Flamethrower Storage

This is posted on  a cabinet on the R/V L.M. Gould, my soon-to-be home for 4 weeks.  If you don't know the connotations of this, you should take the opportunity to watch the '80's version of The Thing. Kurt Russell is sooooo awesome in that movie.

Chile

Made it to Chile! After only around 20 hours of travel time, we have arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile. The local news this morning included Territorio Antarctica in their weather report. 3 degrees celsius and showers. Balmy! The group is quite fun and we went to a local pub to try the local drink. Pisco sours. Waaayyyy too easy to drink. Here's; a photo of a few of the group at the Santiago airport. (I'm behind the camera). I will have internet access for a couple more days here at the hotel. After that, it will be very sparse, but keep checking http://antarctica-ncsu.blogspot.com for updates from the ship...

T-minus 3 1/2 days

Sunday evening I'll be getting on a plane bound for the southern-most city in Chile. Then, on Valentine's day no less, I get on an ice breaker and take a romantic, albeit bumpy, cruise to the continent of Antarctica. Wow. Who would have thought a snot-nosed kid from Amarillo, Texas would have made a trip like this. So here's a rough schedule for the planning minds out there. 11 Feb 08 Arrive by Air Punta Arenas, Chile 14 Feb 08 Depart Punta Arenas aboard R/V L.M. Gould 18 Feb 08 Arrive Palmer Station 19 Feb 08 Leave Palmer Station [Work like dogs penguins] 12 Mar 08 Arrive Palmer 13 Mar 08 Leave Palmer 17 Mar 08 Arrive Punta Arenas 19 Mar 08 Fly back to Raleigh After getting on the ship, I'll have extremely limited access to the internet and email. We connect twice per day via a satellite, and the bandwidth is about what you used to get on Compuserve ca. 1994. However, we are required by NSF to keep up a daily blog of our activities for outreach purposes. This will be the best way to keep track of what we are up to, writings from the science crew, and the ever so popular photos. Penguin cuteness is bound to be bountiful. So I may add a few posts here before I leave, but once I'm south, check here for updates: http://antarctica-ncsu.blogspot.com/

Why being an oceanographer is awesome (one reason)