Underway At Last!

DAY 49 on the ship.  (DAY 6 underway)

Where to begin, I’m not sure, but here goes:

On DAY 43, we finally left the dock to head south.  So amazing it was to see the ship finally separate for the dock knowing it was because we were heading south. It was a very happy moment.  We had test after test and after the scientists got on board, we were moving in the right direction, but at any time we could get shut down – even, and especially, with a false positive test.  (We had test after test, some only two days apart – and these were the tests where they shove a long stick up your nose to your brain and swipe it around.) 

So we finally left, with a bunch of happy scientists who’ve brought some good energy and newness to the crew.  We left, and into the wind!  Heading west through the Straits of Magellan, by night two, we hit winds gusting up to 80 knots with 25-foot seas.  I was not feeling my best, but happy I didn’t have to rely on medication to get me through.  Throughout the morning, my belly slowly felt worse, so before lunch, I had to have a little lie-down, which helps a ton.  When in those kinds of conditions, I’m like a battery.  Discharging when vertical, recharging when horizontal. And a battery with a rule – if possible, don’t ever get to fully discharged – or else see the contents of the last meal long after it supposed to be seen. The battery at that point takes days to recover. 

We ended up turning around and seeking shelter for a day before heading out again, which was obvious even in the middle of the night as the movement of the ship changed from pitching (head on to the waves) to rolling (side to the waves).  On one particular big wave the ship rolled more than normal and things in my cabin took a ride.  In the background there was much banging around as other things went for a ride in adjoining rooms and throughout the ship. 

All in all, I’m happy it was rough at first as I’ve seen to mostly have found my sea legs.  We’ve made it across the Drake Passage and spent a day next to the South Shetlands Islands’ Cape Shirreff on Livingston Island, where there is a seal and penguin camp.  We dropped off researchers and I got to go ashore to make sure their radio and other systems worked. 

Weeks ago, I thought it was only a 50-50 shot that we were actually going to leave the dock.  So when I finally made it to the peninsula, then onto an actual Antarctic island, I was overjoyed.  After seven years away, it actually felt like I was coming home in some ways.  Reunited with a land that I love and also a bit of myself, waiting for me there.  The first task was to shovel out the doors of some huts that hadn’t been visited for a few years due to covid.  Scientists normally spend 6 months out of the year here.  This time it would be three weeks.  Shovel in hand, snow three quarters of the way up against it, I thought, I’m so happy.  Physical labor, a job I knew how to do, and in a beautiful place.  It was kind of like in the movie Ghost, when Patrick Swayze slides into Whoopie Goldberg’s body, except that I was sliding back into part of myself that had been put on hold for a bit.  Very satisfying, and for a bit, the days and days on an unmoving ship evaporated. 

When the work was done, it was back to the ship, on a black zodiac.  I was in the bow, like a dog with its head out the window thinking, I can’t believe I’m in a small boat, in some significant swell, in the Antarctic.

We’re back out to sea again – our mission now is to launch some underwater gliders that will be gliding for three weeks collecting data – then to start deploying equipment over the side. 

Tonight, I switch to the midnight to noon watch.  It could be a rough few days, but I’m hoping I’m rested enough to endure it without too much lack-of-sleep misery.

Most of the science support team call me Zinc – this began when, during a card game, I was losing terribly, I said that I was like a sacrificial zinc.  We had been discussing nick-names so someone quickly decreed that mine had been found and then had quite a good laugh on all the ways that the name was appropriate for my life on the ship.  The only new guy on the team is always a bit sacrificial.  

There are four distinct groups on the ship: the ship’s mates/engineers, the ship’s Filipino able-bodied seaman who do all the deck work, the science support crew (us), and the scientists.  I interact with all groups and they have all been wonderful.  It is great to be in an environment where different positions, nationalities, education and cultures interact with each other so harmoniously – so far anyways.  It currently seems like a happy little ship.  We’re just starting so it’s hard to say where we’ll be in a month, but my fingers are crossed! 

That’s all for now.  Hoping to sleep from 4pm to 11pm this afternoon evening before going to work at midnight!  I’ll be lucky if I get one hour, but some otherwise still/horizontal time will hopefully put a bit more in the tank. 

My love to you all!

Sorry the other pictures wouldn’t upload to the blog with my slow connection. A bunch are up on instagram and facebook if you’re curious, along with a few videos of waves on the deck!

Happily back in the land of Ice!