Tourist season

Saluting the Dutch flag.

Today the Dutch flag was flying at Palmer Station. This was not because of me, but because the yacht Sarah W. Vorwerk paid us a visit. When we have vessels visiting us, it is customary to raise the flag of the country (of vessel registration or in this case the Captain's home country) below the flag of the United States.

The Vorwerk is a vessel that can take up to 8 paying passengers to explore the Antarctic and other regions (see http://www.sarahvorwerk.net/en/expeditions). The owner happens to be Dutch, so I had the opportunity to speak my mother tongue again and discover that it has become rusty.

December and January is tourist season in which we notice the increased number of vessels that show up on our "AIS" system that plots nearby vessels on a map for us. As part of our outreach efforts, the National Science Foundation allows a certain number of visits to the station. The reasoning is that everything here is paid for by the American tax payer and they should be able to see what is done with that money.

A second vessel that visited us was the National Geographic Explorer from Linblad Expeditions. ( see their website ) Before the masses (actually, we have to call them "guests" ) arrive on station, the Station Manager and the Lab Manager go on board the ship to give a presentation about Palmer Station and our work here.


The station manager giving his presentation. The people
that are not looking at him are watching the slides on
the screens.



The NGE at anchor in Arthur Harbor

 On days when cruise ships come to town, all of us get assigned different jobs. I helped out in the shop assisting people with their apparel buying. The passengers are brought in groups of 10 by my colleagues who volunteered as tour guides. Outside the shop we hung all the available clothing items for the dual purpose of giving them the opportunity to make a choice and giving them something to do while waiting outside the shop.  After they are done in the shop, they continue their tour around the station and end in the galley, where they are treated to tea and coffee and our famous brownies and get a chance to speak to some of the locals and some of the scientists.

Later in the evening the we get the opportunity to go on board of the ship; in exchange for some free drinks they get to ask us as many questions as they like. The evening ends with the ship's crew coming over to our bar for some drinks and relaxation away from their passengers. The crew does not get a whole lot of free time on board and even when the vessel is in port at Ushuaia ( Argentina ) the turnaround time is so short that there is not much time to unwind. In the past these visits to our bar have led to some pretty memorable nights (so I've been told), but this time everything stayed rather decent.Some more Dutch was spoken since amongst the Croatian, Slovenian, Swedish and American crew was also a Dutch guy.