The Good: Tomorrow morning at 6am we fly to Antarctica (unless more weather happens)! Words.... cannot.... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Bad: We got an email today from Rothera saying that they had got an email from the ship asking if they had any gluten free food.... the ship has none, and the base has none. Apparently all of my emails and assurances were for naught. Surprised? Not one bit. But fear not gentle reader, I shall not waste away whilst at sea.... I got taken out with a BAS credit card and basically bought the entire gluten free aisle in a supermarket. Phew! And BAS are going to do some kind of investigation and send me lots of official apologies (and generally grovel).
The Beautiful: Today we explored a nearby National Park and then visited a museum with replica ships, including Magellan's ship and the lifeboat from Shackleton epic rescue mission from Elephant Isle to South Georgia! I am pretty darn in love with this part of the world!
Miss you fabulous folks! x x x x x x
Thursday, 6 March 2014
Saturday, 1 March 2014
The difficult second.... cruise.
Hello friends! Yes that time approaches, a fresh adventure looms and a new blog post must be written....
...So whats the deal this year? Like last time we will be taking hydrographic measurements in Drake Passage and the Scotia Sea, and I will be working as a part of the tracer team. However this year we are lucky enough to be leaving from Rothera, a base on the Antarctic Peninsula!!!! I am completely over the moon to get to spend a little time on the continent! I have put a full itinerary below.... and it is looking sweet!
I am working with our American counterparts this year so while the work will be pretty much the same as the last cruise, however the set up will be a bit different. NO CONTAINER. Yes, that is right folks, I will be working inside the ship, not in some claustrophobic box of crazy. I will also be working alone... so no container buddy to help me out/wind me up.
I will also be working on an outreach project with Katy Sheen my friend from Southampton. We are going to be writing a school outreach blog (so go there for cool photos and for the posi 'Yey! Science!' stuff... come here for the bleak reality.) as well as getting some footage to make a wee documentary film about the cruise which we will take round some schools in June. The blog is adropinthesouthernocean.blogspot.co.uk so do check it out!
Cruise plan:
2nd March – flying from Heathrow to Punta Arenas in southern Chile via Madrid and Santiago. The airline is infamous for losing baggage... and I have vital cruise kit in mine so keep your fingers crossed!
4th March – flight from Punta to Rothera base on Antarctica... Yeeeehaaaw! There is a good chance of weather delays to this flight but we should still arrive on Antarctica with a few days spare!
8th March – the good ship JCR should arrive to take us off on our grand voyage.
10th March – In the name of science we will have a quick stop off at the US Palmer Station to swap some samples, stretch our legs and get to hang out on another bit of Antarctica. You know, for science.
10-22nd March – Drake passage hydrographic section. We will be doing 24 hr ops here and I will be working 8h shifts plus helping whenever a CTD is on deck and I am awake/sober. My job will be to sample and analyse our tracer as well as take samples for CFC analysis.
22-25th March – A brief stop in Punta Arenas to resupply the ship (extra gluten free supplies for me please!) and change over some personnel. If I am not needed on the ship (fingers crossed) we will have the opportunity to do a little sightseeing.... Torres del Paine here I come!
25Th March -26th April – Depart Punta and begin part 2 of the voyage. This will start with some mooring work south of Signy Base (sea ice dependant.... this has not been a great year for ships in the sea ice in Antarctica....). Then we will be doing a northward hydrographic section towards South Georgia (small chance of another stop here), followed by a westward section along the North Scotia Ridge towards the Falklands.
26th April – Arrive in Stan-vagas to once again experience the delights ofThatcherland The Falkland Islands.
29th April -> MoD flight from Stanley to Ascension Island. Here a group of us PhD slackers are off for a wee post-cruise, pre-reality holiday on the stunning tropical island/barren rock.
2nd May – Arrive back in the UK. Get out the bunting.
4th March – flight from Punta to Rothera base on Antarctica... Yeeeehaaaw! There is a good chance of weather delays to this flight but we should still arrive on Antarctica with a few days spare!
8th March – the good ship JCR should arrive to take us off on our grand voyage.
10th March – In the name of science we will have a quick stop off at the US Palmer Station to swap some samples, stretch our legs and get to hang out on another bit of Antarctica. You know, for science.
10-22nd March – Drake passage hydrographic section. We will be doing 24 hr ops here and I will be working 8h shifts plus helping whenever a CTD is on deck and I am awake/sober. My job will be to sample and analyse our tracer as well as take samples for CFC analysis.
22-25th March – A brief stop in Punta Arenas to resupply the ship (extra gluten free supplies for me please!) and change over some personnel. If I am not needed on the ship (fingers crossed) we will have the opportunity to do a little sightseeing.... Torres del Paine here I come!
25Th March -26th April – Depart Punta and begin part 2 of the voyage. This will start with some mooring work south of Signy Base (sea ice dependant.... this has not been a great year for ships in the sea ice in Antarctica....). Then we will be doing a northward hydrographic section towards South Georgia (small chance of another stop here), followed by a westward section along the North Scotia Ridge towards the Falklands.
26th April – Arrive in Stan-vagas to once again experience the delights of
29th April -> MoD flight from Stanley to Ascension Island. Here a group of us PhD slackers are off for a wee post-cruise, pre-reality holiday on the stunning tropical island/barren rock.
2nd May – Arrive back in the UK. Get out the bunting.
I am a mixture of incredibly excited and a little worried about this cruise. May feels very far away. My back is in pretty bad shape... and the cruise will most likely make it much worse. But I do think it will be totally worth it.... so bring it on! I have tramadol.
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