Antarctica in View
Monday, November 29, 2010 at 10:21AM It’s past midnight Sunday and it’s snowing outside as the NSF LM Gould research vessel approaches Antarctica’s western peninsula. We’re slated to end our 967 mile journey to Palmer Research Station by noon Monday. What a ride it’s been. Quite rocky for a couple days but I hardly 
got seasick at all. Thank you, Transderm Scop Patch! Instead, my worries shifted to envisioning myself strapped onto my bottom bunk bed being hurled into the ocean. It felt like I was on a teeter-totter at times. But today was quite calm. We spotted a couple whales spouting and breaching—one a humpback and the other a minke. And lots of Cape petrels frolicking on the leeward side.
There's been no shore in sight for a couple days, but plenty of distractions in the boat to keep me from getting freaked out wondering if I’ll ever see land again. My two journalist colleagues and I flocked to several scientists asking for tutorials on their research topics, which range from the role marine viruses (a billion of them in a liter of seawater—who knew?) play in the food chain to the effect of climate warming on penguins and krill. Now I feel slightly more on top of things as we head to Palmer, where we’ll learn more by doing fieldwork with researchers.
I feel almost too excited to sleep—anticipating my first sight of glaciers. And right now I don’t envy the scientists who will continue on after dropping us off at Palmer Research Station. They’ll be doing research from the ship for more than a month.
Stay tuned for more once I arrive at Palmer, where we’ll have full Internet and email access. And tune in to KGNU radio (88.5 FM Boulder/Denver or live www.kgnu.org) Tuesday 8:35 – 9:00 a.m. as I’ll cohost the weekly “How On Earth” science show live from Antarctica!
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