31 October - Trick or Treat ?

Melissa M (left) and Katie are excited to have landed in Punta Arenas. Both of them were participants in our first field season last year and despite that, have come back for more Salp-tastic adventures!

Sadly, there has been no trick or treating today here in Punta Arenas. But we have been finding lots of surprises as we unpack all our equipment on the ship and discover what we forgot to pack (could have used a few more sample jars); what things we brought too much of (not sure yet); and where my running shoes were for the past year (ok, that last one only applies to Joe).

Ostiones (scallops) a la parmesana  was one of our dishes the other night for dinner. It's like French Onion soup, but with scallops instead of onions and a lot more cheese and cream. Yum!

There are two science groups on the cruise this year, both of which are studying salps. However we use different methods and instruments and are investigating different questions about these interesting organisms (don't worry, later posts will go into much much much more detail about the salps and the experiments). Yesterday and today (and part of tomorrow) were spent unpacking gear, setting up equipment, dividing up the lab space so we aren't bumping elbows with each other, and make sure our gear is secure for both the Drake Passage crossing (the 2-3 day trip from South America down to the Antarctic continent) as well as for when we're doing experiments during our cruise as the boat does tend to move about a fair bit.

This won't be confusing at all: Melissa (from the ship's crew), Melissa (Stony Brook grad student), and Melissa (recent Stony Brook graduate (undergrad)) are all sailing on this trip. We welcome nickname suggestions to differentiate the 3 Melissas in the blog comments! [and yes, that is Chuck Norris photo-bombing in the background]

When we're done for the day with work, we've been able to have some fantastic meals in the local restaurants of Punta Arenas. Lots of great seafood and other meals so far. We've also been able to eat lunch on the ship and I can report that our initial supply of chocolate chip cookies are fantastic!