NBP to Punta Arenas

On Tuesday 3/24, the RVIB Nathaniel B Palmer arrived to Palmer Station. Well, as close as it could safely get!

In a few chaotic hours, we used a station zodiac to get all the cargo we needed to get on board, say way too many goodbyes, and move the 11 of us who were leaving station on board. Shockingly quickly, I was seeing Palmer from afar...

...and then not at all, as we began the long sail north. It was beautiful, as always, being out on the water as we began motoring up the peninsula.

The NBP is big enough that no one ever has to sleep in containers in the hold, thank goodness. I shared this super-cozy room with one of the scientists leaving Palmer. (Hilariously, that TV has cassette tape and VHS players.)

And about 24 hours after our departure from Palmer, the seas suddenly started feeling rough and we made our way across the Drake in moderate seas.

I was taking anti-seasickness meds the whole time and so was feeling super sleepy and woozy and the  hours and even the days totally melted together.

On Saturday we made it to Punta Arenas, Chile, but because Chile's borders have been closed to international travelers, we were not allowed to leave the boat. For three more days we stayed on board, doing what we could to offload what could be offloaded without us leaving the vessel, reading, playing games, watching movies, and taking advantage of kind efforts of people on board to entertain us, such as one of the engineers giving a tour of the engine rooms:

...gazing at Punta Arenas in the beautiful weather and wishing we could go for walks through town...

...said a distant hello to the LMG, docked on the opposite side of the pier, from which position the hazardous waste containers on board were moved over to the NBP for eventual travel north...

...and went to several science talks. It was really wonderful to get to interact with the scientists who had been at sea for a couple of months researching the Thwaites Glacier (the fastest-melting area of Antarctica) and to hear presentations on their projects.

As the days passed, I found myself spending more and more time walking tiny circles around the 01 deck of the NBP just to get some fresh air and movement. (The boat has a gym but the treadmill was broken.) One evening I was out there with this ailing bee, which I felt sorry to see suffering, but which was also a notable sight for me after half a year too far south to see any insect this size.

Our last evening on the boat was absolutely gorgeous, making me ache to be able to step off the boat and start the month of exploring Chile I'd been planning as a post-contract adventure.

But of course...that is not possible with what is happening in the world right now, and the disappointment of that lost travel adventure is more than balanced with my gratitude that I was able to be heading home to a family that is still safe and healthy and has everything it needs right now.

Last evening

The skies were gorgeous on my last evening at Palmer. I was feeling pretty nostalgic for the place I was still in! I got to hang out in the hot tub with a nice group of people as the sun set, and as darkness set in, they each left until I got to be out there alone, enjoying the beautiful night and feeling so grateful for this experience here.

Well, okay! I think that's it for my summer-at-Palmer pictures. Not sure where I'll be when this post goes live...I could be all the way home, possibly. Or depending on how the world is doing, I could still be a ways away. Either way, next time I have a chance to post about the trip home I will. In the meantime, stay well everyone!

Last boat ride of the season

My last Zodiac adventure before leaving Palmer was on a group trip to take the Research Associate to service a water station in the Gosler Islands, which were so fun to explore a little...

...and then a visit to Dream Island to place some winter time emergency survival caches. Plus using that as an excuse to take the opportunity to explore a bit around this island that was new to me but definitely lived up to its name.

Check out how HUGE this elephant seal is in relation to the three fur seals behind him!!

And seeing anything green is such a joy and a treat. Sometimes we rub our faces in it.

Oh, Antarctica.

It was a good last outing, over too soon.

But there was already packing to get back to....

Torgie post-penguins

If all has gone according to plan so far (I'm typing this nearly a week in advance), today the ship I rode north from Palmer (the NBP) will be reaching Punta Arenas, Chile. As I'm typing this, the world is changing so fast with the Coronavirus crisis that no one knows for sure what will happen then with the 35 or so of us from the NBP who need to head home to the States. But the senior leadership of USAP and NSF are all working on it and will get us home somehow, sometime. And when they do, I'll be able to tell you all about how it happened. Once I have good internet access again, of course.

To continue to keep you entertained in the meantime, some more leftover pictures from Palmer. 

One day on my last week there, I got to go back out to Torgersen Island (the one that had the huge Adelie penguin colony on it all summer until their chicks fledged and they all moved their super-stinky party elsewhere) to help one of our IT guys take down the penguin cam that is set up there each summer for us and the outside world to keep an eye on the progress of the Adelie eggs and then chicks as they grow.

It was a great excuse to get out on the water (I drove the boat! I've gotten to do boat operator training, finally, this summer...and operating a boat has been a totally new experience for me!) and get some exercise trying desperately not to trip or slip on loose rock while carrying expensive camera equipment and solar panels back to the Zodiac.

And then we had a half-hour left before lunch so we did a little island exploring while we were at it. The gorgeousness just never ends!

The mighty, mighty fur seal.

Remains of an Adelie that didn't make it.

My friend C gets swallowed by a bergy-bit.

Friend K looks like a he belongs in a travel catalog for trips to Antarctica!

Haz vans...poof!

Those of you have been following along for my summer of things going awry down here know at least part of the story of the 10 vans of hazardous waste that were supposed to have gone to Chile for winter storage (and then eventual further travel for disposal next summer) in early December. As a reminder: half of them ended up having to stay down here at Palmer pretty much all summer, clogging up every available space, including three of the four pier spots. 

When the boat finally came to take them away a couple weeks ago, there was much rejoicing by me. Here's what the pier looked like as we started trying to get them all aboard:

And then here's the after picture with them safely tucked onto the LMG.

And then a truly shocking sight for me: the totally empty pier after the boat left. This is a view I just saw for the first time all summer, and it only lasted for less than 24 hours before we started having to bring a couple of other containers that were stuck up the road all summer down to the pier to pack them. But it was a sweet, sweet (if forlorn) sight!