A man, a plan, a canal; Panama!

A man, a plan, a canal; Panama!

Who doesn't know this famous palindrome? Until yesterday that was all it was to me, but I was lucky enough to be able to travel through it!  Our vessel is currently doing its 3-week repositioning from Greenland through the Panama canal to Puerto Montt in Chile. This is done without guests, so it is a time where the pressure is off a little bit and I am treated to seeing my colleagues in their  civilian clothing. It is very strange to see the Captain walk around in shorts (combined with his uniform shirt for the short stint of actually being in the canal, because Panamanian officials were on board) and unshaven. Unfortunately it is not a time where I can just slack off, because I have lots of projects to do, which are very hard to do with passengers are on board.

Some quick Googling has taught me that the Panama canal cuts through Panama (big surprise) saving mankind lots of time and money (and lives) because now ships don't have to sail around the dangerous tip of Argentina to reach the other ocean. Construction began in 1881 by the French and abandoned again by them in 1894. Their workers were dying in such big numbers (at some point 200 per month) that "the high mortality rate made it difficult to maintain an experienced workforce" (!)  Conditions were incredibly hard because of the debilitating climate, poisonous snakes, insects and spiders and worsened multi fold by yellow fever and malaria (mosquitoes were no suspects yet at that time).

It was the United States that continued the work in 1904 and finished it in 1914. Panama got full reign of it on noon December 31, 1999.

The canal consists of a set of 3 locks on the Atlantic side and 3 more on the Pacific side, because there's a difference in sea level between the two! How is that possible? Should that not even out, because the oceans are connected? I must admit that I had to look that as well. There's a big variation in sea levels around the world, something to do with the fact that the Atlantic is saltier (thus denser thus will stand a bit higher) than the Pacific and because of the effect of wind and currents which pull and push on water. The difference in tide is also noticeable, with the Pacific having a much bigger difference between high and low tide than the Atlantic. I stole this image from Wikipedia which shows the difference in sea level height around the world.

Excellent graphic showing the whole way from the Atlantic to the Pacific

By Thomas Römer/OpenStreetMap data, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19678675

 Before entering the canal, we spent a big part of the day on the north side in Colon, to get our provisions (the contents of 6 containers, I believe), to say goodbye to leaving colleagues and welcome new colleagues. I had 2 technicians for the day, one who successfully helped me with a software migration and 1 one who unsuccessfully tried to get our backup frequency for the internet to work.

Enormous container ships in Colon

This is how the ship looks for a couple of days after getting so much stuff on board.

Getting close to the first lock.

Lock personnel has come on board to handle the lines that will connect the ship with on shore carts

Still low water level while the doors are closing behind us.

They pumped water into the lock and raised the level and now the doors are opening on the other side

.

Losing daylight pretty fast so close to the equator, so "quick take a picture of me".

 

Only one attempt needed to throw the line to our ship.

As the ship moves forward, the carts on each side keep the ship in the middle (as if our Captain would not be able to do that himself!) In fact with the pilots being on board and tied to the lines on either side, I don't think the Captain has ever had so little control over his ship as here. He has to hand over all controls.

Pumping the water into the lock, to raise the water level, and the ship.

Special birthday wishes for my dear niece Seneca and for her mom for just having braved an operation. Love you both. Oh, thanks Seneca for reminding to write about the costs involved. I could not find anyone on board who could give me an answer, but I've heard a figure of $200,000 mentioned, because you also pay for all the handlers that come on board and lines and equipment that you need to rent. I would have been more if we had guests on board. I've been told that the cheapest crossing was something like 20 cents when, long ago, they allowed someone to swim across.

Details, details oops Detaille Island

As usual our ship parks as close as possible and then guests are shuttled over.

Today I had the privilege to go on shore at Detaille Island where the British had their Base W for just a couple of years actually, because the re-provisioning became problematic as a result of too much ice. During 1956 to 1959 they did some good science there in the form of weather observations and mapping the surrounding area, but they actually had to leave in a hurry, when it became apparent that their supply ship could not make it close enough. It leaves us with a slice of Antarctic life of the late 50's.

Detaille Island

Traffic cones to try and manage the guests.

The proper tools to make those artist's impressions

Somehow I think that this is staged by someone who came later.

They left in a hurry alright, if they didn't even take their long underwear.

The building are still in pretty good shape.

But honestly, what I should be writing about is the fact that the second contract is finally coming to an end. Great moments and wonderful landscapes, but challenging work takes its toll and I feel as tired as I used to feel after 7 months working for the USAP.
However there is light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a week-long trip in the Galapagos Islands!!

Happy 2018

It's been 5 years since Sheri and I spent Christmas and New Year's together, but this year we finally are able to that again and in Antarctica no less. We're so happy about that, we could just jump.

Loving thoughts to all family and friends. Thank you for being in our lives even if we only manage to see you very infrequently. Here's hoping that 2018 will bring you lots of love and happiness.

Hugs & kisses from Michiel & Sheri

Working in Antarctica again, but now on a ship.

Fortuna Bay SG

I just wolfed down my lunch and I am finally allowing myself some time to write this update for family and friends. When I still worked at Palmer, Station, I thought that working 54 hours a week was a lot and that it was not allowing me any free time, well that was luxury compared with being on the ship.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. After a 3 months long holiday, which included some time at home in France and then a couple of weeks in the Netherlands (where I did my STCW safety and security training without which I actually cannot be on board the ship. The training included First Aid and life raft operation and information on what to do when you encounter pirates or stowaways). After the Netherlands I flew to San Diego and stayed with Sheri’s super nice uncle and aunt after which I met up with Sheri in Juneau, (Alaska), who had just finished her work. We spent a lovely 3 weeks in Alaska with our best friends Todd, Barb and Liam, who were kind enough to let us use their log cabin as well as having us over at their place all the time. We managed to catch up with most of the many friends we have in Alaska, but I’m bummed that we did not get to see any northern lights.

So nice to be back in Alaska..

and be with friends.

After that we spent some more weeks in San Diego, catching up with everyone of Sheri’s family members before Sheri and I parted ways again. Me to fly back to France and have some more weeks there and Sheri to work on the Columbia river.

After doing many big and small jobs around the house (trying to catch the rodent that was making noise at night, trying to improve the WiFi signal range, being dismayed at the ravages committed to our lawn by wild boar, taking down a  tree to improve our view, discovering how lonely the house is without Sheri and filling the freezer with ready made meals for when she returned and many, many more things) it was finally time to get back to work. I must admit that I did not feel like going at all.
Toulouse - Frankfurt (geez Frankfurt security has to look at each and every of my numerous electronic devices and almost made me miss my flight) and then 13 hours of Frankfurt - Buenos Aires where I was met by an agent hired by the company who was holding up a sign for Miss Gitzels. The agent drove me all across the city to the airport for domestic flights and made sure that I arrived safely at the right gate etc. I’m glad I doubted the information provided by the person who checked me in at Toulouse airport, because my bags were not checked all the way to final destination and they would have stayed spinning on the carousel without me picking them up. Buenos Aires - Ushuaia ended with some gorgeous views of the mountains surrounding Ushuaia and made me like the city immediately.

After spending the night at the Hotel Ushuaia I was picked up and brought to the ship, where my counterpart was happy to see me and do handover. He looked tired. Some 6 hours later we were welcoming our 120 guests for a 21 day trip of Ushuaia - South Georgia - Falkland Islands. It took me almost a week to get my feet under me and before and I could breathe again (I had foreseen this and it was part of my trepidation about starting work again) and actually now that I’m well into my second trip, I still feel a bit overwhelmed at times.

However, I did grab some opportunities to do fun stuff. I went on shore on Westpoint Island (Falklands) and saw big numbers of Black-browed Albatross and Rockhopper penguins  (with their bad-ass eyebrows and red eyes) and had to walk about a mile to see them, so that was fitness taken care of as well. On South Georgia I was able to go on shore at Gold Harbor (crew had told me in advance that it was their favorite). We were welcomed by a beautiful  grey/black colored sand beach with tussock grass in the background. It seemed that the elephant seals had formed a defensive perimeter on the beach to protect the King Penguin colony (not true of course, since the seals don’t care about the penguins and will happily crush them or each other in the heat of mating or fighting). The true reason of course is that they are so massive that it is easier to just stay close to the water rather than a bit more inland like the penguins. The bulls regularly start bloody fights with each until one of them retreats.

Fighting over who gets the female

Ex-baby Elephant seal

The main attraction however are the many thousands of king penguins that are there in all stages (because their breeding cycle is a bit of a complicated one) of maturity and molting. They are not bothered by humans at all and will just walk towards you or past you. It makes it easy to take good pictures. I’m trying to practice my “look-and-take-it-all-in-first  and shoot-pictures-later technique”, but that’s hard when the moment you get out of the zodiac, there is a group of penguins shuffling towards you.

Would you go far inland if you were this massive?

The scene that South Georgia is famous for; lots and lots of King penguins.

I also really appreciated being able to visit the old whaling station of Grytviken, where Sheri has worked in the museum and gift shop. I told Sarah (the government official on the island) that I was Sheri's husband and got a very warm welcome and was immediately invited for tea (no time to take her up on that unfortunately).

Of course I visited Shackleton's grave and had the obligatory toast of whiskey with (more than) a little bit for me and a little pour on the grave of “the boss”,  as he was called.

One of my colleagues was kind enough to point out to me where some of the guest would start their hike later and so I set off to do it by myself. Great to stretch the legs and even better to get some alone time. I’m already getting more and more settled in with work and I  make sure that I grab these little opportunities when they come. Sheri likes to make fun of me, because half the time I have literally no idea where exactly we are. I am so engrossed in my work that I sometimes have to remind myself that I go to special places and that I need to look around. By now we have left South Georgia and have sailed around Coronation Island (Orkney Islands) where the seas were rough and I even got a little queasy. Next was Elephant Island, where Shackleton and his men spent some cold cold months before they managed to reach South Georgia. These are all places that I heard about when cruise ships visited Palmer Station and the tourists would tell us about their itineraries (and I would make fun of the fact that they already forgot where they were the day before).

These past couple of days I was able to solve some pesky computer problems that have been bothering me for a while (one of them was the guest were experiencing
slower than usual internet) so I feel pretty good right now. Just a couple more weeks and I’ll be able to welcome Sheri on board. Yay.

Cooper bay

My colleagues, being just as
excited as me to be outside.

Macaroni Penguins

Young Elephant seal.

Yes Jeff, Sheathbills do soar

Happy to be out and about

Fortuna Bay and more South Georgia pictures below.

Polar bear - ijsbeer - eisbaer

Ich möchte ein Eisbär sein im kalten Polar
dann müßte ich nicht mehr schrei'n
alles wär' so klar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIIGKV27FaY
I had to start this post with these words, because whenever polar bears are mentioned, this new wave song from my youth pops-up into my head.


Hi outside world,

The forth trip in a row that brings us around Svalbard (anyone who plays the game called Risk, knows that this is a vital island to own) is coming to an end, so it is high time that I wrote something about it.

It is so easy to forget that there is an outside world when you are floating on the ocean in a big metal box that is your work, recreation and home. Yep Michiel gets a bit in a funk sometimes. Lots and lots of people around me, but not too many meaningful relations and not too many people to open up to when there’s a bad day. The one person that I instantly became friends with left a couple of weeks ago and will not be back, that’s a bummer. I’m copying Sheri’s writing style a bit here in not only writing about the upsides of this work, but also the downsides.

I think I already wrote about the fact that my cabin is also my office, which makes it very hard to escape work. My phone is a number that rings in several spots (my cabin, the computer kiosk and the server room), and since reception is open till 22:30, they see no problem in calling me till that time. Thankfully my number is not published to the guests. My contract mentions a laughable 44 hour work week plus all the overtime needed to get the work done, so that’s a pretty vague deal, especially if you have some work ethic. Of course, there are plenty of people who work longer days than I do, but I have not yet experienced why they joke that IT Officer is the easiest job on board, because it hasn't been the case so far.

That said, people around me do encourage me to join the daily outings and go on shore once in a while. Yesterday for the first time in 2 weeks I did so and joined the long Athletic Hike which luckily lived up to its name (unlike a previous outing when we turned around after a mere 40 minutes) and was quite energizing. Unfortunately 1 member of our group (that’s me)  did not get the memo and was wearing his hiking boots in stead of waterproof boots and soon had to deal with the consequences of doing a couple of stream crossings and sinking into ankle deep mud. I did not mind getting wet feet, but I was hearing a little disapproving voice of Sheri in the back of my head talking about setting a good example when you are part of the crew, and she would have been right.) Not to fear, no one scolded me for it, but instead all allowed me to make self deprecating jokes about the fact that I get out so seldom, that I am inexperienced. Our group had some 12 people in it and was led by our Expedition Leader, who has been an EL many times before, but not for our company. Because Sheri has been an EL several times now, I have a fairly good idea of what that job entails and admire people who are able to pull it off (especially knowing that all that responsibility only earns them a whopping 20 or 30 dollar per day more than someone hired as a Naturalist, who has a lot less responsibility and planning to do).

Apart from hiking boot-soaking moss and mud, we were rewarded by nice views of mountains and tundra, barnacle geese, snow buntings (Svalbard’s only songbird), my first reindeer  and my first arctic fox. The arctic fox was interesting because it had a white and brown coat, since it had not totally switched over to his summer colors yet and what struck me was the fact that it seemed more curious than afraid of us. I’ve been told that that is because it has met so few humans, that it does not have reason to fear them (equating human with food is not the reason, because we are not allowed to have anything edible with us when we go on land).

Like in the Antarctic, they also have several species of skua here. The one is saw (oops I forgot the name) has a tail that is more like a bird of pray, but when I saw the head up close, I recognized this villain from its Antarctic cousins.

These trips are billed as going into the land of the polar bear, so that is what a lot of people come for. Polar bears are marine mammals that are dependent on ice, because they hunt seals that are hauled out on the ice. We’ll look at the ice charts and find areas that have a good density of ice and then there will be several people on lookout duty. There is a friendly competition going on between guest, staff and officers to see who spots the most wildlife.

There are at least 4 kinds of polar bears that we could see. The first one is called the pixel bear, which means that it is so far away that it is only 1 pixel in size.

A pixel bear far in the distance.

Don't look too hard for a bear in this one, it's only a landscape with bird

I think we do count them, but of we are really on the look out for, is the “Quality Bear” - the bear that is nearby enough that we can see it without binoculars. When we see one, we will observe its behavior to see what it is doing and then slowly we will try to get closer without disturbing it. If we change its behavior, it means that we have failed and have disturbed it, which would be bad for the bear if it had to spend precious calories in trying to avoid us, but also for us, because it could make the bear shy away from boats in the future. Not only are our navigators extremely skilled in the slow and precise maneuvering, the guests are told to be very quiet when they go outside, not to slam doors and only speak in whispers. The more bears we see the harder it seems for the guests to remember these rules.

Quality bear.

It has noticed us, but then went on its way.

Very much not interested in our presence.

Reflections are always great. Two bears for the price of one.

The third kind of bear is the “Bear on a Kill”, where ideally we see it getting its prey. You might see a bear walking around, with its head held up high and shaking from left to right, because a bear is “all nose” and can smell a seal from a very long distance away and by moving their head from left to right they cover a lot more area. Only some 10 percent of attempts are successful, but once it has killed, it will go for the blubber of the animal, because that provides the most energy. Sometimes they will eat till they’re full and bury the remainder (so that other bears don’t smell it so easily) to finish eating after a nap. I think the most prized bear however is the “Bear with Cubs” which of course makes for the cutest pictures.

 Our ship has an so called “open bridge policy” which means that at any moment the guests are welcome on the bridge. This has been a very good decision, because it is the best lookout position of the ship, with the added bonus of staying warm and protected and getting all the information from the naturalists. The captain himself also has a wealth of information on the animals and their behavior. He also has a wealth of sarcasm built up over the years from receiving all these guests, some of whom seem to have forgotten to pack their brains while they were packing for this trip. Today we had a good laugh at someone who asked which of the 2 hikes was going to be longer, the long one or the medium one. Sigh.

There are a lot of interesting things to learn about polar bears. The females are smaller than the males (of course?), but also the female cubs are already smaller than their brothers. They are extremely good swimmers and have been recorded to swim hundreds of miles. When the ice is gone, they will spend time on land and not eat for months and if the mothers are pregnant and hole up, they will not eat for even longer.  They might be forced to swim for hundreds of miles if they dug a den on a piece of ice that drifted far away when they finally emerge. They hardly do any peeing during den period, but absorb most of it back into their body to get the remaining nutrients. They have something akin to webbed tissue in their enormous paws to help with swimming. And I could go on and on, if only a had listened to the wealth of information the naturalists provide to our guests. As it is, I am busy enough with work and am already happy that I was able to finish this post.
:-)

And some more pictures, just because it was so hard to choose.

Bear on a kill.

I just found these 2 pictures on my SD card. 

You can still recognize that it was a seal.