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.

A day in the life of IT Michael

Stockfish (cod) hanging to dry in Reine, Norway

 Hi friends,

It is now almost 1 month into my 3 month deployment.  Jeroen, the colleague that was doing the turnover  with me left to work on another Nat. Geo ship and I am left in charge of IT here. I’ve had my first turnaround day (where the previous guests leave and the new ones come on board) and there were no major hiccups with the checking in of the new guests (unlike the first time). That very same evening our hotel manager hosted a welcome cocktail evening, where he describes the workings and practicalities on the ship and unfortunately expects the IT officer to give a little talk about how the internet works on board. I say unfortunately, because I do not like to talk in front of a group of people (2 people is already a big number  of people to talk to :-) , but I think I managed well enough. Sheri says that that was a little growth moment and I think there might be more growing still  to come. Things have slowly settled down a little bit, but I’m still working lots of hours. The fact that my cabin also doubles as my office makes it hard to escape from work. During turnover my colleagues tried to make it clear to me that it is important to grab opportunities for doing stuff when you get the chance, just to stay sane and it is after all part of the reason for working here. Luckily my colleagues from the galley have been good about inviting me along with them when they go out. I’ve become better at judging when my IT services are needed the most and when it is quiet enough to go for a hike on land or to go to the gym without being radioed to come and help someone with their computer.

My friends from the galley.

Reine

I have a shower and toilet in my cabin which is a great improvement over Palmer Station because there I had to go down the hall to the boys room which was shared with a lot of other guys. One day I noticed that I really liked the smell of the soap in my shower dispenser, it took me another couple of days before I realized why that was...It was the same stuff we had at Palmer Station. Another improvement as well is the fact that I don’t have to share my cabin with anyone else; I love that. Because I need to check various things on our TV system, my cabin also has a nice big TV screen. Yet another perk is the fact that I have a computer with an “always on” connection to the internet (the crew all have to buy minutes at $20 for 250 minutes) which, of course, I need to be able to do my job. My cabin has a port hole which is my little window on the outside world, situated a little bit above the water line.

My cabin.

I usually have it closed, because I like to sleep in a room that is as dark as possible and then I am too lazy to open it in the morning. Some previous inhabitant put up a poster that mimics an opened window looking out at sea, which I quite like it because it makes the room a bit bigger. I also printed some pictures of Sheri to make it feel like she is here with me. Contract periods will usually not be longer than 3 months (compared to 7 months for Palmer Station), but that is still a really long period to be away from one’s wife and other family, especially in times of bad news from home. When someone in the family gets sick or dies, the loneliness and a feeling of powerlessness prevails and I get homesick. At such moments I try to call my family and try to go out on deck in the hope of seeing beautiful scenery.

A normal day starts usually with the rattling sound of the anchor being lowered as we will have reached some new location during the night. Then the voice of the Expedition Leader will come over the PA system wishing everybody a good morning, good morning (always repeated) and describing a little bit of the plan for the morning. I get up and check to see if we still have internet or if we’ve lost the signal in which case I go up to the server room and try and find the satellite. A quick shower and then I go to the breakfast buffet. I have been unable to continue my routine of eating just oatmeal in the morning. Nowadays I will have fresh fruit and an omelet. I will have been greeted by the numerous Philippine waitstaff with everything from and exaggerated Me-chcheel, to Michael and Mr IT. and they will start pouring my black coffee because they remember from day one, that that’s how I like it. I am still trying to memorize all of their names, but luckily we all wear name tags. Breakfast service is great, until the wait staff decide that it is getting too late, at which point I get totally ignored.

After breakfast I show my face at the reception, just in case she has received any IT questions and then I go upstairs to take a little walk outside and at least get some impression of where we are. I also try to visit the bridge to say good morning to them. I then go to my cabin to start work. I make sure to leave my door open, so people can see that I’m actually working and not sleeping. if I’m not very visible, people might not see much of my work. That’s why I also sometimes work in our iCafe, but I don’t like that so much because the ergonomics are not very good there, combined with the fact that there are too many distractions (like guests with questions). Usually when there’s a problem that I could solve remotely, I will choose to physically walk over to the computer and help the person in question. At 10 we have a coffee break where a bunch of officers and some galley people enjoy some coffee and a light snack prepared by the kitchen. I make sure that I always go just for the social aspect. I eat lunch in our officer’s mess (where everyone who is not deck crew eats) and who does not feel obliged to eat with the guests. I  usually think that I should take a nap, but in reality I will be doing a bit more work related stuff. After lunch it is usually more of the same, with regular calls on my phone which I answer by saying “IT Michael” (ask you can tell, I have given up on trying to make people pronounce it as Michiel).  Towards 5pm I usually tell the reception that I’m going to the gym and that I may be hard to reach. Dinner is at the same time as the guests, which usually means 19:30. I am allowed to eat in the bistro/restaurant, but then I need to be dressed nicely and it will probably take at least an hour if not two, so that’s why I almost always choose to eat in the officers mess.
I’m allowed 2 free (not top shelf) drinks per day (unless I show up in uniform at the daily recap/cocktail hour during which the drinks are free as well), so sometimes I will go to the lounge to order something before heading to bed. Unlike in the beginning, sleep usually comes easy, now that I am settled in enough to not be bothered by any ship noise.

Fun facts:
The current trip (around Svalbard) seems to attract a younger crowd. Te youngest is aged 11 and the oldest is 87, with the average age being: 59.
75% is from the US
20% from Australia and a handful of Danes, Brits and others.

Beautiful Bergen

It happened to be independence day in Bergen, so lots and lots of traditional dresses.

Note to self: Bergen has an Ethiopian restaurant.

Sailing to the end of the world

Hi friends,

For those who have not heard the news, I've said my (somewhat emotional) goodbyes to Palmer Station and almost immediately started working on the National Geographic Explorer, which is a expedition ship from the Lindblad company in very tight cooperation with National Geographic. They have a fleet of small and medium sized boats that explore the world while offering luxury food and expert commentary from knowledgeable Naturalists.

I’ve now been aboard the NG Explorer for a week and a half (actually by the time I got around to posting this it is more like 3 weeks) and I must say that it feels much longer. The first 2 days the ship was still at the shipyard in Bremerhaven, where it received all sorts of maintenance on the engines and systems, paint work and received a bunch of supplies. The outside contractors that were working on the ships engines, sailed with us for the first week, to finish their work. They were a specialized bunch of people who do these jobs on a number of different ships, I remember that the first time I saw them, they looked a bit ragged and unkempt, but now I know that they have been working long hours below deck to finish their tasks.

The last day before the passengers arrived in Edinburgh the ship underwent a remarkable transformation from having protective cardboard and plastic everywhere to being a shiny and fresh cruise ship. The IT person who is doing the handover with me had warned me in advance about the fact that things are very, very hectic immediately after shipyard and he wasn’t kidding. Shortly before, several software packages had been upgraded, including our suite of programs that manages everything from hotel bookings, key card programming, passenger information, point of sale and inventory resulting in the fact that a couple of hours before the guests arrived, we found out that the magnetic part on their keycards needed to be encoded again. We barely managed in time.

Troubleshooting access to rooms will be a recurring theme in my trips. All the guest rooms have a TV which has a selection of movies that are hosted in our system, but since there had been a power outage during shipyard we had to visit every one of them and reset them.

Another big part of my job will be to help people connecting to the wifi signal that hooks them up to the internet. They can choose from 3 paid plans. Of course we only have a very small connection that goes through a satellite connection. (4Mb p/s to potentially share with 150 guests and some work computers, while at home you might easily have 10Mb just for yourself). So far it seems that not more than 40% of the couples have signed up.

During the 2nd day at sea, the guest were welcomed in the lounge, where the captain gave his official welcome speech and introduced his officers. During my job interview I thought nothing much of the title IT Officer, but I soon learned that indeed I would be an officer and had to have a uniform with stripes on my shoulders. The last time I had stripes on my shoulders was when I fulfilled my obligatory military service (a requirement they did away with after I fulfilled mine), but it does feel a bit different than wearing a t-shirt. There are a couple of moments in the day where you are expected to wear your uniform (for instance if you choose to dine with the guests in the restaurant area) and introductions by the captain is one of those moments. He did a very nice job of introducing me and told everyone how they went all the way to Palmer Station, Antarctica to find their IT person.

Since the Explorer has visited Palmer Station several times, I thought I had gotten a good impression of how their people interact with each other and I must say that I have been as well received and welcomed as I expected. There are three main groups of people on board; the most numerous are the deck and hotel crew who are all Filipinos (I think foreign workers are the biggest source of revenue for the country), and then there are the Expedition staff  and the Officers.  I recognize a number of the Filipinos from when they visited Palmer Station store where I frequently had to tell them that we did not have any more small or extra small size clothing any more. They sometimes work as much as 9 months on board, while the other folks do a couple of trips (the Naturalists) or 3 months like I do.

This first trip will take us all around the British and Irish isles in 17 days, ending up in Bergen, Norway where our guests will disembark and new guests will embark for our journey in the Norwegian Fjords. I have not had much time yet to enjoy the scenery, because I want to fully focus on the turnover information I get from my colleague. There is so much to learn that I am absolutely knackered at the end of the day. Despite that, I still manage to sleep poorly, because of all the new sounds of rattling and  banging as a result of the cabin being very close to the water line.  Just like at Palmer Station, every room occupant will have something to complain about (even true for some of the guest cabins). Luckily I have a cabin to myself which allows me to have some alone time and recharge a bit. Unfortunately there is not enough space in my cabin to do proper yoga, but I have been able to go to the gym every few days, which is very much needed to keep me sane and at a decent weight, because the food is pretty nice for the crew as well. More on that in a later post.

Gannets in flight.

Fowey, a little speck on the Cornish coast.

Lovely Irish hills, near Donegal

also near Donegal

Holey water well, near Donegal where passersby will add to the collection of rocks.

A terrifically Orca-strated show.

I’m not one to use superlatives easy, and cringe at TV shows featuring people yelling their excitement with screechy voices, but last Wednesday I actually was one of those people, because I witnessed the best wildlife viewing I’ve ever done.

Our galley area is blessed with a lot of windows which look out over our pier and the parts of the ocean close to station that are called Hero inlet and Arthur Harbor. With many eyeballs occasionally glancing at the water, interesting actions stand a good chance of being noticed. So when someone mentioned that there was a minke whale in the harbor, a lot of people were at the ready to see if they could spot it too. Quickly it became apparent that it wasn’t a minke, but that it was an orca (both have dorsal fins, but the orca fin is bigger) and then it turned out that that were several. There was at least one male in there with a very big dorsal fin and then some others. When they proceeded to do their spy hopping behavior (rising out of the water vertically to be able to take a look at the area above the water) it became clear that their number must have been 8 or 9. They spotted a young crab eater seal who was lying on an ice floe right across from our pier some 50 feet away. At that point the orcas started cooperating in earnest in their attempt to reach the seal. By now it had been announced twice over the station loudspeakers that there was wildlife viewing, so everyone in town was watching. It was even better than a documentary because the orcas were everywhere and we had a much broader vision than a camera lens would have had. The orcas were popping up on all sides of the ice floe with some of them being really close to the seal, who was brave (or stupid) enough to charge toward the killer whale who was closest to it and make a biting motion. At one point the big male made a big wave and reduced the floe to just a small part of its initial size, but the seal was still not caught. Then somehow the orcas seemed to loose interest a little bit and the seal disappeared in the water and lived to see another day. Afterwards the orcas still did a lot of patrolling around and further entering Hero inlet. Some came really close to the people standing on the pier thus making it even easier for all the folks to get their pictures.
I was filming from inside for the first bit, but did not get super good images, also because I was on radio watch and had to communicate with the bird researchers who were out on their mission to check in on penguins and giant petrels. I did tell them that a spectacular show was going on and they bee lined for station immediately.
This was really the best I will ever see. So many of them hunting and so nearby, what a great show. I hope the ice cover will hang around for a little bit longer and give us some more viewing pleasure. 
When the birders later came in at the end of the day, they'd had had an extra  bonus in the form of a leopard seal who was toying with a young elephant seal. It took its sweet time biting it and dragging it under and letting it go again, while the seal seemed to be immobile and in a state of shock.  They have some great GoPro images. A couple of days later they recognized the “little”
fellow between the elephant seals that like to come up on our boat ramp, so that seal as well had survived even though it had numerous scars on its body.







This video was shot by Susan McCarthy who is
here to write a book about sheathbills, but who
was just as thrilled as the rest of us to see this
spectacle.

This video here might be off a little less quality, but shows a better overview of what was happening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3PVUrU_u4c

These pictures are from some of my colleagues who were kind enough to share them with others.

One of the orcas swam really close to the boathouse.

The spy hopping in action, and the seal defending itself.
When you look at the video's it seems at times that it wasn't
all that concerned, but maybe that's because its very young
and hasn't learned about orcas yet..

The orcas were working together really well, surrounding
the seal on all sides. At this stage in the game, the ice floe
has broken up considerably already.

The bird researchers came back to station to watch all of this
from nearby. This image really shows the size of the orcas
(the fact that this person seems to not be looking at the animal
right next to him is because there was so many other orcas
to keep track of.

The bird researches did have front row seats though.

Season's beginnings

By now it has been some time since I started a new season at Palmer Station and it certainly has been a long time since I’ve written anything on the blog here. It’s high time for an update. This 2015_2016 summer season will be my tenth season working in Antarctica and working for the USAP. After doing McMurdo 6 times, a spot opened in 2012 at Palmer Station and Sheri agreed that I should take that opportunity  and she might be able to join me in a next year. For a variety of reasons I’ve enjoyed life and work here much much better than I did in "dirty old" McMurdo and I have not looked back since. So you might think that after so many years there will be very few new things left, but that is not the case.

New this year was the fact that it was very uncertain if we were going to be able to get to station at all. When we arrived at the beginning of October (which is the end of the winter) there was still a large area of frozen ocean around in the direct vicinity off station which could possibly be too much to break through. Our vessel is an icebreaker (ABS A1 class ), but it meets its limits with 1 foot thick (30 cm) new ice (as opposed to multi year ice) and we received word from station that ice around station was easily 3 feet thick. Scenarios were made dealing with the possibility of not being able to get close to station. The most likely one seemed to be that we would come within a mile or two of Palmer and after which we would continue our travels on foot over the ice.  Meetings were called and instructions were given on what to do and what to bring in case of this alternative way of traveling.

My berthing.

The Galley. With so little to do during the voyage, the meals
become an important part of the routine.

The gym. I think that staying active while at sea helps fight
off sea sickness. Of course working out can be a bit of a
challenge in rough seas; doing push-ups for instance are
super easy one moment and very hard the next moment.

Shower in the berthing.
Can be hard to do
when the seas are
rough, because how
can you hold on and
wash yourself at the
same time?

We get a chance to help with science
a little bit. Here I am helping  to
process water samples.

Launching a CTD which measures Conductivity, 
Temperature and Depth. Thanks to the LMG this data set
now spans decades.

Excited onlookers.

I don’t think it has happened very often in recent history that the LMG was not able to make it to station, but I do remember that in my second year it happened once that there was so much tightly packed drift ice that the boat could not reach us. At that time we were watching from station the ship go back and forth multiple times,  but every time it made some space the ice closed up immediately around it again and made further progress impossible. They turned around and went back to Chile again. It took a couple of weeks before the people who were scheduled to leave station on that ship were able to hitch a ride from a visiting cruise ship as their (not too shabby) way to get back home.

You can really see the thickness of the ice.

With this knowledge in mind and reaching the ice edge everybody was curious if we were going to be able to break through or not and -now more than ever- we were up on the bridge trying to get the best views possible. You would expect that snow on top of the ice makes it easier for the icebreaker, but the opposite is actually the case, because of the friction it creates. Another effect of the snow on top of the ice was that it dampened the sounds quite a bit. Nothing like the big cracking and crunching sounds which we were expecting. It was going to take very many back and forth motions of the ship, but we were going to make it. It turned out that even though the ice was very thick at places, the top layer was not very solid and thus not as strong as was feared. Meanwhile I think that secretly the captain was delighted, because it gave him a chance to give his personnel an excellent training on how to break ice. After a half a day and a full night of chopping up the ice and making a big turning basin we were able to dock the boat at the pier, much to the relief of most people on board, but even more to the relief of the winter staff on station, because they were ready to leave after many a month of working there.

Working on making a big turning basin.

This picture was taken a couple of
days after arrival and shows well how
much ice there is around station.

Click here is the video of the LMG breaking ice doesn't play