I've arrived!..

I haven't posted in awhile because the last week or so has been pretty crazy. The last time I wrote, we were going to be a day late to Palmer because of the weather. Well, after slowing down to dodge that one storm, we headed across the Drake Passage where another storm caught up with us from the north. We did get those 30 foot seas, and one person got thrown from their bunk and was injured rather seriously. We had to divert to Ushuaia, Argentina to get them to a hospital where they were stabilized and then flown back to the U.S. for surgery. Last update was that all was going to be well. That same night, when we were going down the back side of the waves, I would literally stand on the wall of my berth were my feet were! Now I know why the Drake Passage is considered some of the roughest ocean in the world.

Once we arrived at Palmer, we stayed on the ship for another couple of days because there wasn't enough room on station for both the summer and winter crews during transition. The transition which was supposed to be for 6 days, ended up being only 4 days because of the delays in getting here. It normally takes me about 4-6 months to finally learn enough in a new job to be productive, and I had 4 days. And it's not even remotely like what I'm used to working on! Luckily, because new people are coming in every 6 months, and most of the time they've never been to Palmer, they've pretty much idiot proofed the IT part of things. Good thing!

You also have other duties while you're here. I've already mentioned shoveling snow (which we've had to do already), but you also help with house keeping, galley and scullery help (GASH-a term from the Navy, who built Palmer), mini GASH. In addition, I am also on the pump crew of the fire team, and I'm a line handler to tie/untie the ship when it arrives and departs. So I got trained on those things in the 4 day turnover as well.

Pretty busy!

Anyway, the summer crew left this evening and so I thought I'd get a quick post out. Rather than spend a lot of time editing it and getting it all prettified, I'm just going to end it here and post a bunch of photos for you. I was just using my point and shoot as my other camera was packed away on the ship, but I can tell you that it is completely *stunning* here! That, along with all the great people, makes me think that this is going to be everything I'd hoped for.

More later...

Neumayer Channel

Neumayer Channel

The Loch Ness Monster moved south

Neumayer Channel

About a 1/2 hour out from Palmer

Arriving at Palmer

First Antarctic sunset
This one is for Adrienne

The view from my office window


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