Check out our boating range. Now that I have had about two minutes to think about things other than “how we are going to get this stuff done in time?”, I realized that I have been talking about our stations without having shown any maps or photos. David Huang has put together a great bathymetry map and laid the boating limits map over it. This shows us good places to sample safely without dragging our Go Flo bottles on the sea floor. Here you can see that Station B is very close to Palmer station and Station E is way out at the end of our allowed boating Zone. What this means is on any day that the weather permits we are allowed to travel out to this point but not beyond. With special permission, due to scientific needs, traveling beyond the boating limit is allowable. This line is set up mostly for the ability to respond to accidental tip-overs, engine trouble and in the event of ice blocking the passage back. Within the two mile limit there are emergency caches that are located in random locations and there is one outside the limits. This seemed very small when I was first introduced to the idea but since going out sampling I have realized that the limits are very reasonable considering that it takes us at least 15 minutes to get out to station E.

Game ON!

Things are really starting to work. I have finally gotten our Gas Chromatograph (GC) running in a reproducible manor. WOO HOO! This is the biggest relief ever. Samples were piling up and pressure was following suit. Malfunctioning equipment does not help with team moral. But the tides have turned (knock on wood) this evening. I had great success in calibrating the main GC and I was able to run our most important samples. Life is good now. As long as I can keep the GC in good operating condition, we will have no problems keeping up with the workload.

Other good news is that we were able to sample from both stations today. We have been sampling on Monday from station E and then on to station B on Tuesday. We then have to do the same thing on Thursday to cover two days a week in both stations. It can take up to two hours to get fully prepared to head out to sample. 2 hours x 4 days = way too much wasted time. Sampling two stations per day is extremely helpful due to the decreased amount of time involved in preparation.

Sheathbils

Let’s talk about Sheathbills.  These very cool but gross birds are hated by a lot of people down here, especially the “birders”.  Birders are the people who are down here to study the lifecycles of the birds and penguins.  The problem with these birds is that they are fearless and disgusting all at once.  I have really liked these birds up until today when I found out where they got their nickname.  Today there was too much ice in the bay to set our Zodiacs in at our regular launch so we had to put in on the other side next to our outflow.  This is a place that we all avoid at all costs.  Well there were about ten “S!$@ Chickens” picking debris out of the water and eating it.  Yes, it was totally gross.  So the reason that people hate these birds is that they will not leave us alone.  They will dive-bomb us, hover over us or just plain follow, looking for us to drop something.  And knowing the kind of places that they hang out in you don’t want any part of them touching you.  These scavengers are also known as the preening crew for the elephant seals; they clear the nostrils of these huge beasts.  Yep, gross animals.  I have a different view of them now.

Here comes the LMG! (again)

The LMG is coming again! The Laurence M. Gould has been fixed at port in Punta Arenas. Both engines have been rebuilt and all possible issues have been explored. After completion the ship was loaded with new freashies and sent on its way with all of the things that we have been waiting for. Now, this morning, the LMG was supposed to arrive at 0800 but it has hit some pretty thick ice which has only slowed its progression, not stopped. So we will hopefully see the boat here at 1300. It will be good to see the LMG but no one is holding their breath.