The Sea was Angry that Day My Friends...

I made it to Antarctica. Unfortunately, it's not as cool as I thought it would be. The landscape is really bland. Just white snow on top of black rock. Grey water. Grey sky. Actually, the contrast between the exposed rock on the jagged and very tall mountains and the snow makes for a stunning landscape. The other noteworthy thing about the landscape is the scale. Nowhere else have I been where I have felt so miniscule. One day I was sitting on Queen Anne Hill, looking at mt. rainier and I was thinking to myself how that was the only unaltered feature of the landscape. All the forests had been cut down, replanted. City was built by us. The sound is polluted and full of boat traffic. But there was mount Rainier, standing alone, just as it was 500 years ago. Thats how this entire continent is. It is pretty incredible. And yesterday was nice and sunny, probably in the 50s. Blue sky, blue water, blue ice.

My travel down was pretty uneventful. Doesnt make for a good story, but it didnt stress me out either, so that's ok. The Drake crossing was reasonably calm too (Only 10-15 foot seas). I almost got sea sick once after I ate too much at dinner (The food was D-licious.) and didnt stop feeling nauseous for the rest of the trip. But didnt puke...

Then they let me drive the 290 ft Research vessel LM Gould. I couldnt believe that. I felt better after having taken control of the ship that had been making me feel like crap all week. I saved everyone's life by steering around an iceberg that had taken a kamikaze course towards the bow. Then we partied.

Today we got word of a feeding frenzy near the station, ran to the boat and sped out to see if we could find any krill. Sure enough we did. A huge swarm. Lucky us. This was after the "Polar Plunge," a station tradition in which anyone interested can strip down and jump off the pier as the ship is departing. So I got to go swimming like I had hoped. The water was pretty cold tho...

Interesting animal sightings: Leopard seals, Minke Whales, some other kind of seal, lots of peneguins, and, of course, Krill.