22/23 November - Arrival

As we fly down to Punta Arenas from Santiago, there's some spectacular scenery.

In order to get to Antarctica, our group will be taking a ship that leaves from Punta Arenas, Chile. PA (what everybody calls Punta Arenas) is located in Patagonia / Tierra del Fuego (i.e. the southernmost part of South America). We'll be sailing (well- steaming – well, actually running of diesel engines) on the LM Gould which is one of two ships that the National Science Foundation operates in Antarctica. I've sailed on the NB Palmer (the other NSF boat) several times, but this is my first trip on the Gould. We're scheduled to leave on thursday, but that depends if all the cargo and supplies have arrived by then.

As we drove into PA, we saw this rainbow. Hopefully a good omen for our cruise.

It'll take us about a day to get through the Straits of Magellan, then we'll head south past Cabo de Nornos (Cape Horn) and make our way to Antarctica with our first stop being Palmer Station (a research station located on an island adjacent to the Antarctic Peninsula) to offload people and cargo. But between us and Palmer Station is the Drake Passage. Crossing the Drake can be very rough (and on rare occasion, not so rough) so while we're in port, we spend a lot of time securing all our equipment and supplies for our experiments so they don't roll around or worse during the crossing. Bungie cords, parachute cord, line, eye-hooks, velcro, and non-slip mats (like you might have in your silverware drawer at home) are all essential pieces of equipment that will (hopefully) keep us able to do our science while at sea. Because even once we're past the Drake, the waves and seas can still be quite bumpy at times and we'll be working round the clock on our science in all sorts of weather.

The dock in PA is a busy place. That's a cruise ship on the right, and the Gould is the orange/yellow boat on the left. In front of the Gould is the Palmer which is headed out a day after us.

More updates to come: what's life on a ship like?, what science experiments are we actually working on?, how cold is it ?, etc. But now it's time for me to go meet the rest of my field team who are arriving shortly. Fortunately for them, my lost bag arrived this afternoon so my toothbrush has been found (and used)! [oh yeah, and the critical pieces of scientific equipment that were also in the bag are here – but the toothbrush was foremost on my mind.

-Joe