Trav's Travels: Whales and All Trails!

1/23

Town was cloaked in a beautiful white today. We saw 2 penguin species today! Far off, through the binos and scope, but a lone adelie and a lone emperor. The RV Palmer took off today with Linnah on it. She got lucky and is going on the science cruise with the group first going to hobart, Australia, then back to Antarctica and continuing along the shore until punta arenas, chile. The cruise she's going on will be studying plankton health mostly. This is what she wrote to us after her first day on the boat:

Hi Carolyn, Travis, and Marci,

Day One:

Eating sawdust cookies as I type! I will add sneaky to the way I describe you :) [we had these terrible chocolate chip cookies in my office that every day Linnah would come and eat, so we bagged them up and hit them in her boat office]

Bittersweet to leave my friends and end a fine, fun season. I waved toward the library, but you probably couldn't see me either. But I knew you were there.

Pods of orcas cruising up the ice-free parts of the channel. 7-8 at a time in places. One that made a "bow wave" as it swam. It was having fun and I nicknamed it Travis. Groups of 2-3 adelies on the sides of the channel. Occasionally a lone emperor. One minke. Whales were glorious. Day was perfectly glorious. Icebreaker at ice edge had dis-engorged its personnel- due to gov't shutdown, or a flag football game?

I definitely am in Antarctica. We have swung around the side of Ross Island. Saw the rookery at cape Royds through binoculars from very far off. Could tell from the color of the land- tannish guano. Cape Bird- we were closer- saw the kiwi hut there and again the rookery from far off but convinced my self I could see birds up the slopes. Waiting this morning to see Erebus from this side- still cloudy. After the ice channel and ice edge, open water until a line of broken up ice (brash? can't remember name- sea ice pieces, not ice bergs) Pushed through some coming around the side of Ross Island but mainly open water. One leopard seal on a piece of ice, NBP narrowly moved past the piece of ice, with the leopard seal rearing up but certainly not moving for something as benign as a ship. Fierce.

Calm seas. thanks for the prompts and survey questions! First CTD cast going out. Maybe too much ice to do it. MTs are working hard.

In the meantime, what is my job again? Just did lab rounds. Adjusted a fridge temperature, moved mountains of crap away from the safety shower and fire extinguisher, consolidated mercuric chloride waste, arranged to give the lab (dis)orientation to the new people who know more than I do, and am about to call the guy about the LN2 plant which is still broken. Same, but different, and definitely in Antarctica.

Feel free to survey me again. I am slow figuring out the IT parts of my job. Have a great day and a fun Dry Valleys week! Linnah

1/24

I watched a couple minke whales breathing and feeding in the open water near the pier that the icebreaker had made. So cool to watch them!

1/25

Today we saw a pod of orcas spy hopping in the distance from the crary library. We watched them for a while through binoculars, and it was really cool. After work, Elisha and I ran down to hut point to watch them some more. They were really going crazy with all of their spy hopping. It was really amazing and beautiful to watch! We saw at least 6, with some young ones, but probably there were at least 12.

We played a fun prank on Paul, the NSF rep here. He's a big cyclist and on strava owns king of the hill for the segment from scott base up to the pass. One of our favorite grantees, Amy from Montana State, has been trying to beat his time, but hadn't been able to. She is leaving tomorrow, so we decided it would be funny to do it in the truck with her watch and beat him. But she wanted him to get notified and she didn't know if he'd get notified that his king of the mtn time was beat if it was from the new queen of the mtn. So she made and account for Mitch "Kitten" Kennedy, and Elisha, me, and her drove the route, beating Paul's time by 30 seconds. Amy was so excited and happy to do it, and there was lots and lots of laughter and excitement the next morning when Paul found out, and Liz our boss passing the story along. It was a really fun and hilarious prank!

1/28

I had planned an all ‘all-trails’ hike the previous weekend that got postponed b/c of bad weather. So I wanted to try it again this weekend. The weather was worse, it was maybe even windier than the previous weekend and also really cold. So Carolyn, Jamee, mitch, and Christian all bailed. Elisha had to work b/c the supply vessel was in. So that left just Wilson and me to tackle all the trails in one day. It was definitely cold and brutally windy, and we made sure to enjoy the 2 shelters on the way to castle rock. We made it up to castle rock, and despite the wind, sat up there for a while looking at the view. On the way down the otherside of the hill, towards the kiwi base, the wind greatly died down and it became warm. We were talking about how we both missed skiing and then lo and behold when we got to the kiwi ski hill, people were skiing and they invited us to join. They set us up with boots and skis and showed us how to use the ‘nutcracker’—the device that you have around your waist and use to clip onto the tow row so your arms don’t get tired. They have 2 runs, the ‘polar plunge’ and one other that I can’t remember the name. It’s an easy little hill, but still fun all the same. We stayed there for over 2 hours before continuing our hike. On the ob hill loop, we saw a couple of minkes playing out in the polynya of open water. We finished the all trails with the climb up to obhill, where we had a coors light and then hustled back down where we made it to dinner with 1 minute to spare. Elisha had said she was worried about us b/c we should have been back earlier, but she had told Carolyn, the reason they’re probably late is b/c they figured out a way to ski. She knows me well!