Journal entry from Hamilton's Antarctica 2001 research expedition:
12/8/01 0830 hrs.
60 degrees 57 minutes S
58 degrees 12 minutes W
2.4 degrees C
Cloudy, windy and snow squalls with building seas
Good morning from the Palmer.
Another uneventful night has passed as we cross the Drake Passage. The clear skies and sunshine of yesterday gave way to a cloudy night. Although still well above the Antarctic Circle and a couple of weeks from the longest day of the year it never really gets completely dark. Last night at midnight was similar to a late summer evening in Clinton, NY. Around 5 a.m. the barometer started to fall, the winds and seas increased and a couple of passing snow squalls appeared. Our summer weather is quite a contrast to the 60-70 degree winter NY is having.
The image is of the navigation screen from the bridge shows our location around 8:30 this morning. The land mass at the bottom of the map is King George Island in the South Shetland Island chain. We will pass the north end of the island late this afternoon and enter the Bransfield Strait which separates the South Shetlands from the Antarctic Peninsula.
As we enter the Bransfield Strait we will bring the seabeam system on line and begin to profile the seafloor topography. This data combined with data from numerous other trips is slowly being compiled to produce a detailed topographic map of the seafloor around the Antarctic Peninsula.
After lunch today the Seymour Island research group is giving a lecture on their work followed by safety training for the zodiac inflatable boats. All this is in preparation for their deployment on Seymour Island sometime on Sunday if weather and ice conditions continue to be good.
Lots more to come this afternoon.
We have had a few e-mail problems on the ship that have now been corrected. Please use the following address to contact me and not the one previously posted.
Cheers,
Dave
Caption for photo:
Navigation screen showing course past King George Island. Ship is located near the top of the screen and we will pass King George Island sometime late this afternoon. Ship is averaging around 10 knots.
