Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 03/29/2011 - 15:06

Hi Mr. Botella, my name is Melanie Fox, from Talbert Middle School,in Mr. Wood's class. I was just wondering how life is living on a boat for so long? Also,when the weather here is warm and sunny, what is it like there? Does the climate affect the way that the water level is or the animals that live there? the last thing that I was wondering was do the sheets of ice effect the way that u travel on the ship and are they a few kilometers thick or are they only thick enough fir a small animal to stand on? I hope to hear from you soon.

                            -Melanie Fox                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Juan Botella

Hi Melanie, thanks for writing. Life on the boat is great as long as you have
something to do, otherwise it can be pretty boring. I have lots of
projects, so I am having a lot of fun. The weather is between cold and very
cold. We are here n the warmest part of the year and we are below 32F every
day. Weather does not affect the water level. The sea level could be
affected if there is more warming in the world by melting glaciers that are
over land. The ice does affect how well we travel. We are on an ice
breaker, but we have to go very slow when breaking the ice. We are
traveling through ice that melts in the summer and reforms in winter, so it
is not very thick. Many meters, but no kilometers. The ice over the
Antarctic continent, on the other hand, can be kilometers deep.
Thanks for writing,
Juan.