I made it! It was a long cruise from Punta Arenas, but lucky for us the weather and the sea cooperated. We only hit a few bumps on our second day at sea and the rocking wasn't nearly as bad as it often can be. It was still difficult to walk at times and even simply carrying a cup of coffee wasn't easy, but overall we were very fortunate. I'll be posting some photos of the voyage as soon as I have more time, but besides the ship itself we mostly saw just open water. We did have a few dolphins swimming along side the ship one day which was pretty cool.
Land ho!
We arrived at Palmer Station around 8AM April 25th. Since then there's barely been enough time to look around. Between unloading the ship and orientation the day flew by. I did manage to get out on the glacier for an hour with a few others to get a look around. This place is magnificent! Absolutely beautiful in every direction. My photos don't do it justice, but with a little more time I might do better. While I was out on the ice I also got a chance to preview our skiing territory. Very skiable, though right now the snow is shallow enough that you'd be scraping the ice pretty bad on your turns. To my surprise and great satisfaction there are two snowboards in addition to the tele and XC skis I had already heard about. Someone's going to be shredding Antarctica... :)
Home sweet home. Despite what you might think, Palmer is actually quite a comfortable place. We have a nice lounge with a full bar, dartboard, and regulation size pool table. There's an immense video library as well as a Wii. Best of all, you're surrounded by some wonderful people. There was a big to-do in the lounge last night with everyone from the station and the ship. If it was any kind of indicator I expect to have a lot of fun during my stay here.
That's all for now. Best wishes to all of you up North. I should be able to post a lot more now that I'm starting to get settled. The adventure is well on it's way and every day brings new wonders.
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Glad to hear you made it there safe. How is the food? Do you have to share a room with other people (I feel like you must, but who knows...) Are there any animals there with ya'll? How cold is it? (You know Weather.com doesn't cover Palmer Station Antarctica? I also tried to find it on google maps with no success.)
ReplyDeleteHave fun!
Karen
For your sake, I hope the movie collection doesn't include a copy of *When Penguins Attack*.
ReplyDeleteThe food is great! I actually need to watch myself because it's all buffet style and it's hard to resist. I've heard the fare isn't quite so nice at McMurdo, but both on the ship and at Palmer I've been more than happy.
ReplyDeleteI have a roommate currently, but after all the scientists leave in June we'll have a lot more space available. In fact, I think we may even be a little overbooked right now. Once everyone leaves I think there's enough rooms for everyone to get their own.
It's not too cold down here yet. Supposedly, it's usually right around freezing, but the last few days we've seen the 20's. I'm sure it'll drop much lower once we get further into the season, but it's nothing all that dramatic. It's nothing compared to South Pole, for example (negative temps year round). If you're interested, I think this link works outside the station :
http://www.palmer.usap.gov/weather/slide1a.html
Not sure what the entire movie selection is, but I know they have just about every piece of Antarctic footage you can think of (right down to the last cheesy horror film).
Forgot to add, we've seen plenty of seals so far, and some gulls, but no penguins or whales yet. I expect to see a lot more wildlife once I get a chance to get out on the zodiacs (stay tuned). The penguins and whales haven't all left for the winter yet, despite what I heard from some people.
ReplyDeleteThere's a rotating schedule of people that go out daily to weigh the giant petrel eggs, and I'm dying to get on that list, but there's not much time left for it. We shall see.
Jeff - I notice your comments come with a time of day. What time zone are you in, if any? Actually, how does time even work near the poles? If you ski around the South Pole station, do you pass through all time zones? If so, perhaps there's a way to build a time machine...
ReplyDeleteThey do time here based on our nearest access point. Pole and McMurdo are both on New Zealand time, but Palmer is on Chilean time which is similar to EST. I think that's the time that's being picked up by the blog, but it may depend which computer I'm on.
ReplyDeleteHa...nice....meow...you carve it up good here meow....meow
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