Yahoo! We are underway! We left the dock at 8 a.m. and I am SO EXCITED I can barely contain myself! I had a chance to do a bit more exploring in Punta Arenas yesterday with two of my shipmates and that was fantastic. The folks on the Gould are all helpful and I’m comfortable on the ship. I’m sharing a “berthing van” with 2 other women; Janice and Julie. Janice will be a lab manager at Palmer Station and she’ll be staying for 8 months. Julie is a graduate student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham; she'll be at Palmer Station until May. Julie is one of the people I’ll work directly with in the lab at Palmer Station on a study examining the effects of ocean acidification on two different species of invertebrates. One is a species of snail and the other a species of limpet. The berthing van is a small cabin that has 4 bunks in it. Here's a short video of my space in what's called the "Lady Can."
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Gangway to the LMG
Me with Dr. Amsler and Dr. McClintock
Nice view of Punta Arenas with the LMG on the horizon
My hotel in Punta Arenas
Janice hoping for a safe journey through the Drake Passage
As I write this, I’m sitting in the lounge with several other people. Some folks are watching a movie, other people are working on laptops. Dr. Bockheim, a geologist from the University of Wisconsin, has been discussing a research project with several of his graduate students. They’ll be setting up a field camp on Cierva Point along the western Antarctic peninsula. I learned they have another site on Amsler Island (named for Maggie Amsler and Chuck Amsler, the people I'm working with!) for their study. I’ll write much more about all of that later.
To be surrounded by these scientists is amazing. I'm learning so much already...