99% of My Time

Same old shit, different day. Going out into the Southern Ocean sampling for phytoplankton on a calm day. More humpback whales playing within 100 yards of the boat (four of them to be exact, I think at least one was a baby). More Giant Petrel Fly-by's. Glacier calvings and leopard seals. *Yawn* I thought this place would be more exciting... Yust Yoking. This place r0x0rz.

I realized that I haven't posted pictures of the places I spend most of my time: Rubber Duke, The Lounge and The Bar (Not necessarily listed in order of importance). So here ya go.

That Adelie Penguin thinks Rubber Duke (#66) is pretty fly. And she is a head-turner. This 5,000 lb (fully loaded), $100,000 (fully loaded) monster can do a thrilling 22 knots (you guessed it, fully loaded). I can't wait to take it out at the end of the season after we take the box and all the equipment off. Zodiacs are frickin amazing boats and that's all I gotta say. I was a little distracted by the penguin and cut out part of the boat, but I like that picture, so here's another one.

This picture shows the guts of the boat. Our gas-powered winch that streams wire at 18-20 meters/minute (motor under black box under rubber duckie, that thing is so loud I can hardly hear myself think when it's running. I believe an electric winch is on next year's christmas list), our 750 um 1 meter ring krill katcher, our acoustic transducer convincingly disguised as a leopard seal, and my favorite part, the 75 horsepower Yamaha four stroke engine. She purrs...

It's dinner time, I'll post pictures of the bar and lounge later.