh food to the stations. I've heard that we have more food than we could possibly go through in our month-long journey. I think the fresh fruit must run out at some point soon though. Q: Can you pet and name a penguin after us? A: I WISH! Though we've gotten close to them, part of our responsibility here is to leave the wildlife and environment how we found it. Except for the birders and their helpers who capture some penguins briefly for a quick series of observations, no one else gets actual contact with them cute ole' pengys. I suppose I could name a couple after you though, as long as there's no official paperwork that needs to be filed. I could sort of shout it at them as the boat goes by. Q: Is Antarctica solid ice or is there land underneath? A: Though 98% of Antarctica is covered with the South Polar Ice Sheet, there is indeed land underneath. With the ice cover, Antarctica has an area of 5.4 million square miles (the U.S. has an area of 3.6 million square miles), but if you were to remove all of the ice you would find a rocky land mass of only about 2.7 million square miles. My cousin Chris (in Mr. Powers seventh grade science class at Great Hollow Middle School) had a great question too! Q: How do you send email from a ship in the middle of the ocean? A: When we're done writing an email we hit "send" and it goes into "queue" in the server here on the ship, which means it lives in e-mail limbo, waiting to be sent. Twice a day, at approximately 11AM and 6PM our time we transmit all messages via satellite to a satellite station on land (call it point B), and they get distributed out to their separate destinations from there. We also receive all email at the same time from that point B and it gets distributed out here on the ship. Okay, so that's all for today. All of you are encouraged to send in any questions you might have! I look forward to hearing from you! -Miss C (Steph) :)