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Journal Entries
2005-06
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| Jump to a specific journal entry by Marianne Kaput: | ||
| August 2005 | 23 | |
| October 2005 | 31 | |
| December 2005 | 15 29 30 31 | |
| January 2006 | 1 3 4 5 7 9 10-11 12-14 15 16-17 18-19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 31 | |
| February 2006 | 1 2 5 6-8 10 | |
| Click here to access journal entries by Giancarlo Lopez-Martinez or Luke Sandro. | ||
January 21, 2006 — Palmer Station, Antarctica
Saturday morning is just like any other morning around Palmer: everyone gets up at the same time and performs their usual work schedule and routines. Saturday afternoon, though, is quite different as it is "community" day. Palmer Station is a community of people who work for a common goal — scientific research. There are currently 23 scientists whose work is focused on research. The other 22 people are here to operate the station and make things run efficiently, safely and comfortably, which they do very well.
Saturday afternoon everyone's goals change. Just like back home, Saturday is cleaning day, only at Palmer it’s known as house mouse and everyone participates. Everyone gathers in the galley or dining area for a short station meeting where Bob, the Station Manager, updates everyone on upcoming events. Some Saturdays we have gone daisy picking, which involves everyone picking up litter around the yard.
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Then a jar containing little slips of paper is held up and everyone pulls a paper slip out of the jar. Each slip has a job written on it. These jobs include cleaning bathrooms, washing windows, wiping down all the exercise room equipment, and mopping the lab floors. The first day I was here I pulled kitchen cleaning. The next two times I pulled the task of power washing kitchen floor mats.
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It's such a wonderful feeling to see everyone pulling together and working hard to clean their "home". Palmer Station truly is home with a family atmosphere.
Later that afternoon my friend Maria and I "planted" a tent, as she phrased it. Maria is from Barcelona, Spain and is researching the impact of solar radiation and nutrients on biogeochemical cycling of DMSP and DMS in the Ross Sea (click here to learn more about these two compounds). Those evening our efforts were focused on getting that tent "planted" so that it wouldn't blow away. We laughed, as there were no directions and this was not the usual tent.
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Since the area was all rock, we couldn't stake the tent and had to tie it down carefully to the surrounding rocks. Then we lined the inside perimeter of the tent with rocks so that it wouldn't blow away.
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The evening was a very social time. Palmer Station hosted what turned out to be a neighborhood block party. We had three ships in our port and everyone was invited over for the evening. Our guests included a diving expedition group from Australia, Jean and Jim who are completing a circumpolar voyage from the Arctic to Antarctica and back to the U.S., and the Canadian Broadcasting group. We sure had a full house but everyone had a wonderful time sharing stories and getting to know each other better. We are still laughing over many memorable events of the evening.
After our guests left the party and the night came to a close, I packed my bags to sleep out in our tent. As I made my way carefully through the rocks, I happened to notice that one of our neighbors was sailing out of port on their way to their next destination. As they were slowly moving through the harbor, they blew their fog horn and Palmer Station blew theirs in response. A group of people gathered on the balcony cheering "Hip Hip Hooray!" Then a member of the departing crew appeared on board and said, "Palmer, here’s a big Australian send-off thanking you for a memorable stay," and proceeded to dive right into the freezing, ice-filled water!
On my trek out to my tent, it began to pour. I walked faster. The wind picked up, I picked up my pace also. I finally arrived to my tent, soaked and cold. Unpacking and preparing my tent for the evening, I discovered that the tent's door zipper had broken. Leaving the door flapping in the wind, listening to the rain pounding on my tent's sides and hearing the wind gusting at 45 knots scream through the rocks, I crawled into my sleeping bag and fell asleep. What a night!
But the next morning, I was greeted with this view...Ahhhh...
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- Kaput-on-Ice