(no subject)

Well the danger on the rocks has surely passed.
Still I remain tied to the mast.
Could it be that I have found my home at last?
Home at last.
- "Home at Last" Steely Dan, Aja

I cannot begin to describe the scenery here, it is that beautiful! (Whoops,
I guess I just described it.) Even when the sky is full of cloud and it's
constantly snowing, it's just stunning. I've been taking HD video the
whole time, with the intention of making a trip movie of sorts (scenery
with music). I didn't take any video of the Drake Passage, so you wont
need seasickness medicine to watch!

So far, the cruise has been dominated by the whale-seekers, which just
means more time for us krill people to enjoy the wonderful view that
unfolds around us constantly. Of course, we do actually perform some work.
Each of us has been trained to run the basics of the "multi-beam". This
device is used to map the sea floor as we travel over it. It doesn't run
all the time, just when we're heading over an area that has been
previously been unmapped or when we're over an area that has errors in
some of the measurements. As we can cross these areas at any time of the
day, there's no guarantee Kathleen, the multi-beam controller, is awake.
That's when one of us steps in to turn it on and makes sure it's
measuring for the right depth.

More and more, around the whole ship, other people have been coming up to
Meng, Selina, Eric and I and asking about the krill. "How many are down
there right now?" "Are you going to cast the nets?" "When are we
going to start seeing some krill pancakes?" Believe me, we're itching
to get our nets in the water and hoist up a fresh batch of that delicious
krill. Well, maybe it's not delicious. Meng said we should eat one, so
maybe I'll let you know if they're any good or not. Seeing as I can't
recall any fine French dishes that require krill, I'm assuming they're
disgusting, but I'm still willing to try one! Fear Factor (Anyone
remember that show?), here I come!