Once the Pine Island science was over it was time to head north and hopefully return to the modern world with the possibility of phonecalls and emails again. Unusually the exchange of scientists this time was due to take place at Rothera rather than Punta Arenas or Stanley. This certainly saved the scientists a long and not very exciting boat trip, but for crew who have been on twelve hour shifts every day for 5 weeks (not me, the people who do actually work on here!) the half day allowed on our itinerary for changeover seemed somewhat inadequate. Luckily a decision was made to spend a night alongside to allow people to catch up on sleep, stretch legs or just get some space away from the ship for a few hours. Whilst I most certainly haven't been working hard over the last few weeks, it's always nice to set foot on solid ground every now and again.
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| Another lovely sunrise on the way to Rothera |
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| A particularly impressive iceberg |
The extra time alongside meant I could have a lovely chat with the new Rothera doctor over a cup of tea and go for a couple of wanders around the point. The weather wasn't great so no spectacular sunsets this time, but the grumpy looking moulting Adelie Penguins more than made up for getting snowed on. Oddly the fur seals at Rothera seem far less aggressive than those residing on South Georgia. There was hardly any growling as we wandered through them and one almost looked like he wanted me to stroke him when he came bounding up looking somewhat like a large Labrador. I managed to resist the temptation to give it a go.
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| JCR tied up at Rothera again with much more ice about than when we were last here |
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| Moulting Adelie Penguin - cross and adorable |
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| Sometimes even adult fur seals look quite cute |
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| Elephants on land seals invariably look disgusting, especially when they're moulting |
After a night alongside and another night spent out in the bay attempting to fix a crane that quite clearly had no intention of allowing itself to be fixed, it was off to Vernadsky. Sadly no run ashore for everyone this time as we were just dropping a box off before heading onwards and upwards to Palmer Station.
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| Leaving Rothera for the final time |
This was the first time I've visited an American Antarctic station and excitingly there was time for runs ashore for anyone that wanted them. The station tour was fairly enlightening and, rather unsurprisingly, it became rapidly apparent that slightly more money is available to American research bases than to their British counterparts. The gym was better equipped than any gym I've ever been to, the lounge had massive leather sofas, the bar had a pool table and outside balcony and the internet......! Having now spent 18 months using internet that is so slow you often get through a couple of cups of tea waiting for one page to load, I was unable to offer much sympathy when the chap giving us a tour started complaining that, although it was generally possible to watch You Tube clips or video Skype people at any time of the day, if you wanted to download movies it was best to wait til late at night. Download movies? You what?
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| Palmer Station |
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| George and Dick looking terribly happy to be on cargo tender duty |
Finally it was time to start the science so we left the Americans and headed out to sea to start CTDs. Lots and lots of CTDs!
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