The Straits of Magellan
It is 8PM ship-time. This is two hours ahead of those of you on the
U.S. east coast and many hours behind when this email will get sent
off the boat, to the satellite, down to Denver, and then onto the
internet where it will eventually make its way to the blog.
We’ve been sailing since about 1PM. We are still in the Straits of
Magellan. The passage is narrow. We can easily see land on both
sides of the boat. Dolphins swam with us at the beginning, but now
there are just green mountains, snow-capped peaks and low clouds. I
always heard that Vancouver had the only non-tropical rainforest but
I think Tierra del Fuego has one too.
The ship still has fresh food. I’ve been eating melon and kiwi and
nice green lettuce leaves for the past few meals. I expect those to
disappear shortly. Last year at McMurdo we were lucky enough to have
the occasional flight in with some fresh food. This year: Nothing
beyond what we left port with.
Tomorrow morning around 6AM we should pass out of the Straits and
into the pacific where the real ocean will hit the boat. I’ve
mounted my laptop on a sticky placemat and then duct-taped it to the
desk and put everything away in drawers so that it doesn’t get
thrown around while we cross the Drake Passage.
I’m worried I’ll get sea-sick but have never been motion-sick in the
past so I think I’ll try to survive without taking any medicine.
Keep your fingers crossed (and out of your throat) for me. The quote
for seasickness is: "First you feel like you are going to die, then
you are concerned that you will not".
We begin work tomorrow: training sessions for the various software
and sensors we’ll be deploying.
(lat:-53.761455 lon:-71.897995) And this should put a pin in a
logical place on the map here: http://spacebit.org/maps/NBP09-01/
