Life Aboard Ship, Dispatches From South of the "Roaring Forties"
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June
16, 2004, off the South Sandwich Islands
The wind has been rising all day, so that by the time we made our last tow,
it was blowing over 30 kts (temperature 7.9° C or 14° F, wind chill
about -26° C or -15° F).
However, we are well outfitted and this ship is a real miracle. Even in these
conditions I was able to exercise on the treadmill (a interesting feeling at
times when I was suddenly climbing a much steeper hill or descending one rapidly!).
We’re going south now at about 7.9 kts (can’t do 10, it’s
too rough) to Montagu Island, where we will set traps in the morning. It’s
possible that we will be in sea ice there; farther south it’s probably
fast ice.
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Today we are at Montagu Island, the largest of the S. Sandwiches chain. We
are also in the ice, although it is sea ice, not fast ice, and pancakes and
growlers with bergs. Very interesting and EXCITING. The temperature was much
colder today, minus 12.5 C, with a wind chill down to minus 43C (it was very
windy, with gusts to over 40 kts). We surveyed the bottom most of the morning
and then worked this afternoon. One of the neat features of this ship is
that the deck is heated so there's no accumulation of ice or snow where we
are working. Today, the working deck was fired up. It's really quite amazing
to see the bulwarks and everything above deck level ice covered, but the
deck clear and steaming (deck temp is 100 F!). There was a reason they gave
us all that stuff in Punta Arenas before we left.
