Since my selection as a PolarTREC teacher over 9 months ago, people have kept asking me if I was getting "excited". I have been so busy with the details of preparing for the trip that I could not let myself get caught up in the excitement. Today the excitement is real. I can feel it in the roll of the mighty Oden, I can hear it in the sounds of the waves against the ship, the constant hum of the engine and the rhythm of the Swedish language that half of the folks on the ship speak. I am excited to taste the new foods that the ship's cook has prepared and I almost lost control when I saw dusky dolphins "flying" through the air as the a pack of them exploded above the waves and raced toward the bow of the ship. Excited? I am loving this.The mouth of the Rio de la Platas is very wide and very shallow as it enters the Atlantic, so the Oden was anchored a few miles off shore. The science teams were taken out to the ship by a boat that looked like a very small tugboat. The small boat took about 1.5 hours to make the trip out with 14 passengers on board and it had to make 2 trips to get all of us on board. In the photo below you can see how we had to climb down a ladder in order to get on to boat at the dock in Montevideo. We then had to climb a rope ladder to get from the small boat and onto the Oden.
This transfer boat was about twice as big as I thought it was going to be and the ride out to the Oden was calm and pleasant.
This will be my home for the next 7 weeks and I am happy to be away from airports and hotels!
Once we had found our cabins and settled in, everyone was summoned to the mess (the room where meals are served) and we were greeted by the ship's Master and officers who then gave us a tour of the Oden. After the tour, we had an emergency drill and we each had to report to our muster stations. My station is by the port (left) lifeboat. Once we were all accounted for (like in a fire drill at school), we were then led to the helicopter deck for training in the use of our survival suits. These bright red, one-piece suits fit water-tight to your body and will make you float and protect you from the freezing Antarctic seawater for up to 6 hours if needed.
The 3 college students and I are all working with Dr. Tish Yager and the ice core team. We had a good time trying on our survival suits. Left to right is Brett, Kevin, Alex, Tish and Jeff.
After a great first meal I wandered all around the ship and finally ended up in the lounge where Hanna gave me my second lesson in Swedish. I was having trouble making myself a cup of tea as I struggled to read the labels on the machine that dispensed coffee, cocoa and hot water. Hanna pointed out that the label "Tevatten" translates at "tea water". I was happy to find a Swedish term that was easy to say and sounded like what it means. Another Swedish term that is important and is easy to remember is "god morgon" which means "good morning". I think if I try to learn a few words each day I will make progress.
After a very sound night's sleep I enjoyed breakfast of bread and cheese and then I climbed up the 6 flights of stairs to the bridge to work on this journal entry. The view from the bridge is amazing. Windows rap around the entire room and you can look both fore and aft of the ship. The sea was fairly calm and I tried to identify some of the seabirds that were flying ahead of the ship. With the help of Henrik Kylin, the environmental scientist on board, I spotted the following birds: Cory's Shearwater Black Browed Albatross Atlantic Yellow Nose Albatross
Shortly after I began to work on this journal and Henrik and gone back to his lab, the 2nd officer ran across the bridge to show me that a group of Dusky Dolphins where headed for the ship on the port side. I had never seen dolphins in such a large group (over 20) and they exploded out of the water as if they could fly from wave to wave. I tried to take a photo but from 6 decks above them it was difficult. Later, Henrick loaned me the beautiful photo below which he had taken last year. Day one on the Oden has been very good to me.
This photo of Dusky Dolphins was taken by Dr. Henrik Kylin
Take care, have fun & make memories,
Jeff Peneston