Ice Party '11

I told you I would publish pictures of the ice party, and I live up to my
word. Honestly there isn't a whole lot to say about it. It was nice to
get out onto 'solid ground' even if it was only for a couple of hours. It
was a bit cold too! I was disappointed, however, because no penguins
showed up! What is up with that? The last 3 ice parties I have attended,
penguins have made their presence known. Ah well. Some people played
soccer, Frisbee and football. Others just spent time tackling each other
in the snow. It was good exercise for all! I hope you enjoy the pictures.

On a side note, after a nail biting final round, I am officially the winner
of the CLIVAR Cribbage Tournament. Pretty good for a novice, I think. It
was a nice morale booster, indeed!

More to come in the next blog!

Chow.

Ice, seals and more seals

We spent a couple of days transiting south to the ice shelf in order to
reach the beginning of a sampling line called P18S, which is an arbitrary
name for one of the CLIVAR program's sampling lines (Pacific 18 South).
We had to travel through ice to get there, some of which was pretty thick
with snow. The fun aspect of traveling through the ice is the chance to
see macrofauna, as I am sure I have mentioned before. I didn't get to
see any penguins up close except for a couple of emperors swimming. We
did, however see lots and lots of seals. I believe they are Weddell seals.
Of course, the process of cutting through ice is also an experience.
Unfortunately we didn't get very far. The ice/snow was just too thick
for this vessel. Also, a larger amount of fuel is consumed during this
process. We must, of course, conserve enough to get to Punta Arenas. The
ship's crew and captain are very diligent about budgeting fuel, so this
is not a true concern.

Right now we are headed back to the 67º South like and continue east
towards our final destination of Punta Arenas (only 2 weeks away!). We
will also be holding a crossing ceremony at the end of the line. The
crossing ceremony is a way of 'celebrating' when fresh meat, I mean,
people have crossed one of the circles, i.e., the Arctic, Equator or
Antarctic, for the first time. I have already crossed the Antarctic Circle
so I will be part of the act. It should be a lot of fun. I will fill you
in later about that. Oh, and we also had a little ice floe party while we
were in the ice. It was nice to get out onto 'solid' ground and have a
little fun. I will share those pictures in a later blog.

Chow.

April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day brought about an interesting turn of events. The night
watch, a group that appears to be very creative, decided to pull a few
pranks for April Fool's day. As I exited my room that morning, on my way
to the gym, I happened to notice an out-of-place sign above the MPC office
door, picture number one or 'Starbuzz'. I knew it wasn't there the night
before. The back-story of this sign stems from the unlimited lattes that
flow from that office, of which I also partake. I now make my own lattes,
although for some reason they taste better when someone makes them for me.
Also, I am still working on my foaming-skills. The 'Buzz All Weather'
latte, in particular, I consume at least once a day (see picture two).
Although, I am very curious about the 'Buzz Bomb.' Sound delish!
There is another back-story for the third picture ('beware of the honey
bears'). The ET on the ship has a phobia about honey bears on ships; he
believes they bring bad luck (I thought it was women on ships who brought
bad luck. Huh.) He will remove the honey bears from the table he sits at
in the mess hall. So, some people decided to collect all of the empty
bears and make a sort of shrine. I thought it was very amusing. This is
what people do when they are bored. It keeps morale at a somewhat elevated
level. There were a few others that I cannot share here (or for which I do
not have photographic evidence).

Chow!

Aimee