12/24/01 0700 hrs.
64 10 S
61 16 W
Temp -1 C
Overcast with snow squalls
There is no doubt that we will be having a white Christmas. Snow squalls overnight have coated the ship with a layer of white. Temperatures have been warming rapidly over the past hour though and I'm not sure it will last.
The attached image is a section of the NOAA satellite image we acquired yesterday. This is one of the first that has been cloud free over the peninsula. All the major areas where we have been working over the past three weeks are visible in the image. The ship's track is shown in red. We enter the scene from the north following our transit from Punta Arenas. Pass through the Antarctic Sound and stop at Seymour Island. Traveling south to Larsen B and then north to Larsen A. Leaving Larsen A we again pass by Seymour Island and wait out the storm north of the Antarctic Sound by mapping in the Erebus and Terror Gulf. Multiple overlapping lines of the ship's track results. Leaving the Antarctic Sound course turns south through the Bransfield Strait, Orleans Passage, Gerlache Strait to Andvord Bay. From Andvord Bay south and west to Palmer Station on the south end of Anvers Island and on into the Palmer Deep. Returning from the Palmer Deep via the Neumayer Channel which runs between Anvers Island on the west Wiencke Island on the east. Headed north out of the Neumayer into the Gelache we revisit Lester Cove in Andvord Bay then continue north to our current position in Hughes Bay near where the white cross is located on the image.
The next weeks include additional work in Brialmont Cove, which is located just east of the ship's current position, coring operations in Erebus and Terror Gulf and pick up the field party on Seymour Island.
Happy Holidays from all of us on the Palmer.
Cheers,
Dave
