I know, a long time between posts. After a full day in Punta Arenas and a night of very interesting bar hoIpping we collected our ECW gear and readied for the boat ride. A good smooth start on the Straights of Magellan.
We have been without internet access since leaving port Saturday afternoon 21 March. We are sailing on the L M Gould, one of 2 Antarctic research vessels. We got word of “ridiculously high” waves in the Drake so it was decided to stay in the lea of South America until things got better. We spent almost 2 days going back and forth on a 25 mile pattern. Then we shot south between t storms. It was a rough crossing just the same. I have never experienced 35' waves and don't really want to do it again. At time the boat was listing 30 to 35 degrees as it rode the waves. We spent 2 days in that shite. I never got sick but felt bad enough to take a pill.. I will attach some rough video taken from the bridge. Notice how Fitz (the food inspector) leans with the boat. The waves had calmed some at this point.
(unable to post the video but check it out on the picasa link on the right)
We broke through the bad weather on the 26th and arrived at Deception Island, our first science stop. Some of the techs are studying the fungi here. Mainly detecting new fungi and seeing how it effects the attempts to preserve the historical remains here. There are whaling stations from the late1800's and ruminants of early exploration. This is still an active volcano with visible geothermal springs. Some of the crew dug in the sand and made “hot tubs” to soak in. Many did a lot of hiking around playing tourist.
The time on the boat has been filled with movies, books and episodes of Lost and Weeds. Weed is a Showtime series that is worth the rental . The food on the boat is great and plentiful although some saw it two or three times during the high seas. I spent some time on the bridge and received the engine room tour.
Our weather bad luck continued as we got stuck in Deception Island during a day long storm. It delayed us due to the small narrow entry to the cauldron. We could have easily been swept into the rocks trying to get out. Our captians name was Joe so we decided to watch “Joe vs the Volcano” in his honor.
Finally on our way south for about 24 hours of sailing down the inland passage of the peninsula to Anvers Island and Palmer station. We had an uneventful docking and now am getting settled in.
Go to my Picasa site (see links) for a ton of photos
Hard to tell but that's me. This past week we had some rough weather and one of our pier bumpers that protect the Gould when docking came lose. These bumpers are quite large. The chain on one end is attached in a pulley system to allow it to ride with the waves. The pin holding it all together is welded to the bracket and it broke causing the pulley and weight to go to the bottom but still attached to the bumper. The waves were very rough and we had to corral the bumper with a zodiac and the secure it to the pier while we figured out how to bring up the weight and pully. Things might have been easier except fo the 4 cargo millvans left by the ship to be picked up later. We don't have anyway to move them from the pier. We finally came up with a solution that included some one getting a chain hocked to the anchor chain and since I was already in the boat. In the end we got the hardware back and repaired the pin and bracket. It was a timely repair because the Gould was returning from a science fishing trip the next morning and with out the bumper they would not have been able to dock.
