Warning: Actual Learning Ahead (Updated with pics and video)

From Mindy, dated 31 December:

Blue sky in the Southern Ocean
 (click to enlarge)

Sunny sky of the Southern Ocean (click to enlarge)

New Year's Eve and we are into our first full day at sea on the way to South Georgia Island.  Today will be filled with lectures and workshops as well as cleaning our gear adequately for the journey to a new ecosystem.  In the morning the wind speed was 13.5 knots, we had 1.5 m swells, 14 knot winds, and an air temperature of 6.5 degrees C.  Barometer at 1004, water temp around 7 degrees C.

Albatross (click to enlarge)

Blue petrels (click to enlarge)

Throughout the day we could see birds flying near the ship. Mostly albatross and petrel.  In the morning I saw a wandering albatross (what does a non-wandering albatross look like? Does he just sort of sit there? - Ed.) and a pintado (painted) petrel.




The first lecture of the day was Dr. Richard Alley from Penn State, titled Glaciers and South Georgia Island (an intro to the planet's most fascinating physical features) (and I'm not biased).  The start of the lecture made everyone giddy as Dr. Alley played a guitar and sang about glacial processes (yes, proof that geologists get "giddy" - Ed.).  I took 3 pages of notes, and enjoyed the lecture very much.  One key takeaway is that temperature changes (as in water temperature changes) control changes in glacial melt much more so than snowfall changes).



Next Jim Danzenbaker spoke about seabirds of the Scotia Arc.  I learned how to recognize different species of sea birds, and some of their characteristics and behavior.  The main focus was on the albatross, shearwaters, petrels, and prions (in order from largest to smallest).  The great albatross has a wingspan of 11.5 feet, and the grey-beaked storm petrel weighs the same as 5 U.S. quarters.

Dolphins in the Southern
Ocean (click to enlarge)

Next Ian Dalziel spoke about where we are and what is the Scotia Arc. Bottom line is that the Scotia Arc is the arc between the southern tip of S. America and the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula.  It is almost the same size as the arc that is formed by the Caribbean.  It is named Scotia after the Scottish Antarctic expedition and the proper name is actually the Scotia Ridge.  The Falkland Islands used to be connected to the southeast edge of Africa when Gondwanaland existed 160 million years ago. The Scotia Arc began to form about 135 million years ago, and 120 million years ago the south Atlantic started opening up.  Very cool stuff! (No pun intended - geologists are Very Serious People, after all - Ed.)

Rob Dunbar from Stanford (*cough* Rose Bowl Champions *cough* - Ed.) spoke next about the wild seas of the Antarctic.  Here are some of the strongest winds on the planet.  Luckily we have very calm seas for our trip today, but there are 35-40 knot winds regularly, and a few hundred miles to the north of our ship we see reports of 50 knot winds!  Waves can be 3-6 meters, and the current moves at 10-20 meters per second (that is 130 cubic meters of water per second)!  The flow is more than 100 times greater than the flow of all the world's rivers! But the ocean is highly productive, with nutrients like phosphorous and nitrogen upwelling from the ocean bottom, and lots of diatoms feeding on those rich nutrients.

We heard a fascinating lecture about South Georgia Island from a couple who lived on the island for 16 years, Tim and Pauline Carr volunteered to convert a small whaling museum into a more comprehensive museum and trust. They sailed to South Georgia island on a 100 year old boat named the Curlew that had no engine and no electricity. They had some amazing stories to tell and are the world's leading experts on all things about South Georgia Island.

Biosecurity cleaning (click to enlarge)

My clean gear (click to enlarge)

I skipped a talk about marine mammals by Kate Spencer while I cleaned my gear, and also missed a neat drawing workshop by Edward Rooks.  But I finished the day with a photography workshop by Tom Murphy (who lives in Montana and specializes in Yellowstone photography) and learned some neat ways to step up my game with photos on the trip.  I'm glad there is not a camera store on board, after drooling over other people's gadgets and lenses.

Good food, great company, and we toasted the New Year by singing a round of Auld Lang Syne after dinner (where Ian Dalziel corrected us all that it is pronounced like Sign, not Zine).

The crew had lots of fun partying in the bar (yes, that's what I want to hear about the people steering my wife's ship through ice-laden waters - Ed.), and we made breakfast an hour later to give them a little break.  At midnight (on the ship's time) I went up to the bridge to get our location.  We were at South 53 degrees and West 48 degrees.  A little less than halfway to South Georgia Island.  Happy New Year!!