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First Day of Orientation My first official day of orientation started early. I woke at what I thought was 6:00 a.m., however, my 'internal' clock was still on 'Memphis time'. Because of the three-hour time difference between Memphis (Central Time Zone) and Fairbanks (Alaskan Time Zone), I was

I saw Alex at the base of the stairs as I was coming down to get my breakfast. He just said 'we are going to release it in ten minutes' full of excitement and walking in a hurry. The seas had calmed down over night and we were at the position of the first mooring! I eat as fast as I could. I

I went to bed last night past midnight, so I knew I would have hard time waking up at sunrise. I asked to be woken up for the mooring recovery, so when I woke up at 10:30 am I knew something had not worked around our plan. I came down to the lab to find what had happened. Winds over 40 knots made

The day to recover the mooring has arrived. But before I get to the description of the mooring recovery operations, which is very exciting in itself, I want to explain what is a mooring and why we need moorings to study the oceans. The purpose of the cruise is to analyze seawater properties. We can

We liked yesterday so much aboard the Palmer that we are having it again! I am no longer writing from the future, since we reset our time to account for the passing of the date line. If you have been following this journal since the beginning, you might remember that I completely missed my sons

What do you need to know and do to be safe while working in Arctic environments? Polar Services Company, the folks responsible for all the logistical details that make research in the Arctic run smoothly, feel that this is important information for researchers headed to work in the Arctic. They feel

How much of an iceberg sticks out of the water? You will find here that the answer depends on the density of the iceberg. Most of us have heard the expression, 'that is just the tip of the iceberg', which is used to say that there is more, a lot more to come. The saying comes from the commonly held

Today I am having a hard time seating down to write. This time is not due to heavy seas like before. This time is the gorgeous scenery out there that is keeping me from my desk. I have made many attempts to stay focus and write, but every time I do that, something new comes through the portholes

For the first time in four weeks and a few days, I stepped out of the ship even though we are not even halfway through our cruise. Oh, all this happened at the same time we lost e-mail connection because we are too south for the e-mail satellites. I am sending this journal entry over the phone

We are no longer sailing east. We have turned south and are heading back towards Antarctica along the 150 W meridian. We will be very close to the shore in a couple of days, where we hope we will have chance to break some ice, see the continent again and observe more wildlife. That sounds great to