Where is this adventure taking me and how will we get there an back? I know some of you are wondering the same thing, since most people with whom I have shared the idea of participating on a research around Antarctica have asked me that. Here is a quick glance at our travelings to come:
I will travel from Madison, WI to New Zealand on a commercial plane. All of the scientific team will travel from Christchurch, New Zealand to McMurdo Station on Antarctica by a military plane. We will then board the N.B. Palmer, a research ice breaker, where we will spend around 65 days at sea sampling and exploring the ocean from the always moving surface to the cold and dark depths. The boat trip will end in Punta Arenas, Chile, from where we will take a plane to Santiago de Chile and then back to the US.
Route that I will travel to and from Antarctica. Adapted from US Antarctic Program Participation Guide 2010-2012, NSF-062
Here a bit more detail about the trip. From Madison I will fly to Los Angeles, CA. There will be no time to enjoy the sunny beaches, as I will then board the plane to Auckland, New Zealand. This is read in a breeze, but it will take close to 13 hours to cover the 6500 or so miles that separates both cities. I will also cross the date line when we get to longitude 180. The date line is an imaginary line that runs North to South along longitude 180 and it separates a day from the previous day. In a mere fraction of a second, 24 hours will have passed for us. So if I were to leave LA at 10 at night on February 8, I would arrive to Auckland at 7:05 on February 12.
Once in Auckland I will take 90 minutes flight from Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, to Christchurch in the South Island. I will meet the research team in Auckland and attend an important meeting where we will learn about safety and logistics for traveling to Antarctica. I will be provided with 'Extreme Cold Weather' (ECW) that I will wear during the flight to Antarctica and while walking around the base. Here the list and pictures of the ECW:
List of equipment in the 'Extreme Cold Weather'. Adapted from US Antarctic Program Participation Guide 2010-2012, NSF-062
We are scheduled to fly to McMurdo Station on Antarctica for February 14, 2011 (happy birthday mom) on a National Science Foundation (NSF) or military airplane. There are three possible planes for the flight: a LC-130 Hercules turboprop airplane operated by the U.S. Air Force, an NSF chartered C-17 plane (jet powered) also operated by the U.S Air Force, or a C-130 operated by the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The plane choice matters, since it takes 8 hours on the Hercules, 7 hours on the C-130 and 5 hours on the C-17. I was informed that these cargo and troop planes are not designed to provide passenger comfort. I will report later how comfortable the planes are!
We will spend a couple of days at McMurdo loading the boat with the scientific and personal equipment that we shipped from California back in November. I look forward to setting foot on this fascinating continent. I wish I were staying longer at McMurdo, but I definitively consider myself to be extremely lucky to be there even if only a few days. We will begin sailing on February 18 aboard the Palmer, where we will spend the next 65 days or so at sea. Here is a detailed map of our sea route.
N.B. Palmer's route from McMurdo Station, Antarctica to Punta Arenas Chile. The numbers correspond to places where particular research activities will be conducted. From Dr. Orsi's research group.
As you can see, we will cross the Pacific Ocean and disembark in Punta Arenas, Chile, some time on late April (the date is also flexible). I will then take take a set of commercial flights that will take me to Santiago de Chile and then to the US.
I have written all this in a small amount of paper. Whatever happens in between promises to be a unique experience full of challenges, joys and learning experiences. I try hard to imagine what each of these steps will be like; I am guessing that this is a futile exercise and that the reality will probably be a lot different from what I imagine.
Please send your questions about how I prepare for this amazing experience!