05: Summer Begins!

This whole adventure began when I boarded a 6am flight out of PDX on September 24th. From there it was five days in Punta Arenas, five days through the Drake Passage, and then a nine-day port call before the NBP loaded up the winter-overs and headed north on November 13th. It was nearly 3 weeks from when I left home to when the summer season at Palmer Station really truly began. Wacky stuff!

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It's hard to wrap it all up in a nice little package, so here are a few tidbits...

Abby found some moldy bread in the bread box and immediately took it down into lab so that she could look at it with the microscop. It was so fun zooming in and seeing all the funny Dr Suess bits!

A quick glance into my work shop: the Carp Shop! This was very early in the season and things were still a bit cluttered from winter and the port call, but still it's such a charmy spot on station.

The Snowy Sheathbill is the most common bird around Palmer Station. They are the only land bird native to Antarctica and also the only Antarctic bird without webbed feet. Check out those prints!

A few shots from around town...

And some beautiful views of Arthur Harbor right out in front of station...

Miscellaneous shots from the craft supplies and the Ancient Palmer Curse that I accidentally set free (oopsie!), a tour of the kitchen, and a fun craft night at Terra Lab where I sewed a patch onto my hat.

Night time at Palmer Station...

And more snowy times at Palmer Station...

One of the community responsibilities that we all responsible for is Radio Watch, and my shift is usually on Fridays from 9:30am to 11:30am. During the shift you sit at a table in the Galley with a special laptop (with weather and boating location data), the boating log, and a radio.

All boats that are away from station have to radio in every 30 minutes with updates about their status and location, and whomever is on radio watch receives those radio calls, comfirms the info with the boat, and then writes all of that info into the log. It's a fun break from the normal day-to-day, and it feels good to participate in bigger station operations.

That's it for this installment, folks. Check back in again soon!!