Antics in Antarctica

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We spent a calm night, what night there was, in the sheltered waters near the Neumeyer channel. The captain had considered trying to enter the Lamaire channel, but felt that would be pressing our luck due to the ice and fog. We had managed to navigate two other channels on the previous day, with ice flows, icebergs and bergies, and with the limited maneuvering available in the next channel, he chose to wait for the morning. Sharon spotted two Zodiacs speeding away from the Veendam in the morning, having dropped off the personnel form Palmer Station who would begin this morning’s talks at 8 AM. We hurried to get good seats, and due to the conflict in time with mass, Sharon missed church today. Bob Farrell was introduced as the station manager, run under the auspices of the National Science Foundation. There are three United States stations in Antarctic. In addition to Palmer Station, there is McMurdo also on the coast and the South Pole Station located at the geographic South Pole. The magnetic South Pole is a considerable distance, towards Australia. Bob noted that there is an actual marker for the South Pole, but it needs to be adjusted every year due to the shifting ice. The nice ornamental bronze marker for the South Pole is where people often get their picture taken. Bob suggested that if you get the chance to visit the South Pole, that you run around the actual marker a couple of times so you can say that you ran around the world in just a few seconds.



The lab manager Carolyn was next introduced and she talked about some of the interesting work that goes on. For example, in Antarctica there is an ice fish whose blood contains no hemoglobin. She showed overheads of rock cod blood which was deep red like most blood, and ice fish blood which was colorless. Work is progressing to understand how this blood works, and how that knowledge can be applied elsewhere. Antarctica’s largest animal that resides here continuously is a wingless fly about 3 millimeters long. It resides for up to two years as a larva called midge under the harshest of conditions. It lives for about two weeks as an adult. But the midge can survive extreme temperatures, dehydration, oxygen deprivation and studying how they do this may have valuable applications. Observations have recorded the Adele penguin population dwindle from 10,000 mating couples in the 1970’s to the 2,000 pair seen last year. There was time for questions, when eight additional people were introduced, ranging from research students, to the cook who was clearly one of the favorite of the Plummer Station staff, to the lady responsible for packaging all of the waste produced by the station to be returned on the supply ship that comes every few weeks. Someone asked how long it takes to get someone to a better medical facility if needed. The station does have a resident physician, with a facility better than most urgent care facilities, but situations have arisen when someone needs to be evacuated. Bob answered that it has taken as short as 28 hours and as long as three weeks. There is a rescue support team in Chile that ascertains the immediacy of the need and allocates resources accordingly. When questioned about fresh fruit and food for the station, the cook reported that the food comes from Chile, and it includes vegetables, but when they arrive, they will already been at sea at least fourteen days. Someone asked if anyone was a member of “The 300 Club”. That question was deferred to Bob, who acknowledged that he was, and then explained what the 300 club was. First you sit in the sauna at the station set at 200 degrees. Then you run outside (briefly) where it is 100 degrees below zero. And the difference is 300 degrees, qualifying you for the 300 Club. And Bob admitted that you normally do this with nothing on, except boots.



I wasn’t very hungry after a very large meal yesterday. Sharon made her way to the Lido for some breakfast. I took the camera and took some pictures of the shoreline. When she returned from the Lido we spotted a ship, we later learned was “The Hamburg”, one of the smaller passenger ships to get into Antarctica. As we cruised by we notice behind the ship another ship, one of the Antarctica research vessels. I forgot to mention another ship that we had spotted yesterday, a small sailboat off our port side. I guess the sound from HAL’s outdoor PA system must travel very well in these still waters because Bob Wilson was reporting from the bridge his sightings of nature and ice formations that he was spotting, and he called our attention to an unusual steeply pointed iceberg coming up ahead of us. A few seconds later a radio call comes into the bridge reporting “I’m not a freaking iceberg. I’m a sailboat!” Indeed, quite a few minutes later we did see the sailboat tack by us on the port side, heading out the channel we were entering.



We had quite a low cloud ceiling today, but very good visibility on the surface. Looking at the cliffs and mountains in Antarctica, the middle sections would be obscured, before the tops again became visible if the landforms reached that high. The effect was quite other-worldly. Wind has not been a problem for us yet, and water in the passageways has been smooth. We went up to the Sports Deck for a bit, and I took some pictures on the outside deck while Sharon viewed from the Crow’s Nest. I joined her shortly, and the split pea soup HAL provided to take the sting out of the chill was welcomed (at least by me). A couple of times when we have ventured into unprotected waters we have briefly experienced more rolling, but the journey so far has been very pleasant in these most southern waters. I had been somewhat concerned that the ocean might be much rougher. Ice did block our passage out the shorter route we were going to take, for dropping the Palmer Station folks off, and we had to retrace our tracks back to Neumeyer Channel. All morning the low ceiling held giving a narrow darker band of good visibility in the distance bordered by the overhead foggy whiteness above and the reflective whiteness of the cloud ceiling in the nearly undisturbed water.



Sharon joined me for lunch in the dining room; although, we almost missed that as well, I was so caught up in viewing and updating the blog from yesterday. I got the skewered shrimp appetizer in spicy peanut sauce, no doubt left over from the chicken satay yesterday, and this appetizer was delicious. I was most curious to try the chilled pineapple and cucumber soup and it was very refreshing. I had HAL’s version of the Cuban Sandwich, they call it the Cubana, and it’s on a Hoagie type roll with shredded pork, mustard, pickle, onion, mayonnaise and made a nice hardy meal with the shoe string French fries. Sharon ordered the bacon cheese burger plain: meat and bun only… and almost lost the fries, but we got that straightened out. I suspect that when we get back from Ohio I am going to be banned from fixing hamburgers until at least the Ides of March. We both chose a twist on one of my best man Ron’s favorite dessert: tres leches cake (or three milk cake). The Veendam was serving Chocolate Tres Leches, but it was a bit of a misnomer because all this was seemed to be a regular tres leches cake with some chocolate syrup drizzled back and forth across the top of the cake. When made correctly the cake is light, tasty and milk virtual oozes on to the plate when you cut a piece. This cake was a bit too high, very dry, and everyone at our table agreed not what they thought they were getting. And for any chocolate lovers out there, it would have been a double disappointment.



After lunch, fog began to worsen the visibility, so I decided to pay one of those lonely blackjack dealers a visit. I played for some time, and things were getting pretty exciting, but I was managing to hold my own. I enjoyed the entire table to myself, and it was fun playing at my pace rather than waiting for people to decide what to do. But there were just too many times I wasn’t winning hands that I expected to win with twenty. But the nice lady dealer couldn’t quite make me quit. They brought in another dealer, some guy with the air that he expected me to lose. I won a few hands off of him, but nowhere near enough. In the end my wallet was about $500 lighter and it was back to square one. Well… what is it they say, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. Earlier in the play I chose to pull back instead of making the next larger bet… I should have made the bet. It was blackjack, similar to the day before. Live and learn.



The next channel that we traversed was the Gerlach Straight. Here there were more icebergs, some very large indeed, and in strange and wonderful shapes. You could see how whole sheets of ice had sheared from a cliff of ice, only then to be turned onto its side in a more stable floating posture. We had seen in one channel where a large ice berg had been hung up on the shallow rocks of the passage, this causing it to be secured in place in a narrow passage leaving enough room for the Veendam to squeeze through. The captain promised us that the viewing tomorrow would be even more spectacular. Current weather and visibility caused him to choose to continue past one of the scenic spots, Deception Island, which he says can be hit or miss, and is seldom what people expect. This is the island made famous in the book “Endurance” where Shackleford and his expedition were stranded for nearly two years. Travelers sometimes nickname it “Disappointment Island” because of exceedingly high expectations. Instead of attempting a morning viewing and then rushing through what can be a tricky ice field, he is choosing to pass the erstwhile scenic spot about two in the morning to position us for the best possible day tomorrow.



Sharon didn’t see anything on the menu that appealed to her at dinner, so she continued the scenic viewing and picture taking while I went up to dinner. We had eaten with three of the people I sat with previously, including a lady from Australia who had been our teammate once for Team Trivia, and another couple that remembered that we had a Lanai cabin, and wondered how that was working out for us. It’s actually wonderful, making access to the deck easy, and giving us an easy refuge from the cold or wind when we get a bit chilled, which you tend to taking pictures with your fingers exposed. I had the Shrimp and Crab Louie, which was very tasty though a bit heavy on the shrimp. I also had the corn and crab chowder soup, which was quite good. My entrée was the braised beef short ribs, yielding quite tasty rib meat sans bone with a mustard peppercorn sauce. All in all, the dish was quite good. I had the chocolate mousse for dessert, and ate around the garnishing strawberry topping.



I brought Sharon a few butter mints from the yum yum man. She wasn’t in the room, but I found her with the computer in the atrium. She was waiting for the room to be made up; but, it was finished when I had just stopped in. She went back to the room and I went up to play some blackjack. We both decided to take an evening off from the Showroom. As it turns out, I should have taken an evening off from blackjack, and gone to see the show.

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