Amusing Signs

From the New Zealand part of the trip.


A bar in Lyttelton, New Zealand.



Teehee! They call their shopping carts "trundlers" in New Zealand. Isn't that adorable?

Goodbye, Punta Arenas

I leave Chile today. I'm going to miss all my friends from the Palmer, the science-ing, watching movies in the afternoon, eating greasy food (especially when we ran out of fresh fruit three weeks out), even the 25 degree rolls. Until next time!

Sagrado Corazón Cathedral

One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to go to church. This sounds bizarre because most people skip church when they're on vacation, but I love seeing local customs first-hand. You can only get so deep into a culture by shopping in tourist-y stores. Chile is predominantly Catholic, so it seemed like an especially good idea to go to mass.

I stopped by the cathedral near the Plaza and took a leap of faith that a sheet of paper on the bulletin board saying "Masa Domingo 8:00, 10:00. Masa Diario 16:00" meant that I should show up at 4 PM. Much to my surprise (have I mentioned that I don't speak Spanish?), people were actually gathered for mass when I came back.

Since Catholic services follow the same order everywhere, I was able to follow along and mumble English responses. That's another beautiful thing about going to church in a foreign country, knowing that everywhere across the world people are going through the same rituals, reading the same Bible passages all in their own languages.

Once mass was over, two old men stopped to talk to me. Our conversation was basically them talking in broken English and me attempting to make Latin sound Spanish-y. It must have worked because I figured out that they were thanking me for stopping by their church and telling me "peace be with you" (one of the responses during mass). We managed to work out that I was about to meet a friend at the Plaza. They also told me, "You look, to my eyes, very good." And now I can say I've been hit on just outside church by guys three times my age.

Punta Arenas

That's pronounced "Punta Arena," by the way, because final s's are silent in the Chilean accent. My (non-existent) Spanish is ruined forever. The next time I visit Mexico I'll go around saying "Gracia" and everyone will think I can't even say "Thank you" correctly.



This is a statue of Magellan in the Plaza. Sailors are supposed to rub the big toe of the guy sitting down for good luck before a journey. I rubbed it for retroactive good luck on the Palmer.

The Plaza itself is adorable with a few stands set up selling souvenirs. Apparently Chile is famous for its wool. Guess what you'll be getting, guys back home! Because the ship sure didn't have a souvenir stand.

Pisco Calafate

The first night in port we went to a restaurant (with meat! lots of meat!) and then to a pub. It turns out sailors like to get REALLY DRUNK their first night back after a cruise with no alcohol allowed. I think this photo captures the spirit of the night. (No, parents, I didn't get drunk.)



The regional drink is Pisco Calafate, similar to Pisco Sour but with Calafate ("Magellan barberry") juice. And don't ever get Chileans started on the "Is Pisco from Peru or Chile?" debate. It turns out Pisco Calafates are really good, which is sad because they don't exist outside of Southern Chile.

Oops

When we first arrived at the port, I was astonished by the number of boats from Texas. Almost every boat had a Texan flag.



Turns out I need to study my flags.



I think the mistake was understandable.

We've Arrived

We got into Punta Arenas this morning. I woke up briefly at 6:30 AM and went up to the bridge to see the sunrise. We were hanging out in the harbor for a while since they weren't expecting us until later. I've been out to see the city, but it's not nearly as photogenic as Christchurch was. I'll try to find some good pictures to post, though (now that I have internet!).



(originally posted on Livejournal)

Land Ahoy

Things are slowing down on the boat. Turned out there wasn't a ping editing party this morning since most people finished their edits beforehand, so when I woke up we had stopped collecting data and land was in sight.



That rainbow has been following us all day. :) Ironically, the land we're seeing to either side of the channel looks a lot more like the LotR scenery than the stuff I saw in New Zealand. (The picture above isn't actually an example of this.)

It's funny how my subconscious has gotten so in tune with the rocking of the boat. When I woke up this morning I opened my door and didn't close it or latch it open right away and just left it hanging. This is amazing because after about the second day of the trip I learned never to leave a door open because it will just slam shut or attack you when the boat rocks. But my subconscious had noticed that we weren't rocking any more even if my mind didn't.

The next few days:

Monday: Get in to Punta Arenas in the morning (4 AM?). We're free to get off the boat as soon as customs is done with us (9 AM?), explore! and spend the night on the boat.
Tuesday: More exploring, possible trip to a penguin colony. Spend the night in a hotel.
Wednesday: Begin making my way back, Punta Arenas to Santiago, Santiago to Lima, Lima to Los Angeles (Lima being in Peru, which I didn't actually know.)
Thursday: get to LAX in the morning :)
Weekend: work like crazy

(originally posted on Livejournal)

Ping Party

Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day. Once we reach the continental shelf we finish collecting data. And then once the ping files are ready we'll have a giant ping editing party so that Marcel and Chris can finish processing all the data before we dock. Rumor has it we'll be able to see land pretty soon, too. :)

(originally posted on Livejournal)

Only one week left

Yesterday we had really strong headwinds that slowed us down to 5 knots from our usual speed of 10 knots. :P The view outside was cool because the wind kept blowing back the water on the crests of the waves. Unfortunately, the strong wind meant we had really lousy data and had to throw out a few hours worth of data for the first time. But in general we've been lucky - the last cruise Marcel headed only had about 4 days of good data.

It's hard to believe there's only a week left until we get to Chile.

(originally posted on Livejournal)

More Iceberg Excitement

Last night we had an iceberg that didn't show up on the radar. I was asleep already, but apparently it was about 100 feet long and we came very close to it without noticing. The rest of the night we slowed down to watch for more icebergs. The Palmer may be an icebreaker, but it probably wouldn't fare so well against an iceberg. (Rumor has it there's a dent in the front from when the first captain tried it.) All these icebergs are probably breaking off of something bigger that somehow made it pretty far north, but I doubt we'll see it.

We're also heading into rougher weather. The isobar map shows a big low pressure spot in the middle of our path, which is apparently bad. I woke up twice last night because of big rolls. R.G. and C.H. said that the homemade "Roll-o-meter" showed about 25 degrees of roll. We might get into 30 foot high waves later on in the trip. I'm looking forward to it, but it'll be bad for the data.



(originally posted on Livejournal)

Iceberg!

Yesterday we saw an iceberg! I would be excited about seeing an iceberg any day, but I was especially excited after being on this ship for 14 days with nothing out the window except for ocean. No one expected to see any icebergs because winter is just starting and we're not that far south (just ~50 degrees), so this was a special treat. And then later when I was outside taking photos of V. and S. doing a Argo drop, we spotted another, smaller iceberg. The photo doesn't really show how humongous this thing must have been - at least as big as the ship, if not several times as big.



While we were watching the iceberg from the bridge we saw a cardboard box with "bomb" written on it. We thought it was odd, but it turns out it was for a drill today. About once a week we have one of these drills, and all of the passengers (us) have to go to the conference room with our life vests and immersion suits to prepare for boarding the life boat. This week the crew got to practice finding a bomb. Unfortunately, they didn't find it before it blew up. It turns out the captain himself was the evil guy who planted it on the bridge, and when the crew members went to sweep the bridge he told them he'd already done it, and they left. So we're all dead.

(originally posted on Livejournal)

Roll-o-meter 2000 v.2.0

The shipboard inclinometer only updates once every second, so unless the ship happens to be at the top of a roll at exactly the right time, the maximum angle doesn't get recorded. Obviously, I had to make a Roll-o-meter. It updates continuously and so is obviously superior to the "fancy" electronic instruments.



(The photo is staged, I don't think I would be able to hold on to a camera and take an in-focus picture if the ship were actually in a 25° roll.)

0-10°: M.C. falls over when standing on one leg
10-20°: chairs and drinks fall over
20-30°: drawers open, science falls on the floor
(referring to our first big roll when all the unsecured maps and log books fell)
30-40°: blub blub