The weather has been generally terrible. The nights have been a little
better than the days, however. Winds tend to die down at night and we have
a nice pleasant snow. We've had several snowball fights in the night,
assisted in shoveling the helicopter pad and refueling the Zodiacs. But
all in all, there isn't much new. Lots of unpublished data, however! ;)
Well – we were supposed to go to Palmer Station last night, and we did!
For about 20 minutes. Unfortunately for us, the weather turned bad in a
matter of minutes after landing the final boat. That meant that we had a
few perilous moments fighting the mob to buy souvenirs for friends at home.
I'm afraid I might not have bought enough... bahhh! We'll see, I
suppose. This is one of the only trips I've wanted a large amount of
souvenir collection. I ended up buying several clothing items, several
small pins, a magnet, and several stickers. AND, the ability to state,
"I've been on the Antarctic continent"! Pretty cool.
After leaving the station, the night crew had a few hours to sleep thanks
to the day crew agreeing to stay up until 2am. Shortly after 2am, however,
we approached the French Channel. The approach was rough – 5 degree
roll/pitch was not uncommon. As the ship turned to make the Channel, the
swells increased, rolling our ship with might. Winds were up to 45-50
knots. Seasickness. Identifying my odd stomach feeling was a little late
for the drugs to start up. It was a long night. Currently, the winds are
back down to 20-30 knots and we're getting ready to tow for plankton. I
may go take a quick nap before dinner to make sure I've got my sea legs
back.
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