Remember that time
that I was on my way to McMurdo and then going on a research vessel? I did that, and didn’t write about it at all. I went back to the vessel in late August, while it was tied up in Punta Arenas, Chile. The boat didn’t go anywhere. A couple of days before I left, I was asked if I wanted to go on another cruise, where the boat did move around on the southern ocean. I said yes and here I am again in Punta Arenas.
We will be leaving here in a couple of days. We will go east out of the Strait of Magellan and cross the Drake Passage to the Antarctic peninsula. We will drop off scientists at Palmer station for summer research. Several of those scientists are from UCSC, researching sea birds and cetaceans. After Palmer, we head west to the study area and then end up in New Zealand. We are supposed to arrive there on 6 December.
The first cruise was spectacular. The scientists were enthusiastic and friendly, the food was good and I apparently don’t suffer too much from seasickness.
I feel like I’m writing in the simple wikipedia style so I will sign off for now.
Kyle