A lot has happened…

Sorry for the long delay between posts. It happens for 2 reasons: 1 – we don’t hve internet while we’re on the ship so I can’t provide any realt-time updates and 2 – we have been super busy since we’ve been back at Palmer Station. Let me try to catch you up on what has been going on.

Saturday April 25th, 2009

After arriving at Palmer, unpacking, and doing some work,  the ship’s crew came aboard for dinner at the Station and everyone gathered at the Bar/Lounge for some drinks, pool, and dancing… (pics of the Bar later)

Sunday April 26th, 2009

We departed Palmer Station promptly at 8 am and set sail for the fishing grounds in Dallman Bay about 8 hours sail North of the station.  The weather was good, but the scenary was breathtaking. We traveled up the Gerlache Channel into the Neumayer Channel, which is probably the most amazing place I’ve had the good fortune to visit. It is said to be like a maze with no visible exits because of its inverted S-shape. Its entrance and exits both have sharp bends. It certainly appeared there was no way out… Here are just a few of the views from ship as we crossed this bit of water. Check out the Flickr photo feed on the right for a few more (Sorry there aren’t more, but I’m using up my Flickr room too quickly!!!)

Monday April 27th, 2009 through Wednesday April 29th, 2009

Let the games begin – we started fishing mid-afternoon on Monday. Lisa and Jody were working the noon to midnight shift, while Bruce, Megan, and myself were manning the midnight to noon shift. Both shifts were using Otter Trawls (you drag this net behind the boat and it collects fish off of the bottom) as well as fishing pots (just like Deadliest Catch, so see the video clip om the Flickr). There are some very special fish that live here – they have white blood (no hemoglobin or myoglobin) and some close relatives that have both. We are trying to get species from both groups and look at thermal tolerances, mitochondrial function, and oxidative damage. The fish started coming in right away… we certainly hadn’t hit the mother load, but slow and steady catches. Early Tuesday morning the weather started to pick up and was relentless pretty much the rest of the trip. Swells were estimated at 20-30 ft and winds were gusting over 60 knots. Needless to say it was an adventure working on deck in this weather, but on the upside for the midnight shift, it was so rough that hardly anyone on the boat was able to sleep. We were all up together!!!! Here are some pics of the fishing and some of the cool by-catch.

Wednesday April 29th, 2009

Back at Palmer Station it was FISH FIRST~!!!! You’ll see the large grey crates being hoisted by the crane… those are our on-board fish aquaria. Each one is picked up a fork lift on land and transported to the lab, then hand trucked to the aquarium at the lab, and then transfered to the tanks. The goal here is to handle the fish as little as possible. This approach allows us to handle the fish only once, which should help survival and health.

Since Wednesday...

Since Wednesday, everyone has been feverishly working to get their science up and running, because we’ve now got animals on-hand to use and 10 days until the boat comes for the next fishing trip. It has been a little frustrating trying to get going, because not all of the materials we requested were here, were here with all of their pieces/parts, or were set-up properly. So as a result, everyone is troubleshooting their respective science. No one ever said it was going to be easy.

We have a HS teacher, Megan O’Neill from Fairhope, Alabama on our cruise. She brought us Fairhope HS Pirate T-shirts so we all posed for a picture. For all of those interested in the playoff beard – this is week 2. Getting better all the time. Somehow we were one pirate patch short. I’m not getting fat, just lots clothes on.

The next post will be a photo tour of Palmer Station. I’ll try to get it up sometime this weekend!!!!

Saturday April 25th, 2009 Pt. 2

We finally arrived at Palmer Station, Antarctic in the early AM. By mid-morning we were at work unpacking all of our science supplies, setting up tanks, and just in general getting to work. Only two of our group are staying behind – the rest of leave tomorrow morning at 8 am on the ship to begin our fish collecting. For the most part our animals will be caught otter trawls and fish pots. Everyone will be decked out to the nines in their fishing gears. I’ll be sure to post pics when we get back to Palmer on Wednesday morning.

A few quick Palmer pics…

Notice the growing beard... trimmer in Ohio = epic playoff/Antarctic winter beard by the time we're done! Gotta support my Penguins in the quest for the cup.

Saturday April 25th, 2009

More of the same, but we did finally make it our of the Drake Passage and into Antarctic waters and the Antarctic Peninsula. We anticipate arriving at Palmer Station by 9 am on Saturday morning. In the meantime, we finalized plans for our science and fishing which start on Sunday morning. Bruce, Jody, Lisa, Megan, and I will be doing the first leg of fishing. The other two of our group (Kristin and Irina) will be staying behind to get things setup in the lab. What this means for us is 3-4 more days on the boat, but we’ll be working 12-hour shifts running trawling nets and fishing fish traps. The work should make the boat time seem not so bad. I’m on the midnight to noon shift… but the fishing is supposedly better at night.

Unless I get time to write about our arrival at Palmer (which I doubt I will because it’s going to be very hectic getting gear and people off the boat), I’ll next update the blog sometime mid-week (probably around Wed). In the meantime, feel free to drop me an e-mail while I’m at sea jeff.grim@lmg.usap.gov, but remember, no attachments and no forwards.

Wednesday April 22nd, 2009 – Friday April 24th, 2009

More of the same when we’re cruising to Antarctica. During these days we entered and passed through the Drake Passage, some of the roughest seas in the world. Thankful the sea gods were smiling upon us, because by all accounts, this was a rather smooth crossing. We were able to see some wildlife including Peel’s dolphins and many sea birds. During this time it’s gotten colder and colder and we even got some snow squalls. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas (in the wrong time of year). 🙂 Lots of sleep, eating, and movies… not much to do on a ship.

Tuesday April 21st, 2009

The day started early as we were all excited to get underway around 9 am. We didn’t actually leave port until closer to 9:30, but that didn’t matter much to anyone. We were finally on our way to Antarctica.

In the afternoon we had our mandatory safety meeting – where the life jackets are, how to put on your survival suit, what to do in a man-overboard scenario, etc…

Sunday April 18th, 2009

Today we did more sightseeing, shopping, and wandering around Punta Arenas. We moved some supplies on board the ship, RV Laurence M. Gould.  We spent the afternoon driving to and touring an old Chilean fort which protected the Straits of Magellan. The fort was nice and the plants were amazing,  but the hour long drive along the Chilean coast was equally as nice.

April 18th, 2009

I was again up early – my ride to the bus station came around 8:00 am, and the bus departed promptly at 9. The ride back was much more enjoyable because 1) Although I was still very tired, I hadn’t just gotten off a plane and 2) it was all during day light hours so I got to take in the sights. We saw everything from a large, ostrich-like bird, huge herds of sheep, and some real Chilean cowboys and dogs herding a head of cattle off of the highway so we could get through.

I was back in Punta Arenas by noon on Saturday, checked into the Hotel Jose Nogueira (SP). After checking into my room, I walked out to see the city a bit. One of places I ended up was the Museum of the Magellan which presented the history of the region, but more importantly, had an amazing garden. Check out the size of the trees below.

I had just gotten showered when I get the call from Bruce and Jody about drink and dinner plans for the evening. In apropos, we had started at the Shackelton Bar, named after Sir Shackleton the great Antarctic explorer. Then the rest of our crew came in (Lisa, Kristin, and Irina) arrived and we were off to dinner. Megan O’Neill, a HS teacher form Alabama who is working with us, missed a flight out of Pensacola – she arrived the next day.

Friday April 17th, 2009

An early morning given the amount of travel, but I was awake and showered for breakfast by 6:30 am and waiting on my tour pick up by 7:15. That is one of my favorite things about Latin/South America – they make a mean café con leche – strong and black. The sunrise in Puerto Natales was incredible. There is a pic on my Flickr of the view from my hotel. Our tour group was a nice mix of people – old, young, Canadian, Argentinean, Mexican, Asian, and me. The first stop on the tour was Milidoon (SP) cave. The Milidoon (SP) was a giant sloth relative whose fossil remains were found in the cave and subsequently shipped to London. It was during the cave tour I met my new Canadian friends, a family (dad, mom, and grown daughter) traveling South America together. The allowed me to join their family for the rest of the tour and into dinner later… it was great to get to know them, so thank you so much Charlie, Dale, and Fasta (sorry if I missed a ‘u’ in your name, I couldn’t decide how to spell it).

Next it was onto an old house ranching town and associated gift shops. I’m not exactly sure how fast the wind was blowing, but it was hard enough that the sand hitting your face felt like sandblasting.

After another 40 min, we arrived at the first views points of Torres del Paine. Unfortunately the clouds were not cooperating and we could only see 1 or 2 of the towers through a very slight break in the cloud cover. Nonetheless, we did get up close and personal with some Guanocos (SP), a relative of the llama that runs wild in the park.

We stopped at many other viewpoints along the road – here are some random views. The rest can be seen if you click on the Flickr stream on the right side of the blog when I can get Flickr to be more cooperative.

Our lunch was at this isolated hotel in the bottom of this river basin.

After lunch we headed off to view the Grey Glacier, which is where I saw my first, honest to god, real-life iceberg.

We ended the day with a final view point before heading back to Puerto Natales. I got cleaned up and headed out to find food, stumbled upon my Canadian friends who invited me to join them. It was great conversation… especially the hockey talk. Keep cheering for Sidney guys… hopefully they can take care of their business and finish off the Flyers for good. Charlie, Dale, and Fasta – it was a pleasure to meet all of you. I hoped you enjoyed the rest of you trip. It would be great to hear from you.

Thursday April 16th, 2009

I awoke to a beautiful sunrise over the Andes Mountains. We arrived in Santiago, Chile around 7:30 am great weather and great people. Jimmy, the ANGUNSA, representative met us at our international gate, got us through customs, checked in on our domestic flight to Punta Arenas, Chile, let us hang out in his office, and even gave us some great Chilean breakfast while we waited. The flight to Punta Arenas was no problem, and scenery was terrific. We were met by another ANGUNSA representative who rounded us all up, I got the information I needed from her, and found the guy holding a sign with my name on it. For the first time ever, I walked off a plane to a guy holding a sign with my name on it. He dropped me off at Buses Fernandez which would be taking me to Puerto Natales, Chile for my Torres del Paine tour. I killed about 3 hours waiting on my bus by wandering around Punta Arenas… I realized I had forgotten my watch, so I got to practice my Spanish right away as I went on the hunt of one.

The bus ride to Puerto Natales, was a long trip having already been traveling for over 24 hours. I arrived at Hotel Glaciares (SP) around 8:30 pm, unpacked a bit and wandered out to find some dinner. They eat dinner late here in Chile, sometime after 8:00, so my timing was perfect. Some chicken and a beer, then it was bedtime.

Wednesday April 15th, 2009

The flight from Columbus, OH to Dallas, TX was extremely uneventful by all accounts… the flight from Dallas, TX to Santiago, Chile, on the other hand, was a bit rough. I was able to get an exit row seat, but unfortunately I chose the one farthest forward in the economy service cabin. That means it was awfully tough to get much sleep because you couldn’t stretch out your legs. My seatmate was very interesting though, perhaps the most interesting person I’ve eve sat beside on a flight. He is a lawyer from Washington state who specializes in representing fruit growers that manufacture new hybrid fruits. We talked evolution/creationism, global warming, and fruits for about 1/3 of the flight. Additionally, I met some of the Raytheon employees who would be working on the ship we are using.