On my way to Palmer

After being at Denver headquarters for orientation my new adventure finally begins. We fly into Chile through Santiago, where we are welcomed by a local person who works for the program. He takes me through immigration and shows me the line for customs and takes off to welcome the rest of my colleagues.

I have been a good boy and have been trying to find information on what you are allowed to bring into the country. Apparently that was not good enough, because they confiscated my dried mangoes and blueberries. I was so looking forward to having them and they were not cheap either.

From Santiago via Puerto Montt we fly to Punta Arenas, which is all the way in the south of the country. Chilean independence day is coming up, so the plane is filled to the brim with families traveling to see their family.

In Punta Arenas we stay for 2 nights in a quite reasonable hotel. In our free time we take to the streets to see the town, but very few places are open, because of Independence day. Of we do the obligatory "rubbing the foot" of the Fuegan (one of indigenous people in the region before European colonization) who sits at the base of the statue of Magellan.

Same as for deploying to McMurdo, we need to go to a warehouse, to get our extreme weather clothing. Unlike McMurdo, a lot of that clothing is rain- and boating gear. My colleagues are very helpful in advising me about what to take double or triple items of and what to reject.

And then the time has come…we've become passengers of the LMG, the boat that is going to bring us south.

To answer some of the questions that often come up about the boat, I have stolen some info from the official website.
Full name:                    R/V Laurence M.Gould
Type of Vessel:            Antarctic Research and Supply Vessel
Builder:                        North American Shipbuilding, Larose, Louisiana
Year of Construction:  1997
Installed Power:           4,576 Horsepower from Caterpillar Diesels
Ice-breaking capability: 1 ft. of first year ice at continuous forward progression
Length Overall:           250 Feet (76.1 meters)
Width (Beam):            56 Feet (17 meters)
Depth:                         19.4 Feet (5.9 meters)
Endurance:                  75 Days
Lab Space:                  8 Labs, 2,490 sq. ft.
Accommodations:       Science party: 23
Total capacity:             44

For those of you who want to read more:
http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/support/gould.jsp

Trying out the life vests.

The waters between Chile and Antarctica can have some very extreme weather and I was especially apprehensive of the renowned and feared Drake Passage. But -to cut a 4 day long story short- the seas were very mild and I did not need my sea sickness medication.

They had me sleeping in a shipping container with bunk beds down in the hold, which actually might have been the place where the boat sways the least. But it also meant hearing the incessant pneumatic, banging and rattling noise from the ship close to my ears. The fact that I needed to climb a steep set of stairs to go to the toilet was another reason why I was very happy that I did not get sick.

Life on board was filled with watching movies, reading and hanging around and waiting for meals (which were not as bad as I expected). I did get to help with some science measurements, which consisted of lowering a probe at regular times and recording data like depth and water temperature.

View along the way.

Arrival. Photo's Stacie Murray.

I was asleep for the last part of our journey so but was woken with the sights and sounds of the ship mooring at Palmer pier.