Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 08/22/2010 - 17:17
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International Continental Shelf Survey

Hi, I'm Dominick from St.marks. What kind of clothing and wheather conditions did you have to go through?

Sun, 08/22/2010 - 19:42

Bill Schmoker

Hi Dominick- great to hear from you.It is odd being on an icebreaker because when I'm inside I just wear regular clothes, with maybe a sweatshirt or light jacket. It isn't bitterly cold outside but it isn't ever warm, either. I think the coldest I've seen is in the upper 20's and the warmest is in the low 40s. Being on a cold ocean really keeps the surface temperature very close to the water temperature. But it is often very windy and damp, with wind chills commonly in the low 20s or below. So when I go out on deck for any length of time I put on polar gear that the Coast Guard has on board (I didn't have to bring any of my own.) I either put on a float coat or a Mustang Suit. Both have flotation built in like a life jacket and they are really warm. The float coat is like a nice winter coat and the Mustang suit covers from head to toe (you'll see both in some of my previous journals.) Plus, if I'm doing dirty work they act as cover ups. The other special clothing for deck work is insulated steel-toed boots (in case something heavy is dropped or lowered on my feet), waterproof insulated work gloves, and a hard hat if stuff is going on overhead like equipment being lifted on deck cranes. If it is really chilly I'll wear a balaclava under the hard hat.
The hardest thing for me to adjust to weather-wise is the fog. I'm from Colorado where we have a lot of sunny weather and few cloudy overcast days. I can probably count on my fingers the number of days a year that we have fog there. But up here it is kind of the opposite- it is usually cloudy or foggy. But today has been brilliantly sunny all day, and it is even brighter because the ocean is almost totally covered with white ice reflecting the sunlight back.
Best from the Arctic- Bill Schmoker