Pushing South

From left to right, Colgate student Athan Barkoukis and Hamilton students Nat Warner, Dan Catlin and Allison Drake plotting navigational tracks on a chart of the research area.

A beautiful sunrise through the ocean fog greeted us this morning around 7:45. Winds and seas were calm, outside air temperature around 35 degrees F. We are pushing our way south. At 3 pm we are at 57 degrees 10 minutes south, 62 degrees 24 minutes west, moving at 11 knots on a heading of 147 degrees. We still have around 32 hours of travel time to our first way point in the Antarctic Sound which lies between the end of the peninsula and Jonville Island, assuming we can keep up this speed. During the day the seas have built some, and the ship has had a pronounced roll since lunch time. Weather charts show a low pressure system to our west, but an area of high pressure over us is has kept it at bay so far.

If you are interested in the weather near where we will be working check out www.weatherunderground.com. On the left hand side of the screen is a window that lists countries and if you scroll down, Antarctica is near the bottom of the list. Click on the link and a map of the continent will appear. If you click on the Palmer peninsula a listing of weather stations and current conditions will come up. The station nearest to where we will be working is Base Marambio on Seymour Island at approximately 64 15 south, 56 30 west.

We are getting our bodies adjusted to the work schedule of midnight to noon and noon to midnight. Those of us on the night shift should be in good shape when midnight rolls around tonight.

A number of students have commented that their parents are enjoying the web site so things must be working at your end. I cannot see it and don't know what is on it but I plan to post some general notes about the work we will be doing on this cruise over the next couple of days. If this will be a rehash of what's already there, please let me know.

Dave Tewksbury
tewksbda@nbp.polar.org