January 5, 2006 - Arrival at Palmer Station

Not much happened on Jan 4. We entered into the Palmer Peninsula archipelago but we were in thick fog all day so you couldn’t much of anything. The onlyexciting thing to happen all day was when people saw some humpback whales off the bow of the ship late in the afternoon. Unfortunately I was taking a nap
during this time!

January 5 (Thurs) was a very eventful day. We were told that the viewing in the straits as we approached Palmer Station was going to be great so most of us got up at 4:30 am. The sun was already up at this hour and as soon as I stepped outside the view was truly magnificent. We were cruising in Neumeyer Strait, and narrow channel surrounded by beautiful snow-covered mountains and glaciers. We all stood on the bow of the ship and enjoyed the view for several hours. The early morning light was really gorgeous. It was quite cold on the bow with the breeze blowing on us, so after a while I had to go inside to warm up. I went up on the bridge (where they drive the ship) where I could see the view and be warm at the same time. We could pop out on the catwalks for short periods, and that was nice as long as you were shielded from the wind. As we got closer to Palmer Station the fog rolled in again so we couldn’t see much. I went down to the galley for breakfast. By the time I was done with breakfast we were pulling up to the dock at the Station. Lots of folks who are at the station were at the dock to see the ship dock and most of us on the ship were on deck looking down. I saw George Westby and waved to him. George was very glad to see his relief crew arrive! Since we arrived at the station in a bright, sunny fog, the station reminded me of what I imagine as station on another planet to look like. In fact, Palmer Station is very much like a space station – it is a self contained (for months anyway) outpost in one of the most remote and inhospitable regions on earth!

A little while after we arrived, the fog started to lift and the sun was strong and warm. The air temperature was probably about 35 F. What we could see was really amazing. There were really interesting icebergs right in front of the station. I took some pictures and stitched two together to get both the ship and the icebergs into one picture. Although this picture is pretty fantastic, what you don’t see is the giant, magnificent glacier that seems to surround the Station. I’ll show that on another day. Amazingly, right where the boat docked (on the rocks, to the right in the photo of the icebergs) was a large elephant seal just sunning himself, oblivious to the big ship that just docked at his place. There also was a penguin on some rocks on the other side of the station, but he was too far away for a good picture.

Now that we were at the station, a very busy day began. We got off the ship and said hello to the folks on shore. Shortly after that we had a 1 hour tour of the facility. There are three main buildings at the Station. Bio, Trades and GWR. Bio contains the labs, the galley (food place) and some dormitories. Trades houses the carpentry and machine shops which are essential for keeping the station going. GWR (I forget what the letters stand for) has a garage, dormitories, exercise room and the lounge. I will be living in GWR. After our tour we had to sit through several orientation meetings. After that it was an hour for lunch and then we had small boat training class #1. This is required for everyone who will be a passenger in the small boats (zodiacs). That took another hour. After that we had to go through Small Boat Training #2, which was about three hours of hands on
training with the Zodiac. We took the boat out and each of us had a chance to drive and do a rescue of a “man overboard dummy”. We also learned to navigate with a GPS and to land the boat on the islands. There are lots of little islands around the station and many of these islands have caches of food, water and a tent. This is in case you get caught in bad weather in the boats and can’t make it back to the station. You would go to one of the islands with a cache and you could wait out the weather. It is an interesting system. The whole area covered by the small boat operations is only about 3-4 miles from the station. But it will take a while to really learn the area because many of the islands look alike!

Many of the islands around the station have bird rookeries on them. Some of these are penguins and some are other types of birds, like cormorants. We saw lots of penguins swimming around (one pack was swimming right toward our zodiac). I saw another elephant seal on Old Palmer (an island where the original station was located). I’ll send more about penguins later. We did see a chinstrap penguin swimming – that was a new species for me!

After our boat training, it was time for dinner. We had to eat on the ship tonight because they weren’t ready for the full load of people (station+ship) at the station galley. After dinner I checked my e-mail – my first access to my regular e-mail since we left Punta Arenas. I then went over to the station to talk with George and Kerry about the research sampling. We set up a meeting for tomorrow morning when we could talk in more detail. After that I worked out in the gym on the ship (my final night on the ship until our return a month from now), and then I started to work on the photos and this log from this eventful day. I am really, really tired! But it was a great and memorable day.