Antarctically Yours...Letters From The Ice

Back to the 'Burbs

2005-07-23T14:50:00.000+04:00

I made it back in time for Christmas 1990. The SAAM flight went out without a hitch from King George Island. It's funny how I spent five years in the military and never flew on a military C-130 until I went down to Antarctica.

I got myself a job just after the Christmas holiday and started on January 28th, 1991. I am still homesick for Antarctica, but am resolved not to go back under the current company holding the contract. Besides, it is time to settle down into the real world and get a life.

To: Rich Skane (aka, Armando Stiletto)
Palmer Station, Antarctica
From: Dave Gallas, Naperville, IL
March 21, 1991

Hola Amigo!!
Here it is, already the 21st of March; skies blue, weather in the big city is fantastic and me stuck inside on the 24th floor, looking down at the wonderful south side of Chicago. Took a walk down to the lakefront at lunch to enjoy the weather and the water. I miss living near the water.

I'm catching on to the job fairly quick and really enjoy the people that I'm working with. The only sticking point is the solvency of the corporation at this point.

Don't know if Al told you anything about my new job, but I started at the end of January working for a company called Infotron. It is a wide area network company out of New Jersey. I worked with their equipment when I was at MCI before coming down to the Ice, so I had an "in" so to speak.

The biggest drag is probably driving into the city everyday from Naperville. If I get caught in rush hour traffic, it takes a minimum of 1-1/2 hours. Not anything like the ol’ Antarctic-roll-outta-bed-and-into-the-shop five minute commute.

As crazy as it sounds, I really enjoy working in the city. After Antarctica, it is a kind of fun to get lost in the thousands of people in the city. The hustle and bustle of the city is a lot of fun, but there is no way I could ever live down here---I'm just a suburbanite at heart. Take care and write back soon.

Suburbanly yours,
Dave

Chapter 21 - End of Season, End of Contract

2005-07-22T13:21:00.000+04:00

29 November 90

Long time no hear! Hope everything is going well for you. Al got a letter from “Risa” who gave us your current mailing address. She mentioned something or another about sand pouring out of the envelope. I guess that should leave no doubts as to your current location! From Antarctica to Kuwait; Antarctica had never looked so good as it does now, eh?

Got a letter from Marcia a couple of weeks ago. She has just moved to Utah and dropped me a marsgram right as she was on her way. I don't have an address right now, so I imagine that she is having the post office forward things. She found a job working with the postal system, so she sounds happy. I saw Pat Sullivan the day before I left to come back down. He's working back on the commodities market and somewhat happy. Have you heard from anyone else lately?

Alison is still sending letters to Palmer and keeping us up to date with her movements. In her latest letters, she took a cruise thru the Panama Canal and is spending time in South America again. She has or is starting up an import business in Alaska. She will be down in Punta during the time I head north, so I've got to contact her through an address she left and hopefully will run into her.

From Dave Gallas, Palmer Station Antarctica/NNNONPA AT
To Les, Peninsula Operations

Hello Les, 29 November 90

Bob advised me that in speaking with him today you had mentioned that there was an opening at South Pole for a Comms person. Can I have more information on the position and the time period this would cover? I have heard that they are short people now during the summer season and had sent a letter to Eric inquiring about positions, but Bob was saying that they are looking to fill a winter position.

If you could, send me more info that I may be able to consider the possibilities. Either way, there would be some things at home that I would have to take care of at home before a more solid decision could be made. Thanks much and I'll be in contact with you.

Sincerely,
Dave

From Dave Gallas, Palmer Station Antarctica/NNNONPA AT
To Eric, South Pole Antarctica

Eric, 01 December 90

Good to talk with you again. I wasn't sure whether you were still needing people or what positions may be open and figured that it was worth asking. I'm not sure how much information you want about what I'm presently doing here at Palmer, but I'll give you a rundown on some of the job.

I have worked communications positions at Palmer since October 1988. After my first winter-over, I took two weeks R&R on the Polar Duke, five days in Chile and came back down for the following summer season. I left in March of 1990, started back to school and then came back down to Palmer in October of this year for an interim period to fill in until the new Comms Tech arrives on the M/V Erebus on the seventh of December. I have been working with Al Oxton since November of 1988.

Processing the traffic here involves extracting files mailed to the LAN system or disk and loading them into a file to be sent to the VAX in Florida. Personal computers are used in all of the work areas here including our interface with the ATS-3 system. When I first arrived at Palmer, we were using Crosstalk or ProComm with Kermit to accomplish our daily exchanges with Malabar. I have seen the advent of Blast and have used it when manual commands were required. Since that time, Al has automated much of the Blast process with script files and macros.

Daily radio communications include the remote sites at Livingston Island and Lenny Station, King George Island, boating operations with the local field parties and with the R/V Polar Duke. Radio comms are maintained with aircraft in the area and with Marsh Base concerning aircraft schedules and weather information at their request. Comms at Palmer is responsible for performing the weather obs. Weather obs are passed three times daily with the British Antarctic Survey station at Faraday.

Telex, facsimile and Marisat private line are heavily used by the science community, tour ship companies and by ASA Denver.

If there is any other information you require, please don't hesitate to contact me by HF or by e-mail.

Sincerely,
Dave Gallas

03 December 90

Summer finally looks like it's on the way here. There is more snow now than any of the other two summers I can remember, but the weather is getting a little warmer now. It's snowing lightly now and the wind picked up some. The harbor was socked in again with ice for about a week. There were also a couple of large icebergs coming in close too, but they got snagged up on some low rocks and couldn't come in any closer. Station population is up to 38 now after two weeks of only 19 people. Next week the population will be up to 55 and they will have people sleeping in tents because there are only enough beds for 45. The Antarctic Delegation that met in Santiago is also coming down for a visit. That should be interesting, huh?

The Argentines have arrived in the harbor to dive on the wreck of the Bahia Paraiso. They timed it perfectly so that the Delegation will arrive and see them here doing "something" with the wreck. In reality, they haven't done squat to try to remove any part of it or investigate possibilities of recovery of any sort right from the beginning!! These political things are so much bunk.

I am really glad that I was able to come back down. I have learned a lot of new things and it is great to have a computer at my fingertips again. I have seen a lot of familiar faces too. I just hope the job market back home is better than when I left.

Sounds like things in the Gulf are at a standstill right now. The medical corpsman that was down here my first year and winter-over is now over there. He is sitting on a ship in the Gulf somewhere and waiting. I've got a letter started to him, but haven't mailed it yet. He sent Lisa, our old admin assistant a letter and it had sand in it, so we could pretty much guess where he was!

I hear now that Argentina has had yet another coupe attempt. And Bush is still insisting on going there. I used to keep contacts with a couple of people I knew/met from the Bahia Paraiso, but the mail system is so poor in Argentina that one scientist who writes her family still there said that only one of five letters make it through.

05 December 90

You can't believe how anxious I am to get back home. It will be great to spend Christmas at home again. The last time I had that luxury was three years ago! It is really important to spend the holidays with your friends and family. I keep thinking about how much I want to go through Clarendon Hills again on Christmas Eve and look at the luminaries that line the curvy streets of the south side of town and burn all night. It's really beautiful if you've never seen it. I'm also anxious to set up a real tree and pull out the tree decorations that I haven't used or seen for years. Bought a lot of them in Germany. I miss the smell of a real tree, especially since there aren't any around here.

Got a haircut last night and decided to shave my beard and mustache off. Deneb, one of the scientists here does a good job cutting hair, so I got a bit of a trim. Mike, the science tech has been singing "Baby face" to me ever since last night. He says I look too young without the beard. The only part I don't care for is having to shave every day or every other day.

Thanks for all of your letters that you sent. I received them all at once, but that was the first time we have received mail since I've been here. Tomorrow the Erebus comes in from Punta and will bring more freshies and mail, and lots of people. The guy that I'm filling in for is on that ship. So we are going to have a full house here real soon. They have to set up a tent to hold people due to the number of people scheduled in over the next two weeks! Glad I've got a room.

Another beautiful day today. The sun is shining, a few bits of glacier floating in the harbor and a nice breeze. The temp is at 31 degrees and I'm to leave to come home in less than 10 days. It is going so fast now. I wish my camera worked. I wanted to catch a few pictures of things here. Mike has volunteered his camera to me, so I'll catch a few pics over the weekend. Richie the carpenter has been helping me to build a base for that beer lamp I have. I knew the basic dimensions, so we built a wood base and I'll mount the lamp on it when I get home. Was going to seal it with poly, but I don't think I've enough time to do that now.

In one of your letters, you asked what I did here. My job title is Communications Technician. I work together with the Communications Coordinator to support the station communications requirements. That covers a wide range of communications systems. A typical day lately starts for me at 07:30 with a daily schedule with a field party on Livingston Island. There is a group of geologists on the island collecting rocks for study back in the States. Earlier this week, they had a guy in their group who was suffering from snow blindness. He didn't have sunglasses on and sunburned both his retinas. They spoke with the doctor here on station and the guy is ok now. It took a couple of days for his eyes to heal.

Today the Polar Duke came up after my Livingston Island schedule to clarify a question that was asked. One of the principal investigators (head of a science group) had a question about a message that was passed along from Livingston Island. Somewhere in between all of this, I did manage to eat breakfast. At 08:30, 14:30 and 23:30 I have to gather the numbers for the weather and pass them along to Faraday Station. Faraday is a British Antarctic Survey Station which gathers weather data from the peninsula region and passes it on the Marsh Base (Chilean) for flight operations, and onto Cambridge, England which in turn passes the info to the National Weather Service in Washington DC. Communications at Palmer is responsible for weather observations three times daily.

Projects to be done this morning include inventory update of the incoming stock (using DBase III), start researching the works of the linear amplifier used in the HAM shack. The Linear died last week, so the HAM operators/MARS operators would like to have it to run calls to the States. Mike will help me with that project since he has a better understanding of schematics than me.

We've got two boating parties out right now. They are required to carry handheld radios and check in at all of their locations. This helps us locate them if a storm rushes in, a boat floats off, engine problems, radio problems etc. The climate here oftentimes changes so quickly that a small error can be life-threatening if not corrected or noticed right away. Like two weeks ago when one of the scientists slept overnight on Torgerson. He is studying the penguins and is monitoring their returns from feedings. He didn't take proper food stocks and ended up stranded there for 12 hours longer than expected when the brash ice came in overnight and the weather took a turn for the worse. He and the guy he was with ended up opening the survival caches for food!

I'll start getting the outgoing traffic together for sending over the satellite in the afternoon around 16:00 or so. That requires going into the LAN (local area network) and retrieving messages stored and mailed from different computers on the station. Then assign numbers to the messages in order to send the messages in a batch form across the satellite later in the evening. At 17:00 comms with the home office in Denver over the ATS-3 to catch up on what the requirements are from above. Usually any facsimiles received arrive in the afternoon due to the three hour lag time from here to Denver.

Now that we are into the busy season, the evenings are spent up on the satellite and with daily comms schedules. 20:00: Sched with field party on King George Island. 20:30: Weather with Faraday, 21:00: Sched with R/V Polar Duke and for the next two weeks with the M/V Erebus and over the next few weeks a sched at 21:30 with a field party at Seal Island.

While all of this is going on, you hope that the mail is going without too much noise or other problems. The majority of the programs for sending and receiving mail are automated. The computer follows a program that tells it what to do. Much of the logging of messages received is also aided by the use of macro keys which cuts down on the number of keystrokes. Al and I usually split up the traffic handling so I'll do the loading one day and he does the receive (to include the printing/distribution). So I do get some spare time in between dinner and all the scheds. On the days I work out, I sometimes don't get into the gym until 9:30 or later. Last night I gave up the idea of going to the gym; I was just worn out.

We also do a number of other things to help out the local customers understand using the computers and the LAN system. I really enjoy the job here. It can be a challenge sometimes working and living on the same site, but after doing it for so long, I'm used to it. Can't beat the commuting time! I have also had the chance since coming back to pick up a lot of new knowledge about the computers and the LAN. Let's hope that I can use this knowledge to get a job soon after my return.

Guess I should close for now. Like I said to you over the phone, I will call from Punta Arenas and let you know of my return schedule. We have been having a long string of good weather; so maybe, just maybe the SAAM flights will go as scheduled. It would be nice to be home in time for the weekend. Take care and I'll be seeing you again soon.

Antarctically yours,
Dave

Chapter 20 - The Third and Last Austral Summer

2005-07-18T21:24:00.000+04:00

23 October 90

Still trying to find out whether my checks have been coming to the condo or not. It has been hard to get the company to give me any answers let alone checks. The wave of changes from the change of contractors is still rippling thru the system. It's too bad that it is the employees that bare the brunt of those changes. Delay the paychecks for some our boneheaded “support people” in Colorado and see how long they would stick around!

24 October 90

The weather is still a bit wintry yet, but summer is just around the corner. Right now, Arthur Harbor is iced in with brash. Lots of algae in the ice. We have also had a couple of good windstorms with gusts up to 70 knots. Today we're supposed to have a picnic on the glacier at lunch-time. So most of us will have the afternoon off. Al and I will still have a few things to do since most of our work gets done in the afternoon.

Last night was beautiful. The low clouds invaded most of the sky with the summer daylight peaking through behind the mountains leaving a silhouette of the mountains glowing in the night sky. No colors, just black, white and grays.

If you are going to be in transit anytime from the end of November until mid-December, telex me a note and let me know where you will be when. I am not sure of my departure date, but it is always a possibility that we could cross paths on my trip north. When do you leave to board the Illiria? Let me know what is going on with you. I'm only hoping this reaches you over the next month or so. You are almost as hard to keep track of as me!!

Well, almost time to make my 6 a.m. watch. So I'll close for now.

26 October 90

No excuses, but I am finally catching up on my letters. Last night we had a colorful sunset with the clouds being pulled in from all directions toward the sun. Above our heads was a group of altocumulus clouds that resembled a large open weave basket catching a reflection off the pink and orange sunset. The pink and orange in turn glowed off of the water in between the floating brash ice in the harbor.

I made sure to pick up some new music before I left the states. Depeche Mode - Violator and the B52's among them. I am crazy about both of them too. Also picked up Taylor Daynes newest while in Punta Arenas for ten days. So I listen to them when I'm in the gym or when I stop by the bar.

In spite of what one may think, a remote place does not have to be a social abyss! We have a bar and have been known to have dancing and parties here. At present there are only about a half dozen women on station with the station population at about thirty. Our resupply ship the Polar Duke will be stopping in to take a few people out around the middle of November and will return around the beginning of December with freshies (fresh fruits and veggies) and more people.

From Dave Gallas, Palmer Station Antarctica/NNNONPA AT
To Eric Siefka, South Pole Antarctica

Hello Eric,
04 November 90

I heard you up on 11553 speaking with Al Oxton earlier and it sounds like things are pretty busy at Pole these days. Why I'm writing is to ask if you still need a comms operator for the summer season. I am presently scheduled to leave Palmer around mid-December, but the comms person I have been filling in for should be on station upon the arrival of the charter vessel on December 7th. I realize that December is already a good part into the season, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm interested if you have any openings. If you have any questions, just shout, or drop a line.

Kris and Donna pass their greetings! Kris also thanks you for the relay of her sisters letters. Take care and we'll be listening for you.

08 November 90

I'm on late watch tonight, so I watched Dead Poets Society tonight. I haven't seen it before and really enjoyed it. Kind of a sad ending, but Robin Williams does a dramatic role well. So here I sit at 3:30 a.m. typing on the computer.

17 November 90

I have been wanting to write you sooner, but you know how things get around here. Things are going along alright here. A few minor probs, but overall having a great time, getting a great tan and enjoying the atmosphere (or lack of, depending on the ozone levels). George our ozone scientist from Assowoman, VA (no kidding, there is really such a place!) just left on the Polar Dock today, so I guess what we don't know now won't hurt us, right? Armando aka Richie Skane says hola, senior.

I can't believe that I'm already short. I am supposed to leave on the 15 December "charter vessel" up to PA, but we will see. If Al doesn't take his break in the beginning of Dec, I may try to convince the management that I would like to leave sooner. Too early to tell at this point. Got a letter from Marcia a couple of weeks ago. She has just moved to Utah and dropped me a marsgram right as she was on her way. I don't have an address right now, so I imagine that she is having the post office forward things. She found a job working with the postal system, so she sounds happy. Have you heard from anyone else lately?

I think winter is holding on a little harder this year than the other two austral summers that I've been down, but spring is coming soon. Things were melting nicely up till Friday night when we had another snowstorm. Only dropped about four inches, but enough to whiten up the rocks again. The harbor is all filled in with brash again, so the penguin scientists are stranded at Palmer again. Two people spent the night at Torgerson early in the week. There is an 8 man tent set up to observe the penguins and track their movements etc. So Mark, the scientist, and one of the GFA's stayed out there but didn't take proper provisions. After spending the night, they ended up stranded out there for the day when the winds picked up to 40 knots. Finally around 8 p.m. the winds came down and a boat went out to get them.

They ended up digging into the survival caches to eat. Old Army C-rats from 1967 are hardly what I’d consider fine dining. So we got all of the graphic details of their gourmet meal selections! They tried to convince us that they would take survival cache gourmet selections any day over the slop we eat in the galley (ya, right!). Our cooks are right up there with Dick's cooking, so put any thoughts of starvation out of your head. I have successfully gained back any weight I lost when I returned home.

Take care and see ya again soon.

17 November 90

Just thought I would drop a line to ya and let you know what's going on in my little corner of the world. Can't say that things have been great, but I still enjoy the job and the location. The weather is getting warmer, but not fast enough. We have been having a few nice days. Had a nice little snowstorm on Friday that dropped about four inches, and winds with steady 40-50 knot winds. The bad part was that the ship was in and they were trying to offload cargo and scientists. Seems like the Polar Duke always brings in the bad weather with them!

I'm here for another four weeks and counting. It feels harder being away this time. The short contract has made me anxious for the days to pass.

Right now there are bergs off in the distance and the harbor is full of brash ice. The penguins have returned and have already started to lay their eggs. Maybe I'll be around long enough to see a few hatch, but the ship schedule is still up in the air. As it stands now, I should be home around the 21st of December.

21 November 90

Dear Hans,
It was great to receive your letter. Things here have been a little too serious lately and my mood has been down in the dumps. Your letter made my day.

The job here at Palmer is going great. The only problem the most of us are having is with little Napoleon our local dictator. He has been difficult to live with, great at micromanaging, bad at personal relations with the troops and is leader of the local moral minority in his attempts to "clean up" the smut on station. I am glad that I have a short contract. At least when you have a job in the States you can leave the a**h*l*s behind when you go home. You don't have to see or talk to them if you don't want to.

Too bad that you and I won't cross paths. It would be great to just sit down in a relaxed atmosphere and catch up on what is going on with one another. We have both done so much traveling and moving around in the past six months. I know your feelings exactly about not being able to stay put in one place too long. I am going to try this time to seriously settle down when I get back again.

Were you able to get all of your plant samples and souvenirs back to Holland without problems? Even though I left Punta Chimino with an almost empty suitcase, I picked up more than enough to fill it in Antigua. If you ever get out to visit me in the U.S., you will see the rug I bought in my dining room on the wall, and the wool bedspread on my bed. Those alone took up almost the whole suitcase!! It was almost a crime not to buy more for the price. I also bought and had framed two of the rubbings which were impressions from some of the stelea in Tikal. They are hanging in my living room and look great.

I really enjoyed my stay in Guatemala too, thanks to you. Your ability to speak Spanish gave me the opportunity to experience the backwoods part of the journey that I would have been apprehensive to try on my own.

I'm sorry that you had such a bad time with Aurora (John's girlfriend in Punta Chimino). She was always kind of two-faced about everything. At least you were able to see through her and still enjoy the overall experience. I did send a box of things that John had asked for, but they were never picked up in the post office in Mexico City and were returned to me about two months later. Oh well, I'll just send him a letter and explain that to him. It probably won't be anything new to him.

So when you get back on the Illiria, say hello to Darrel, and all the others for me. Your friend, Dave

27 November 90

Looks like Al is going to take a quick break before I leave. He will go up to King George Island on the ship M/V Erebus and come back down the next day or so after the SAAM flight with the dignitaries coming down. At least he is taking a couple of day break--he deserves it. So I'll be here to start training the new guy when he arrives.

The weather is cool and overcast today. The harbor is still socked in with ice. Temps have been staying around 25-34 degrees the past week or so. I read that your temps have been unseasonably warm. And here I thought that I would be all acclimated for the cold weather when I came back!

The ship sched is pretty precarious at this point. The office always plans for the SAAM flights to go without a hitch, but it is more realistic to expect them to be a little late. A lot depends on the weather in Punta as well as the weather on King George. Since I am scheduled to come home after the ships return from King George second SAAM, my return could slip a day. Like I said to you before, this is the Antarctic and nothing is ever to be expected to go as planned.

As it goes now, I should be in Chicago on the 21st of December. If that slips back a day, I'll be home on the 22nd. I'll give you a call from Punta Arenas so you will know when I'm arriving. With the Christmas holiday so near to my return, I will be coming directly home. It will probably be difficult to get flights anyway, but even more difficult due to the uncertainty of the return sched. Reservations will be made for return on the 21st and the rest will be left to fate.

Chapter 19 - "Tin Roof...Rusted!"

2005-07-15T04:40:00.000+04:00

12 October 90

WOOFF!! Howdy Commander! I finally have two reasons to write. I just ended up back home at Palmer. Nothing permanent, just a 2.5 month stint until mid-December (scheduled return on the SAAM flight--ya, right). It's nice to be back, and I think Al is enjoying having me around too.

I ran into Matt, Andy, Lisa and Beav in Punta Arenas. They had just come back from Torres del Paine and we got stuck in P.A. for almost two weeks. I was hoping to see at least Matt and Lisa before they left and at first was disappointed when I heard that they had already left. I also had the chance to spend time with a Chilean Air Traffic Controller who is now at Punta that was at Marsh during my winter-over, when I was stranded in Punta Arenas for ten days.

The main reason that the ship was stuck in port at P.A. was that the Duke's Inmarsat system bit the big one. The ship couldn't leave port until they had a functional satellite phone system. The new system sent from England was sent through Sao Paulo and the Brazilians were on strike. Once in Santiago, the new dome wouldn't fit into any of the planes. Then a U.S. military C5 military plane had to fly from the U.S. down to Santiago in order to bring it down to P.A. Then the installers who came down to P.A. from Val Paraiso couldn't read English, so the Duke ET and electrician did a lot of the install work.

Just talking with Al. He says that he didn't get your package. It was supposed to come in on this ship. As usual, Port Who-Needs-Me (Port Hueneme, CA) managed to lose that along with the exabite modem for T-five (aren't we surprised?!) If you need something sent down, better to hand carry it or toss it off the pier yourself. At least then you know what happened to it and you know then why it didn't arrive.

I won't be overly optimistic about things, but things are going along fair to midland. Some of the struggles with management around here now remind me of my first season down--Shield-esk in a way! Nothing that hasn't been dealt with so far. Us O.A.E.'s are looking forward to the ship coming down at the end of November. Guess you're coming down along with Bill Fraser, Debi and Craig (now married) among others.

Just to forewarn you; under the new contract, you are given a per diem to cover your food and lodging. They don't cover the lodging as before. Mario will make arrangements at the Savoy in Punta Arenas. If you or Bill want arrangements somewhere else, say something ahead of time to Jimmy upon your arrival in Santiago. The Savoy is running around 5500 Pesos per night. Condor del Platta is running 7500 per night and Los Navigantes is 17500 per night.

Nothing else too earth shattering happening here. We have been having snow and a lot of wind. Temps are ranging from about 25-32 F. I'll close for now, but drop a line if you can and let us know how things are going. Looking forward to seeing you again. Take care and have a good trip down.

13 October 90

There wasn't anything more to say over the phone so I didn't call again. The ship didn't leave Punta Arenas until the 4th of October. It was very frustrating to be sitting in port and not know when we were actually going to leave. We arrived at Palmer on the afternoon of the 8th. It ended up a little longer because we had to drop two people off on King George Island. They have a hut near the Polish Station at Arktowski in Admiralty Bay where they study mostly gentoo penguins.

So we helped them dig out to get into their shack, bring supplies from the ship to the zodiac to the beach to the shack and also helped them set things up. Got the radio running again and ran a radio check with Al who is back at Palmer. There was quite a bit of sea ice on the way down. It was surprising after the winter I spent here. We had no sea ice my winter. So it slowed us down a bit having to break thru ice. It really makes a racket inside the ship.

The other bad part was (and still is) not knowing about pay status. I am glad that I am only with this company for a couple of months. They are really taking everyone here for a ride! No need to worry about me wanting to come back again the way ASA has handled me this time around. I love the Antarctic, but the lack of support from the home office and the other hassles just don't make it worth my while to come back.

I am number one on the managers hate list. I made my feelings known that I didn't like what the company has done with us, concerning paychecks and pay start dates. I also told him that I wasn't a charity and if I wasn't getting paid, I wouldn't stay. It's like you have to twist arms to get what is due to you in this company. I realize that it is a new contract and all, but we need support from the home office and all we have gotten is lip service. I thought Paramus was bad until I see how these guys are "supporting us". I'm glad mine is a short contract!

As far as my pay goes, all I can do is hope that things work out. The most serious problem seems to be pay and when it started. This company works things differently. They don't start pay until after the Duke pulls out of port. So basically, I was stranded in PA for ten days without pay!! I realize that I didn't come down solely for the pay, but that is no reason to shove it down my throat. I know that you are keeping up with putting the right checks in the right envelopes to pay my bills. I just hope the money is going into the bank to cover the checks!!

I am sure at this point that if there were a ship out next week, I would be on it. But, I'll see this mess through since the next ship doesn't leave until the second week in November. At that point, I may as well stay on to get the $75/week bonus, plus it is only another four weeks by then. I am more homesick than I expected and now realize too, that my whole life has changed a lot in just the last six months while I was back at home.

I started this morning to go through all the addresses and resume stuff. December isn't that far off, and I want to have everything ready to print and send out once I get back.

It took me a few days to acclimate myself to the cold, but you can bet that I'll be ready for the Chicago winter once I get back. We came in earlier than usual this year, so winter still seems to be holding on here. We are getting some melt, but still snowstorms and the usual winter windstorms.

The weather here has been cold and stormy. As usual, a couple of feet of snow is still on the ground. We have been having regular wind storms with gusts the first night we were here of up to sixty knots. The whole building shakes under those winds--it's a strange feeling again.

16 October 90

How the heck are ya?! I just got your letter postmarked June and I wanted to write back to you. It might have been longer had I not returned back down to Palmer to pick it up! I finally left Palmer in March after spending two contracts back to back down here for a total of 18 months. When I left in March, I didn't expect to come back down again. I had all intentions of going back to school, selling the condo and living happily ever after or some BS like that. But the way things didn't work out this last summer, I'm back down here for a few months.

So I'll be hitting the pavement at the end of December for a job again.

Winter is still holding on, but summer is just around the corner. The penguins are coming back slowly and have already started to pair up at King George Island from what the ornithologists up there say. We keep weekly scheds with a science group about five hundred miles north among others.

18 October 90

It is nice to be part of the working majority once again, but I am already thinking about my return trip home. No word yet on what date I’ll depart here since the schedule is still a mess from our unscheduled stay in Punta.

Al has made it clear that he is not going to go up to Punta for any amount of time. With the new guy coming in on the end of November ship, Al will want to train him his own way. So I don't think there will be much reason for me to stay as late as they had originally planned, but that would only move my return time up by about a week. I'll let you know, but with so much depending on weather, I probably can't give you a firm return date until I'm actually in Punta Arenas, as crazy as that sounds.

I have been keeping myself out of trouble. I have started back to working out and yesterday did a walk up to the top of the glacier at lunch. This is a fairly quiet group overall. A group went over to Old Palmer today and did some skiing on the new snow. I wanted to go over to OP, but there are other things to concentrate on here. Also could have gone out to Torgerson Island with the penguin scientists, but I turned that down too.

We stopped on Torgerson on Sunday and the penguins are just now starting to arrive. So there isn't too much going on there at present. They won't start laying eggs until late December or so, and I'll be home by that time. The best part of the season is when the eggs are laid and the chicks start hatching.

19 October 90

So many things were happening yesterday, that I was exhausted by the days end. A Twin Otter plane flying from Marsh Base to Rothera was flying over and was going to drop some mail to the station on a fly-by. He chose his drop site and when he released the package, it got sucked up into the starboard side propeller requiring him to emergency land the plane.

You could actually hear the bag get sucked in and the muffled sound from the propeller as it sputtered and coughed before they were forced to land on the glacier behind the station. Two of the blades were seriously damaged. One had a 1-1/2 inch chunk out of it and was bent and another was badly bent on the tip.

After calls up to Calgary, Canada, they were instructed to cut off four inches off each blade (three blades to each motor) of the starboard side. This would reduce the vibration and not cause any further damage, and allow them to take off without requiring an airdrop of the new parts. They finished that this morning and took off just before noon. It was pretty exciting in retrospect. Fortunately, most of the damaged mail was Philatelic mail. Not everything in the mail bag was shredded.

Yesterday and today were beautiful days. The water was so still, you could see the reflection of the glaciers in the harbor. The sky was clear and blue and the sun was shining brightly. Then out of nowhere, the barometer dropped like a rock in the late afternoon and the clouds started to come in. All total we had about three inches of fresh snow that stopped about 9 a.m. this morning. We weren't sure if the weather was going to clear enough for the Twin otter to get out, but it only took about two hours for everything to clear. By about four pm the sky had clouded up again. Good thing they got out while they had the chance.

I didn't get to see the plane take off up on the glacier, but I did run out and watch it from the pier as it taxied down and took off. It is quite a site with the white trail of snow and ice crystals it leaves behind in its wake. They really don't need all that much of a runway to take off either. We stayed in contact with them by radio until they landed on Marsh Base about one hour and 50 min after leaving here. The whole incident reminded me of the winter Twin Otter visits we had on my winter over. Al says that the whole thing was the most exciting thing that has happened since the Bahia went down!

Not too much else happening here...one event a week is about all we can handle.

20 October 90

Yes, I am back. I don't know what came over me, but I think I stepped into a time-warp and ended up back at Palmer during the Nazi era. We have a meeting this afternoon to brush up on our goose-stepping. Well, ok, it isn't that bad, but it sure isn't life as we knew it last summer!

A lot of the people down here now have been down to the ice before…but not the manager! If they’d just let us do our jobs and leave us be, everyone would be happy. All kinds of new rules, and generally a green attitude about everything including managing people.

There is a big group from the McMurdo side and the admin assistant Donna, just got out of South Pole in May and was back down here the end of August! She and I rock out to B52’s every morning now. It started out one hung-over Sunday morning when I’d put on Cosmic Thing. Next thing you know, Donna’s screaming over from her office, “Tin roof…rusted!” and dancing over to the Comms Shack from her office across the hall. It’s our own little dance party at 8:30 in the am! This seems to be our one thing to look forward to in the morning before the black cloud rolls out of bed to lock himself in the manager’s office at around 10 am.

I did see Pat Sullivan the night before I left to come down here. I have written to Dennis, but he didn't write back and now I hear that he is in the Gulf. I called up Robin and speak with him right before his break up with his wife, but I haven't had any chance to speak with him since. If you can, give me his phone number if it has changed. Richie is back down as expected and says hi. Even he has had his second thoughts about coming back with this new contractor.

Al said that you were writing him regularly and that you were doing well. Drop a line soon and I'll keep in touch.

Chapter 18 - Twisted Trail Back Home

2005-07-12T13:01:00.000+04:00

From:
Dave Gallas
Naperville, Illinois

To:
Dave Mobley, Rich Skane, Lisa (la Buge) Crockett
Palmer Station Antarctica

Dear Dave, Rich and Lisa, 28 April 90

Sorry that it took me so long to finally write this letter. It seems like only yesterday since I left Palmer. The trips to Easter Island and Guatemala were nothing less than phenomenal. Easter Island was hot and humid after spending how much time down there! It was beautiful and like a dream--kind of rustic, but exactly how you would picture the South Seas. Rob Robbins and his wife Sandra and I found a nice residential to stay in.

We rented a driver who was the brother-in-law of the owner of the residential and went all over the island. It was great seeing all of the sites that I had earlier read about in the book. I think we saw every stone head carved on the island, every volcano and then some! On the second day, we got up to Anakena Beach on the north side of the island. What a beautiful beach. Almost no people and a white sand beach sloping gently out to the ocean. It was a good feeling to get out in the sun again and fry my skin some!

As mentioned in the book, the islanders are known for their carvings. One of the mornings, I went off to the small market where the locals display all of their wares and found a beautiful carved statue of a moai kava kava. I found the one that I liked best, but then I discovered that he had been dropped on his head and had a huge dent in it. I saw no other carvings that were carved in as much detail. I really wanted that particular statue, so I asked if the woman would take less money for him because of the dent in his head. She said, “Oh, I can have my husband fix that if you’ll come back tomorrow.”

Well, I wasn’t worried about the money that much and really liked the detail on that particular carving, so what the heck. I went back the next day to pick him up and did I have a surprise. At no extra charge, her husband had sanded and recarved in even more detail the carvings on top of the head of this statue. He was even more beautiful than he had been originally. Although history and such of this statue is kind of creepy I really loved it. I say creepy because as their history explains it, he is one of the wandering spirits. After reading the book, this guy was what I remembered and a part of my Easter Island adventure that I wanted to take back with me. While I was already shopping, I also picked up some desktop size volcanic stone moai complete with reddish colored volcanic stone “top knots.” Everyone should have at least a couple of those around the house!

Rob and Sandra were going to spend an extra couple of days to camp out at the eucalyptus grove in front of Anakena Beach. Not being the camping type, I only spent five days there and one day was lost due to rain. We had a downpour that lasted about 18 hours and turned the "streets" or dirt roads into rivers. After it was all over, the plows came and evened the surfaces out again.

I hear that Richie is planning to go there too. If you have the time, it is worth every cent. Easter Island is still so untouched by commercialism and really is a beautiful place. The people are very welcoming and gracious. Make sure to read Aku Aku by Thor Heyerdahl before you go, as it will give you more of an idea about the history, the people and the significance of what you are seeing on the island.

The night before I left, our host at the residential also had a going away dinner for us. He prepared for us some of the freshest tuna steaks around. The fishermen had just hauled them in in the morning and he marinated them in lime juice until they were put on the grill for dinner at 6pm. I have never had such fresh fish. The meat had no fishy flavor or smell and just melted in your mouth.

My stopover in Ft. Lauderdale between Easter Island and Guatemala was very relaxing. I packed up any souvenirs and cold weather stuff and sent it home UPS. Then I spent the rest of the day out at the pool. It was fun to drive again too after not being behind the wheel after 17 months (madman behind the wheel!). Not too much culture shock for me. I fell right back into the pace with few problems. The next day I headed off from Florida to Guatemala.

I thought that the trip to Easter Island would be tough to match, but I was wrong. Guatemala was the best part of all of my travels and proved to be as interesting and as fun as the trip to Easter Island. I don't know if you remember, but I decided to visit Hans, one of the guys on the Illiria who was doing botanical studies on a resort in the northern Peten’ region of Guatemala.

As planned, I made my flight to Guatemala City, stayed the night, then the next morning at 7 a.m. caught the flight to Flores. As Hans said in his telex to me before I left, he met me at the airport in Flores. Thank someone for that--can you imagine the Gringo perdido in Guatemala with only a Spanish/English dictionary?!

Oddly enough, his boss John was also on that flight. From the airport, the three of us headed off to San Benito to run errands and do the shopping for the resort that needed to be done. From there we had a couple of beers and brunch around 10:30 a.m. Sounds a bit early for beer, but with the temps at 90 and the humidity at 95%, they went down easily.

From San Benito, we headed out to Sayaxche (pronounced Say ah shay’) in a Range Rover on roads that looked like our unpaved road up to the T-5 shack at Palmer. That is what they consider a major road. It was basically just a logging road and we passed plenty of trucks loaded with timber as we made our way out to Sayaxche. From what John was saying, only paved road in the Peten’ is the 60 kilometers up to Tikal because of the tourism…that one and the main street in San Benito which happens to be the red light district!

So after 60 kilometers of off-roading through the forest on these logging highways, we pull up to the bank of this river and see a little village on the other side. Across the river is a pontoon which will bring the vehicle and us to the other side. I’m thinking to myself, “Great, we’re finally there!” Boy was I wrong. We were in Sayaxche, but nowhere near to the resort yet.

Hans tells me that John is looking for our canoe driver who will take us 50 minutes up a branch of the Rio Passion from where we are now to the resort. John comes back in a few minutes and has found our guide. So we transfer all the supplies and our gear into a dugout canoe with a 45 horse Johnson outboard motor and up the Rio Passion we head. FYI: If you go the other way, you would be in southern Mexico. The locals use this route to smuggle diesel and other supplies this way from Mexico when the roads are closed off by the guerrillas and supply lines are cut. The birds, turtles and wildlife on the river and all the surrounding jungle are beyond words! The jungle was so green and lush; quite the contrast from Palmer.

We finally got to this little clearing at the end of the river and it opens up to a lagoon or lake of Petex Batun about two miles wide by at least six miles long. We traveled into the lagoon for about ten minutes and then off on the right hand side you could see the smoke from the chimney in the open kitchen pouring into the air from the lakes edge. Now we’re there. Where exactly I have no idea; but we’re there. John’s resort sits on a peninsula called Punta Chimino that juts out into the lagoon. The peninsula was at one time actually dug out to form an island by the Maya. During rainy season the resort is cut off from the mainland and is an island.

John said that one of his main problems has been that wherever he would dig to put posts for buildings, they would end up digging up grinding stones, pottery shards etc. The main temple on the resort has been gone over by thieves a number of times. They nicknamed the mound Temple of the Seven Holes due to the seven holes bored into it by thieves. So before any further excavating is done, they have to call in the Department of Antiquities to get the okay to go any further. Makes for a slow process if you’re building a resort, wouldn’t you say?

Hans and I shared his bungalow which was about a quarter of a mile walk from the main reception buildings. All the bungalows stood on stilts painted with creosote to keep the ants and bugs from crawling into the bungalows. The actual bungalow was constructed so that the bottom half of the walls were wood and the upper halves were screens with the typical palm branch roof. We had electric ceiling fans too (when we had power) to keep a breeze flowing through the bungalow. It was great.

The one night did give me a good scare. I woke up in the middle of the night and had to take a leak real bad. So I quietly get up trying not to wake Hans and go outside to take a leak. Just as I step out the door of the bungalow, about three howler monkeys start screaming and screeching like they are going to jump down from the trees and rip me apart limb from limb! About all I could think about then was getting the heck back in the bungalow and worry about taking a leak once day broke! Hans and John got a great laugh at me the next morning when I told my story. They then proceeded to tell me that these monkeys are only about 2-1/2 feet tall and actually kind of cute. Okay, I’m such a city-boy wimp!

The only plumbing that the resort had was in the shower area and main facilities near the kitchen. We had bottled water for drinking while showers and cooking were normally done with the lake water pumped up to a storage tank up a nearby tree. The water pressure wasn’t too bad! The bathroom/shower area was a rustic shed on a concrete pad about 8 X 8 feet. Sticks were tied together for four walls, which you could see through and an open roof. The hose for the shower was gravity operated. Turn the handle and water showers out on you.

A drain in the floor took the water back out to the lagoon. On the other side of the shower is a toilet mounted on the concrete pad. I’m not thinking there was a septic tank, so I don’t want to know where the rest was going! Better than sitting my hind-end over a log! Primitive but effective. I was never the camping type person, but quickly learned to appreciate the comforts we had. Living in the jungle even with some of the amenities of home was interesting.

During the days I read, listened to music, swam, tried my skill at a dugout canoe (which entertained the locals immensely as I tried to maintain my balance on this shallow dugout) and gave Hans a hand where I could. The one day that I helped Hans, he went out and climbed a rubber tree to the canopy area some thirty feet above, to gather canopy flowers and leaves for his collection. He put these spikes on his shoes and as soon as he dug into the tree trunk with them, a white rubbery fluid bled out of the tree. Later he was telling me that this is the type of rubber that the Mayans would use to make balls for their games.

The weather was hot and humid the whole time and just walking a short distance would leave me drenched from head to toe. The only time my clothes would dry out is when I hung them in the sun on the clothesline in the main reception area (where the future main restaurant and reception building is to be built).

As I expected, the mosquitoes loved me! I was bit up all over even though I was practically bathing in Cutter repellant. Somehow they find the parts that aren't saturated and chew you up alive. I'm still taking malaria pills now. I have to continue to take them for I think six weeks after leaving. I'll be glad when I take the last one, they really rip me up inside.

During my stay there, we made two excursions out to archeological digs. Our first trip was out to the site at Dos Pilas. This site is just shifting into high gear and the Vanderbilt people and the hired natives were digging in many parts of the site. They just uncovered a stairway up to a temple that was beautifully preserved. National Geographic was to come within the next week to photograph it. I did take a few slides of it myself that turned out well.

Our next trip was down to Aguatecha. Aguatecha is located only about 20 minutes (by canoe) at the other end of Petex Batun on our lagoon and is not an active dig. It was worked on in the late 60's. After that it had been put under the park system to be watched and guarded from thieves. If you look at the National Geographic that was just out about Guatemala, you can see on the inserted map where I was. It is on the lagoon between Aguatecha and Dos Pilas.

I have another rather funny story too. The first night out after I arrived, John, Aurora, Hans and I were all sitting out on the screened porch of John and Aurora’s bungalow just talking. Out in the distance across the lagoon, I heard thunder and saw flashes of lightening. I said to John, “Looks like we may have rain coming tonight.” To which he responded, “That wasn’t thunder and lightening; that was the government troops firing on and flushing out the rebels.”

Ok, so I’m a naive gringo. He did add that we didn’t have anything to worry about since it was at least five miles away across the lagoon. Phew! I guess flushing out rebels is kind of like spraying for mosquitoes around here.

The rebel movements did actually impact us some. John was working on conserving diesel fuel. Hans commented that since the week before, John had been cutting off the generator to the resort at about 10pm every night to conserve fuel. The rebels had hijacked a fuel truck bringing fuel into the region, but John had been successful at obtaining black market fuel that had been run upriver from Sayaxche down from Mexico.

I spent a total of nine days at Punta Chimino. For my last three days in the Peten’, Hans and I went up to see the better known ruins Mayan ruins at Tikal (pronounced Tee cahl’). The best way to describe Tikal is like the New York or Los Angeles of the Mayan world. The temples and buildings are beyond description. Hans had been there before, so he showed me his favorite temples the first day. We climbed up three of the five big temples and watched the full moon rise from temple two. The night we went up to see the moon rise, we forgot a flashlight and ended up going the long way around to get back. What a sight!

Hans’ favorite temple was the less-often climbed Temple Three. With all the tree roots at the base and a few of the steps broken up, this temple tended not to be the favorite of too many people…but Hans. When we finally got to the top, it was as beautiful as he had described. While I’m looking around, Hans then digs his hand into his crotch and pulls out a joint! I had no idea. Now I know why he was sweating so profusely two days ago when we were stopped by the Federales checking our passports. He told me that if he would have been caught with that, it would not have been pretty.

Our three days in Tikal were too quick. On the third day we headed back to Santa Elena. Hans caught a bus from San Benito and I caught my plane for Guatemala City that afternoon. The following day I went out to Antigua, the former capital of Guatemala. The town was quaint and has some beautiful architecture. Churches and building that were destroyed from the numerous earthquakes are still left too. I did get in some jade shopping for my mother there too. The quality of jade is supposed to equal that of the Chinese and is at a good price too.

I also unexpectedly ended up buying a wool rug, although that was never my intention. I saw this guy walking around with rugs on his back, and he had spread one out for someone and I liked it. When he saw that I was interested and the other guy declined his sales pitches, he spread it out again and talked himself down from $35 to $25. I had to buy it to keep the guy from talking himself down any further. I figured that even if I didn't keep it, the price was too good to pass up.

Then came the rough part--coming home. I spent the last night in Guatemala City staring at the ceiling in the hotel room; wondering what I was really going back to in Chicago. All in all, the adventures north were worth the 18 months away from society. I had a blast and would love to do it again if I have the money sometime. I would recommend Guatemala to anyone who can get over the jitters of the guerrillas. At least Easter Island was mellow. Now I am realizing that I will have to settle into a more mundane lifestyle, but with my gypsy blood I don't know how long I will stay sane staying at home!

Well, it is too late to call this a long letter, so I guess I'll close this mini-novel for now. Sorry Lisa, I don't drink Campari, but have a Ritamarga for me--the glass is optional as long as you have a good ladle for taste-testing!! Viva la Buge! Please say hello to all the winter-overs and hope all is going well there. Give me a call on the ham radio or over ATS-3 sometime, I'll accept the charges.

Hope to hear from you soon,
Dave

Chapter 17 - Travel Arrangements

2005-07-11T08:38:00.000+04:00

Here is my Telex to our agents at Agunsa in Santiago for my travel arrangements. Telex is quite an interesting beast to operate.

TLX
TO AGUNSA SANTIAGO CHILE
FM PALMER STATION ANTARCTICA
BT
ATTN: ORIANA CORTEZ
SUBJ: TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS

DEAR ORIANA,
THANK YOU FOR THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN YOUR TELEX DTD 02-20-90. IRT MY OPEN TICKET FROM SCL/MIA, THE TICKET WILL BE REQUESTED AT THE END OF THIS WEEK THROUGH COMAPA IN PUNTA ARENAS. IT WILL BE A LAN CHILE OPEN TICKET. IF YOU REQUIRE ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING MY TICKETS, YOU MAY CONTACT SR. MARIO GALLARDO, THE ITT REPRESENTATIVE AT COMAPA IN PUNTA ARENAS. HE WILL BE HOLDING MY TICKET FOR MY ARRIVAL IN PUNTA ARENAS ON THE 17TH OF MARCH.

AT THIS POINT, I KNOW THAT I WOULD LIKE THE FOLLOWING RESERVATION GOING TO EASTER ISLAND.

21 MAR SCL/IPC (Santiago-Easter Island) LA 405 1755-1435
26 MAR IPC/SCL (Easter Island-Santiago) LA 034 0940-1610

THE ONLY OTHER PROBLEM I MAY FORESEE AT THIS TIME IS IF THE ARRIVAL OF THE SAAM FLIGHT (AMERICAN C-130) FROM MARSH BASE, KING GEORGE ISLAND TO PUNTA ARENAS IS DELAYED LATER THAN THE 19TH OF MARCH.

CONCERNING THE TRIP FROM SANTIAGO TO GUATEMALA CITY:

AS I UNDERSTAND IT, THE TICKET PRICE YOU GAVE OF USD 320.- IS FOR ROUND TRIP FARE, BUSINESS CLASS ON THE DATES BELOW. PLEASE CONFIRM THAT THIS FARE IS FOR A ROUND TRIP TICKET MIA/GUA-GUA/MIA. IF IT IS, PLEASE MAKE RESERVATIONS AS WRITTEN BELOW. I WILL SPEND THE NIGHT OF MARCH 27 IN MIAMI AND CONTINUE ON TO GUATEMALA ON THE 28TH OF MARCH.

26 MAR SCL/MIA (Santiago-Miami) LA 140 2200-0555 (ARRIVE 27 MAR)
28 MAR MIA/GUA (Miami-Guatemala City) PA 405 1755-1935
29 MAR GUA/FRS (Guatemala City-Flores) WILL PURCHASE TICKET UPON ARRIVAL
10 APR FRS/GUA (Flores-Guatemala City) WILL PURCHASE TICKET UPON ARRIVAL
11 APR GUA/MIA (Guatemala City-Miami) PA 404 0703-1100
11 APR MIA/ORD (Miami-Chicago O'Hare) FLY WITH OPEN TICKET I HAVE

PLEASE SAY HELLO TO JIMMY AND THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR ASSISTANCE. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU AGAIN SOON.

BT

NNNN

24 February 90

Well, today is our last tour ship visit, so I am going to send this one via regular mail. Don't know when the next time we will have any chance to send more mail.

You were asking about my itinerary once I leave Palmer. I thought I had given it to you, but it must have been in a letter I wrote to Mom. Oh well, here it is--as permanent as a schedule can be at this point!

Leave Palmer on the 16th of March via R/V Polar Duke enroute to Marsh Base (Chilean) on King George Island. Fly out of Marsh on the 17th of March on an American C-130. Now, given the odds of any C-130 flying out of Marsh on time, I don't know when I will arrive in P.A. If we are on time, I will arrive in Punta Arenas on the 17th. Fly out of P.A. on the 18th up to Puerto Montt. Spend a couple of days in Puerto Montt to finish some shopping, and then fly up to Santiago on the 20th. This will give me that evening and the next morning to make my lapis purchases at the jewelry shops in Santiago.

On the evening of the 21st, fly out to Easter Island. I will be flying out at the same time as another ANS guy. His wife is meeting him in Santiago. I leave to go to Santiago on the 26th and continue onto Miami arriving on the morning of the 27th. I am going to rest up after an overnight flight in Ft. Lauderdale and take off for Guatemala City from Miami on the afternoon of the 28th.

On the 29th fly up to Flores in northern Guatemala and then catch a bus that afternoon to Sayaxche. Hans is working on an island off the town of Sayaxche, so I will have to catch a canoe out to the hotel there. On the 10th of April I will leave Flores and fly to Guatemala City. On the 11th I will fly out of Guatemala City for Miami, then up to Chicago. I thought I had given you all that info, but I have written so many letters over the past couple of months that I don't remember anymore who knows what!

I'm glad that you and Dee dug into some of my stuff. I feel like I've lived in a vacuum over the past 1-1/2 years when I speak with you at home. At least now after watching the video tapes about what everything looks like and all. If you have a viewer, you could probably sit down with the slides and feed them thru the viewer. Don't mix them up too much though, I have them in chronological order right now. It will take some sorting out before I get them together into some kind of a slide show. I will also take a bunch to have pictures made for a photo album. I don't know anymore how many slides I've sent back, but I hope they look as good as the ones you saw in my boxes.

01 March 90

Things here are starting to wind down now for me. I leave here on the 15th. I can't believe that the time has gone by so fast. I will really miss so much here, but I think it is time to get back to real life again! But I won't be directly home, as I am planning to travel some on the trip north.
The weather here is starting to get a little cooler. We hit -1.1 C yesterday morning for the first time since December. Had some snow flurries last night too. Guess fall is almost here. The Adelie penguins have for the most part left as have most of the Elephant seals. Fur seals have already started to show up too. We still have had some beautiful days this last month. Hit 8.3 C and the glacier is still calving all the time. Got rumbled out of bed this morning at 6:30 when a side of the glacier gave way. It will be nice to leave, but I will miss the area.

02 March 90

I'm glad that you watched the video with all the clips from the station and activities and people. I forgot that it was in that box. Hope it wasn't too boring for you! When you said what you did about so many women on station; that was during the middle of winter when the scientists were on station. They were all gone by the beginning of August. I suppose the tape gives you a better idea of how things were down here and how we are. Pictures don't always do justice to things--including the crazy times.

I have a lot of reserved feelings about coming back home, more than I had thought. After being away for so long, all these ideas start racing through my head. "What if... what if... what if". I'll just have to sort things out once I get home.

The Erebus comes in tomorrow morning from P.A. Hope I have some mail on it. I don't expect it since I have told most to not write here anymore. I sense a party in the air since this is the last night before the big-wigs get here tomorrow. We'll see....

10 March 90

Things are winding down here and I am outta here on Thursday morning already. So I thought I would pound out one more messages to you from here before I go. The winter-over Comms Coordinator is out on a jaunt south for a little R&R, so I will be in the radio room pretty often over the next four days. It's nice to feel needed sometimes, even if it is close to my departure date. Getting a little jittery about going back to the world, but I'll take it as it comes.

The new contractor has had two people here over the past week interviewing people and getting a feel for Palmer in general. Speaking with them has kinda sparked my interest in thinking about coming back. Guess I'll wait until I get back home and have time to consider my options and life more.

Summer here seems to be at a close already. The winter weather has been quickly closing in on us. We have been having a lot of crumby weather--snow and wind, etc, but nothing I haven't dealt before! Actually, I kind of like the most of the weather here since it doesn't include biting insects! That is among the things I haven't missed. Going to Guatemala is probably the worst way to get adjusted to bugs and insects again!

Most of the penguins have already headed north as have the elephant seals. The fur seals have come back over the last month. Soon the skuas and gulls will be gone too. Don't expect too many more whale sightings this late in the season either.

Chapter 16 - Dear Washington Junior High...

2005-07-08T08:50:00.000+04:00

08 February 90
Dear Washington Junior High 6th Grade Class,

My name is Dave Gallas. I am originally from Clarendon Hills, but when I'm back in the U.S. I now live in Naperville. I first came down here to Palmer in October 1988. I have had a couple of small vacations since then, but only on our resupply ship the R/V Polar Duke and also one week in Chile this last October.

My job here at Palmer Station is Communications Technician. This involves working with the stations radios and computers. We send traffic daily via satellite into the main computer in Florida and also receive traffic over the satellite. Radio communications are made with the Polar Duke on a daily basis except when she is in port in Punta Arenas. For the past month, the Polar Duke has been at McMurdo Station on the other side of the continent and so we have not kept a daily schedule with her.

We also contact science groups in remote areas to make sure they are alright. One group is on King George Island on the Arktowski Peninsula studying penguins. Another group is on Seal Island studying birds and seals. On Palmer now, there are two different groups studying birds. One group is studying kelp gulls, south polar skuas and sheathbills and another group is studying Adelie penguins.

Since we do not have a meteorological person here, the communications also does the weather observations. These weather observations are passed onto the British Antarctic Survey Station at Faraday in the Argentine Islands. They are located about 30 miles from Palmer. Faraday collects weather observations from all stations in our area. This information is passed along by radio and then onto the Chilean station on King George Island, Marsh Base so they can draw up their weather maps and make weather predictions for the planes and ships in the area. The weather information is also passed along to the U.S. National Weather service in Washington D.C.

January and February are the busiest part of the austral summer for us. The weather is as nice as it will get to be and we have many visits by tourist ships and private yachts. This letter will be hand-carried back to the U.S. by a tourist. The summer is also a busy time for the scientists since all of the wildlife comes back to breed and raise their young. On station right now we have only 38 people, but we are able to hold up to 43. There are 10 women and the rest men.

During the austral winter, from May until October, the station population is much smaller. Not so much science is conducted during the winter here at Palmer. Most of the science that was conducted this last winter (June-September) was conducted on the ship. The Polar Duke would take the different science groups out to gather specimens and then drop them off to take the other group or groups out.

During the austral winter the sun does not even rise above the glacier behind the station. Most days were overcast and when we did have sunlight, it was only from about 10:30 until 1:30-2:00 p.m. With the clear winter skies and clean cold air the stars are easy to see. I wish I knew more about the Southern Constellations. Having never been south of the equator before, I never realized that many of the common constellations we look for and know are not always visible.

I have really enjoyed living in Antarctica for the past 17 months. I have had the chance to see many different things. The wildlife is beautiful. In our area we have Adelie penguins, chinstrap penguins, some gentoo penguins in the winter, blue eyed shags (cormorants), giant petrels, Wilson storm petrels, south polar and brown skuas, sheathbills, Antarctic terns, kelp gulls, elephant seals in the summer, fur seals in the winter, crab eater seals, leopard seals, Weddell seals, humpback whales, minke whales and orcas. I know this isn't all that is here, but as many as I can remember now. The humpback whales are always passing through in the summer. Three weeks ago we had three humpbacks that were only about 100 feet off of the station. They were feeding on krill and uninterested entertaining us on station.

Along with the abundant wildlife, we also see the predator and prey. With so many penguins, it is only natural that we would also have leopard seals. I have more than once seen a leopard seal capture a penguin from the window here and shake the penguin out of its skin. I also had the chance to see a two-week old baby penguin snatched out from under its parent by a skua. These are not the kind of scenes that can be seen at the zoo!

Unlike many other parts of Antarctica, the peninsula has a warmer climate and more precipitation. Among many of the people here and on other stations on the continent it is know as the banana belt because of our "warm climate". Our summer temperatures this year have gone as high as 8.7 degrees Celsius. During the past couple of weeks we have also had quite a bit of rain. I am sending along a chart that I have made about the weather here. I hope it gives you all an idea of the type of climate we live in on this part of the large continent of Antarctica.

The coldest temperature on record at Palmer is minus 40 degrees Celsius. This last winter we came nowhere near that. According to the records of the British Antarctic Survey, this last June and July we had the warmest recorded temperatures since the 1950's. We had no lower temperatures than -11.1 Celsius. We did have a lot of windstorms and snow, but after growing up in Chicago, this was not cold at all. This winter we did do some snowmobiling on the glacier and many of the station personnel skied on the glacier. Some boating in Zodiac type boats was also done to the nearby islands.

I have read through the letters you have sent Brent and feel I should answer some of your questions.

1) We do not have any dogs on station. There are still some dogs on Rothera Station (Adelaide Island, British Antarctic Survey), and from what I hear on the Kiwi (New Zealand) stations on the other side. The NSF (American National Science Foundation) has done away with dogs here due to the threat of diseases from the dogs being passed onto and killing seals and other wildlife.

2) We live in regular buildings that have dormitory type bedrooms, bathrooms, showers, a kitchen, and laboratories for the scientists, etc.

3) The food is great here. We have a cook and a cook's assistant who are responsible for keeping us well-fed. That's why I have gained five pounds since I've been here. Their menus are better than some of the fancy restaurants I've been to. The only hard part for us is the lack of fresh fruits and vegetables. We only have "freshies" whenever a ship comes in. At times we go up to three or four weeks without freshies. You really learn to appreciate a banana, peach, lettuce and tomatoes when you taste them for the first time again.

4) Yes, we do get lonely and miss our families during the holidays, but being such a small station makes the people a little closer. Everyone here is kind of like your family away from home. At times it is like having 30 other brothers and sisters (which can be good or bad at times!)

5) We haven't had the chance to see any of the Transantarctic people. During the winter in August, a resupply airplane landed on the glacier and visited Palmer. We had the chance to see one of the dogs, Razor who was being flown in to join the rest of the team when they were in the middle of the peninsula. It was great to see a dog since at that time; I hadn't seen any domestic animal in almost 11 months.

6) We have crevasses in our glacier behind the station. For that reason, a safe path has been marked with trail markers. So we are still able to walk up on the glacier with some safety. During the winter months all the snow had filled in, and covered up and frozen over the crevasses, so there wasn't so much worry of falling in. We were still required to stay within certain boundaries for our own safety even during the winter.

7) What's it like here at night? Well, that depends on whether it is summer or winter. During the summer the sun only sets for about two hours here. Even after it has set, it is still light out. So we don't see many stars in the summer! In the winter nights are dark and days are short.

8) It takes about 3-1/2 to 4 days to get to Palmer by ship from Punta Arenas, Chile. That could be faster with a more powerful ship, but the weather across the Drake Passage also plays a part in how long the trip will be. On my one week vacation north to Chile, we hit a storm crossing the Drake that turned the ship at a 45 degree angle three times. The ship has a ballast system to right itself, so there is no worry about flipping over. It still makes sleeping and staying in bed very difficult. I had a roommate on that trip up that was seriously seasick, but I felt ok. I was seasick on the nice trip coming back. You never know if you'll be sick or to what extent.

9) No we don't ice skate down here. Unfortunately, the only fresh water we do have is covered by snow in the winter. In the summer the fresh water melt ponds are our backup fresh water supply. Most of our fresh water supply during the winter is made with the desalinators. This creates fresh water from salt water.

10) Pollution is a very big concern of all the treaty nations here in Antarctica. The U.S. is by no means any more innocent of polluting the pristine continent than is for example the Argentine government whose ship the Bahia Paraiso sunk about one mile from Palmer. The National Science Foundation is trying to initiate cleanup efforts at all the U.S. stations, but at the moment there is still much that needs to be done on our part. Cleaning up old sites and old dumps, some up to twenty years old, whether in Antarctica or your backyard will require an enormous amount of money and support from the public. The oil barrel left in Antarctica does not rust away and disappear in the same time as one might in a dump back home. The idea of cleaning up pollution starts where you live.

Scientists are very lucky to have an area as this to study animals in a habitat that has not been dramatically changed by humans. I think world pressure and groups like Greenpeace has caused some nations to start to clean up their act here in Antarctica. I hope as time goes by that stations can operate in a way that will lessen their detrimental effects on the environment that they are trying to study. I knew very little about Antarctica until I came to work down here. I have grown to appreciate the experiences I have had and hope that some of you can someday have this type of chance too.

I hope when I get back home in May or June I can visit and answer any other questions you have. Although I will be leaving Palmer in March, I will be doing a lot of traveling through South America and Central America. I hope you have enjoyed my letter and look forward to seeing you in May or June.

Sincerely,
Dave Gallas
Communications Technician
Palmer Station, Antarctica

11 February 90

Lots of things going on here. This week is the last of the tour ships. The World Disco(verer) and the Illiria will be in the week on Thursday and Friday. The last time the Illiria was in, most of us got to go out for the drinks and the show. They have been on a tighter schedule this year, so we haven't had the number of chances to get out on the tour ships that we did last year.

Things on the station seem to be going well this season. You probably wouldn't believe how well Al and I are getting along this season. It has been a busy season with the reskinning of Biolab. We have had to move cables all over the place and have run a bunch under the building now. It has kept me out of trouble. We now have windows in the stairwells of Bio! It really brightens up the stairs--now we can see all the dirt on the steps.

Well, it's a great day out and I should try to soak up some of the sunshine. The temp today is about 46.5 and the sun is out and it kind of reminds me of home in the Spring-time.

11 February 90

In the past few weeks we have hit 47 a few times and we are getting some nice clear days too. The glacier has making a lot of noise lately and we have had some beautiful views of ice falling off the glacier. With all the rumbling it makes, it sounds like constant thunder.

I just read over your letters again. I don't think people realize the size of the Antarctic continent. It is probably hard for anyone to believe that from where Palmer is on the peninsula, we are about 1500 miles from the South Pole and double that from McMurdo which is under New Zealand. We just got hit up with 90 letters from grade-school kids who are studying a unit about Antarctica. They just happened to be from Naperville, so I wrote a letter to answer some of their questions. Last fall we had a group of letters from a class in a Downers Grove grade school. I think kids are becoming more aware that there is something down here with things like the Bahia Paraiso sinking/oil spill, the Transantarctic Expedition and Greenpeace pushing for Antarctica to be a world park.

12 February 90
We have had high winds since yesterday evening steady at about 35-40 knots with gusting up to 55 knots. It is funny to feel the walls and bed shaking all through the night. Kind of reminds me of riding overnight on the train. Seems like the bad weather is starting about a month early. This is normally what March weather is like down here.

If you know any Ham operators, our call sign is KC4AAC and they are normally up on 14289 or 21325 USB starting at around 2300Z.

With not too many more ships coming in between now and the time I leave, it will probably be better not to send anymore mail to the Chilean address. I'll be seeing everyone again once I get home.

12 February 90

When we speak on the phone over the radio, please refer to the marsgrams as e-mail or electronic mail messages. Rick has been getting a hard time from other Mars operators who don't do their messages over the satellite and he asked us to pass that on to everyone. Thanks.

I'm glad you liked the picture of me. I have long since cut off the beard. I still have the moustache though.

All yesterday and today we have been having high winds. They have been steady at about 35 knots with gusting up to 55 knots. Most of the weather has been snotty the past two weeks anyway. The temps have been consistently in the 40's, but not too much sunshine. Rachel said Sunday that you guys had some nice warm weather. I am dreading the hot weather in a way after being spoiled with such comfortable seasons here (and no biting insects!) So I'll be home just in time for all the fun.

This week we have our last two tourist ships coming in. The end of the tourist season is already upon us. Last year it was prematurely cut by the sinking of the Bahia Paraiso. It hasn't been too bad though. We are supposed to get some mail in on Friday too. The Illiria is coming in on Friday, so I may get to talk with Hans some more about my plans up to Guatemala. He wasn't sure when he left the last time if he would be on a break for that cruise or not.

12 February 90

As March gets closer, I am getting more excited about leaving. I am looking forward to going up to Guatemala. As quiet and secluded as you say it is, it will be nice to experience the jungle and ruins. I am not looking forward to getting carried away by the mosquitoes. Bugs will be the hardest thing to learn to deal with again. I haven't even thought about being bit by insects for a long time. Our idea of bugs in the Antarctic is seeing a fruit fly or a spider when the freshies come in.

The weather during the past couple of weeks has not been too good. We have had a lot of rain. Yesterday and today we have had high winds up in the fifty knot range and averaging around 30-35 knots. It seems like the bad weather is starting earlier than last year. The metal workers are replacing my wall this week. I should say were, because once the winds picked up, they had to stop. So they put the window back in, but patched all the holes around it with duct tape (America's fix all!). With all the wind we have been having blowing at my wall, the whole wall is like a water sprinkler. Right now we have water dripping all over the place from this reskinning of the building. It has left all kinds of cracks and crevices all over the place where they never were. At least my bed is warm and dry though.

14 February 90

Just got word yesterday that the Illiria will be in for a visit next week instead of this week. I still am not sure which ship you will be on. I developed the slides that were taken of us and also one with Eduardo. I am going to try my hand at Cibakrome and try to make a couple of prints. If they turn out well, I'll send them along. If not, you won't see them till I get to Guatemala. I was afraid the lighting was going to be bad.

15 February 90

The prints didn't turn out too good. I either had them overexposed or too dark. I may play with them more by using different filters and exposure times, but for now I made Polaroid prints from the slides. They don't look too bad, but they don't have the color quality that the original has. Cibakrome sometimes is the same way.

19 February 90

Thanks for the letter and the Marsgram. I finally received the letter you sent to me in Naperville. My sister sent down some of my mail, but sent it through Paramus, so it took quite awhile to get here. I'm starting to get a little, no, a lot anxious about going home in another three weeks! I have a bunch of traveling planned, but I am looking forward to getting away from Palmer. It isn't any better or worse than it was, I am just ready to settle into a different life now.

This week is the last week for tour ships. I can't believe the tourist season is finally over. This summer season is winding down quickly. It will seem strange to drive again and have to pay for everything I eat. Yes, I am still going to travel a little before heading home in April.

Chapter 15 - Vacation Dreaming and Planning

2005-07-08T03:44:00.000+04:00

Dear Lisa, 25 January 90

I know, long time no hear. I have been wanting to write letters, but never seem to have the urge. Just got a marsgram from Dennis last week. Also received a postcard from Pat when he was in Chiloe. I'm working on catching up on letters, finally (just as it is time to leave!)

It has really been a kick to be able to stay on this long. Working with Al has been great. Last year he and I never saw eye to eye on anything and this year is just the opposite. The people this season are great too. Bob Taylor says to say hello for him. He will be staying until station close in April. I just found out last week that I will get to leave on the first SAAM flight on the 16th March. I believe that you are coming in on that one, aren't you? Well, maybe we will be able to at least say hello in passing. I was hoping to have the chance to tip a glass or three with you, but I'll have to pass--big plans in greener places.

Right now, I'm planning on passing thru Puerto Montt for a day to finish the shopping I didn't get done in October when I was there with Dennis, Marcia and Robin. I am still planning on going on to Easter Island, but am not sure how long my stay will be. I am also going to go to Guatemala for a week or so. It probably sounds strange, but I should explain.

Last year during the tourist season we were invited out to the Illiria twice. I got to talking to one of the tour guides who was Dutch and we started writing letters back and forth over the last year. He ended up taking a job in October or November in Guatemala working for a new hotel in the Petan area, doing botany studies. He is a botanist by degree, but also works on the tour ships when he can break away from his job in Holland. He will be going back to Guatemala in March, so I am going to visit him and have a look at the Mayan ruins and experience some of the jungle. Sounds like a change of pace from Palmer doesn't it?

The weather here has been beautiful the past couple of days. Last week was all rain, but the temps have still remained comfortable. We have had days up to 47 F and no colder than 32 F. The glacier has been calving a lot and with all this warmer weather has been rumbling all the time. Had three humpbacks in the back bay area and just about 100 feet off of Gamage Point on the side of the station. They have been coming around more often now. No “cocopods” though.

Spoke with Robin last week. Andy Deering and Lisa are going to winter-over and were trying to get Robin to come back down for some of the winter. But word came down from his wife (aka "the wicked witch of the North" by Robin's definition if you remember) that he wouldn't be down this season ("or ever" was probably inferred). He is on the North Slope now and only has to be away from her a couple of months at a time--she isn't about to let him go off to Antarctica again to drink, or carry on with female-scientist-type friends.

Haven't heard from anyone else aside from occasional marsgrams from Dennis. Guess Marcia is still traveling around the southern hemisphere. Ned left in November amid much cursing while he was packing up until the last minute! Are you taking bets on whether or not he comes back? Richie will still be here when you get here and will be until probably June or so.

Bet you're getting anxious already to get back down here, huh? Better bring your own Campari--we didn't get any. Have a Ritamarga for me la Buge, I'll leave a chunk of bar-ice in the punchbowl for ya!

Dave

This next letter was sent to one of the Argentine guys I met from the Bahia Paraiso. With as poor as the Argentine economy and post office have been as of late, I never had any confirmation as to whether this letter actually arrived.

Dear Gustavo, 27 January 90

Haven't heard from you at all since last year! It is hard to believe that it has already been a year since the Bahia went down. Hope all is well with you. Manuel was here on the Gurachaga (I'm not sure of the spelling) and let me know that you are now stationed down south near Bahia Blanca. He said that Julio just got married the end of December and that Pablo is now working in a higher position. It is good to know that everyone is doing ok after everything that has happened with the ship and with your countries economy. From everything we read I hope things will get better for you. It sounds like it is very difficult to make a living and still live well.

I have been a little disappointed that you haven't written, but I understand how your postal system is. If you have written, it may have been lost. It may help to send letters to the Argentine Antarctic center in Buenos Aires and have someone carry it down to Palmer to be hand carried north to the U.S. Viviana Alder and Gustavo Ferrer from the Argentine Antarctic Institute are going to be coming down to Palmer in March and I should see them before I leave. Unfortunately, I will be leaving Palmer Station in late March, but there are enough people here who know me that can forward a letter on to me if you send one in March.

I was hoping to visit you in Buenos Aires, but I am going to only be stopping in Guatemala before heading home at the end of March. I have so much to do when I get home since I have decided to go back to college in June. I have decided to study Electrical Engineering and try to learn more in the communications field. So I have a mountain of paperwork to fill out once I get home to go back to school.

I am going to close this letter for now, because I am not sure when the crew is heading back to the ship. Take care and remember that I haven't forgotten about you. Hope to hear from you sometime in the future.
Your friend,
Dave

26 January 90

I am starting to wind down and get psyched up to leave. I am enjoying the job more this season than during last summer and feel that I am learning a lot too. But I am starting to get anxious about leaving. I haven't that many days left to go either.

The weather has been pretty nice here lately. Today is kind of overcast, but the temps are comfortable at around 40 during the day. Yesterday we hit 47 again and it was sunny and clear. The glacier has making a lot of noise lately and we have had some beautiful views of ice falling off the glacier. It is too bad that pictures can't catch the view or the sounds the way seeing it live does.

Last night right before I spoke with you I got to see a phenomenon we don't see in the Midwest. I saw a green flash at sunset. It happens when the sun is setting over water and something happens where the reflection of the suns rays and the curvature of the earth cause a reflection of green light to appear (or some garbage like that). I've heard all about it from people who have seen it at McMurdo, but never saw it for myself until now.

28 January 90

We have a tour ship in tonight which will sit out in the harbor until after breakfast tomorrow morning. Then we have a contracted ship coming in on the 29th and bringing mail too. It seems like a long time since we last had mail, but it has only been three weeks. I am anxious to get that envelope of letters that Dee sent me with Christmas cards and letters that were sent to “Naperdale.” Hans said he had also sent me a letter from Mexico City before he left for Guatemala back in early November, but I still haven't seen that either. His and my letters have seemed to require a lot of forwarding before we receive them.

You were asking about pictures. I will have plenty of slides when I get back. Since we can develop E-6 (slide film) I have taken all slides, then later will have the better slides made into photos so I can put together an album. We will have to get everyone together and have a slide show sometime after I get the slides into trays. I sent most of my slides home in retrograded boxes, so I'll have to dig thru everything when I finally get back. I also have two three hour videos that give a good idea of the station, the wildlife, and the people here. We can fast forward thru some of it, but the video covers from about last June until now. I hear that there is some footage of my haircut too that I have to get on the tape too.

We had another great dinner last night. A restaurant was set up complete with waiting area and cocktails. A whole crew of cooks, waiters etc volunteered their time and effort for this dinner, so the cook got to take his comp-day for Christmas. People really go all out when they get the chance to cook here. Anyone who came down here with any intention of losing weight is certainly doomed! Sundays are the cooks off day too, so we normally have volunteers cook then too. Polly (the National Science Foundation Rep) and I cooked about two weekends ago and did spaghetti and garlic bread. Good thing we started the sauce the night before. For dessert we made angel food cake with strawberry and whipped cream filling (3layer). We pulled out the red and white checkered table clothes and the candles too.

28 January 90

January is almost over. The time is flying by for me and I have a good idea now when I am leaving Palmer. Looks like I will get out on the first SAAM (C-130) flight from Marsh Base, King George Island on March 17.

29 January 90

I'm back. I took a break from writing yesterday to workout, and never got back to the letter. As you can see, I have still been working out. I have been keeping a better schedule now and haven't been blowing it off like I was during the winter. I think I feel a lot better when I keep working out.

The Illiria did come in early last night and most of us did go out and spend time on the ship. What a time! Spoke more with Hans, and I think he will meet me in Flores. That will make things a little easier since I don't speak any Spanish. I have my dictionary though and managed in Chile very well with that. So they are here and gone. The tourists visited the station this morning from about 0730 until 0930 and then pulled up anchor. I think the tourists had as much fun visiting with us as we did with them. We were familiar faces after visiting the ship the night before. There was a big group from the Natural History group. Natural History is a nature type magazine and they sponsor trips all over to see wildlife and that type of thing.

Forgot to mention that we did have three humpback whales in the harbor last weekend. They were only about 100 feet off the pier and stayed in the harbor for awhile. No flukes, but they were feeding and sounded and came to the surface often. That was the closest to the station I have seen them.

You were asking about the constant, or near constant light. I think you just adjust to the light and pull the curtains. It isn't actually that hard to adjust to. It has already started to get "dark" now or dark enough that I can't clearly see the glacier across the bay when it calves. We have been having some overcast nights, and even though it doesn't get pitch black out, it is dark by our perception. We have had some beautiful sunsets, and they are getting noticeably earlier every week. About a month ago, our sunsets seemed to be around 11 P.M. to 11:30. Now they are around 10 P.M. to 10:30.

I have to get back to work because lunch is over, but take care and hope you do well in the contest. At least in a natural bodybuilding contest you don't have to worry about "ugly encounters with the steroid woman"! Sounds like a sci-fi flick!!

Dear Dennis, 31 January 90

Good to receive your marsgram. You're right; it has been awhile since I last heard from you. Hope you're enjoying your new computer now.

Things on the station seem to be going well this season. You probably wouldn't believe how well Al and I are getting along this season. It has been a busy season with the reskinning of Biolab. We have had to move cables all over the place and have run a bunch under the building now. It has kept me out of trouble.

Looks like winter-over crew is going to be Al Oxton, Andy Deering, Lisa Radke, Beav (Andy's brother who is over on McMurdo side now), Sarah Sturgess, and Dave Mobley (who will be here only until June). I don't think Ned will be back. From what I understand, it is a full crew already for this winter. The materials guy is a guy that Dwaine and Brenda know from Pole and McMurdo. Lisa's slot as winter-over admin hasn't been approved yet, but it looks like it will be at this point. If it isn't, they will be looking for a station manager and a power plant mechanic!

Andy first called Robin on the North Slope to see if he was interested in taking the Power Plant job. Robin said that he would speak to his wife about it. The next day his wife called Andy back and (probably gave him a death threat!) said that Robin was not interested (probably also said, not now or ever!).

Marian received a letter and a shirt from New Zealand. Marcia sent her a shirt around the 15th of December and Marian got it this month. Marcia said that she may lose her thumbnail for life but she has to have some minor surgery when she gets back stateside. It must have really been mashed up. ANS will pay for the surgery, so at least she is getting something out of them. The letter also said that she would be in Australia until the end of January.

My life without Ned has been great. I never realized how nice it could be with him away. I miss having his insulting comments at me like I miss being seasick on the Duke. It's also great to be in the gym without that constant noise of him slapping around that punching balloon.

I have heard rumors of his returning, but with Al's friend on the front burner as Dave's replacement it doesn't seem too likely. Dave has really made a lot of headway with the job.

You should almost be a short timer with your Navy assignment by this time too. Don't miss us all here, because it doesn't change that much here and soon we will be where you are again. Take it easy, and hope to hear from you.
Your friend,
Dave

05 February 90

Got in a bunch of mail on Friday and Saturday. The biggest part of the mail wasn't found in the containers until Saturday, but it felt great to get something. Now I have to write all these people and tell them not to write anything more to this address. With so few ships scheduled down over the next 1-1/2 months, I would prefer if people from here on just wrote to our address at home. Boy, it's hard to believe that I will be leaving here in a little over a month.

The weather over the past week has been garbage. Lots of rain and overcast skies. The glacier has been calving so often now, we tend not to pay attention to it when it does make noise. Today I happened to be looking out the window and watched a side about as big as the section of building we live in just drop down into the water! It made a huge wave that crashed over a peninsula across the bay.

06 February 1990

The Erebus pulled up to the pier today and will load containers in preparation for departure to Punta Arenas. They came in to move fuel out of a bladder at Old Palmer Station and to start a clean up of O.P. The National Science Foundation has decided that over the next two years they will dismantle O.P. and clean up the old site. So this ship was contracted to come down. They brought us down our mail and freshies. It is great to eat fresh lettuce again. The tomatoes were great as were the peaches! As much fruit and veggies as I ate before I came down, it is a minor miracle that I'm still alive now after being cut off from them. It will be nice to walk into a store and pick up a banana or lettuce or cucumber--anytime I want to!

I just received the envelope you sent to the office with those letters. Thanks for the Christmas card and picture of Kristina. I liked the card...was it for this year or last? Just kidding! I was surprised to get the other letter from the Soviet Union. You must have been a bit surprised to see that one too. I just received a marsgram from the guy who sent the other letter you had in that envelope. In all, it was quite a mail haul this time around. I should be kept busy writing until I leave!

03 February 90

Two weeks ago, we had three whales in our harbor. We haven't seen them this close to the station before as they were just off Gamage Point.

The weather here during the whole month of January was great. The glacier is calving a lot now with the warm weather. At times, it is so loud, you would think it is thundering out. Last month, we had five days of over 8 degrees Celsius. We are sure now that the summer is here.

08 February 90

Today the weather is garbage again! The whole day has been only wind and rain. Who could believe that we are in Antarctica with all the rain we have been having?

My sister sent me a letter from the U.S.S.R that arrived at the house. It was from the communications officer from the tourist ship, Antonina Nezdranova which visited Palmer last year. He and I got to speak for about two hours over shots of Dutch gin. It was a nice visit and I learned a little bit about him and his country.

04 February 90

Dear Hans,

As I write this letter, we are having strong winds shaking the walls. The wind has been gusting up to 45 knots and above. It is actually the first wind storm we have had this summer that I can remember. I finally received your letter this week. It was great to read all about what you were doing and will continue to do when you go back to Guatemala. I'm glad I am able to arrange a stop to visit you, and that you have extended the invitation for me to visit. It should be different to spend some time in a quiet place and in such a different atmosphere than what I have lived with over the past 1-1/2 years.

You asked how it was over the winter here with so few people. It is probably different with us, because we all come from different backgrounds. It isn't quite the closed community you have in the local village there in Guatemala. Although we also have only the weather and our jobs to complain about in the winter, we also had our diverse pasts to share with one another. We were actually only nine people for about three weeks until the winter scientists had come in. Then it varied how many people were on station depending on which groups went out on the Polar Duke to do science. That group left at the end of July and then the Polar Duke brought in three more for the remainder of the season from the beginning of September until station open on the sixth of October. So there was some outside stimulus during the winter-over this year.

06 Feb 90

Heard the Illiria up today on the radio, channel 16. Darrel was speaking with Faraday and sounds like he was trying to find your ship a way in to visit Faraday. Don't think it worked today, but from what I hear there may still be a chance on your last cruise or so.

Chapter 14 - Tourist Season

2005-07-07T12:37:00.000+04:00

11 December 89

Yesterday the German research vessel, Polar Stern came in. What a ship!! Got the grand tour of the ship and the thing is a floating city; complete with a swimming pool inside! Compared to the Polar Duke, this ship doesn't even move on the water when it’s anchored. They came in with representatives from the German and French Antarctic Programs for an inspection of Palmer. The treaty nations inspect one another randomly to make sure that we and other stations are complying with the rules set forth by the treaty agreement. So they performed their inspection; then we had them over for dinner; then they had us out to the ship for a cocktail party. It was a great social gathering! Drinks were free and the Champaign was flowing---What more can you ask for!?

Had the chance to use my German more than at any time in the last two years. I've lost some of my vocabulary and my grammar is rusty, but it starts to come back once you get warmed up. There is another guy on the station who lived and studied in Germany, so he and I got a workout on our German.

There was a woman from ZDF Germany (North German Radio and TV) who wanted to interview a few of us from Palmer Station. She insisted that since my German was so good, my interview should be conducted with her in German. I was a bit nervous, but it was kind of fun. She asked questions about how our life was at Palmer; job, food, weather, things like that. She said that it would play on German radio around the New Year holiday.

13 December 89

Got your letter this week, so I thought I'd send off another quick one before you get out of Indiana. You should have received my other letter and the disks I sent along to you.

......You were asking about the haircut. We raised about $320 for the March of Dimes, and the people on station were our sponsors. We sent the money off with the last ship that went out. It was a great time and my hair is already growing in pretty thick by now.

Temps here have been anywhere from 32 to 45 degrees F. Normally it doesn't get too much warmer than that, but last year we did get some summer temps in the low fifties in late February. It is snowing now since last night, but nothing is staying on the ground because it is too warm. At least it isn't raining.

14 December 89

Yesterday we rerouted a bunch of antenna cable and I was crawling around under the building most of the afternoon. There is still a lot of ice underneath the buildings in spite of the nice temps. We have been seeing a lot of snow over the past two days, but no accumulation. King George Island received about two feet of snow!

We have a panel crew pulling off old wall panels and reskinning the building, so the nice weather has helped them out. Al, my supervisor, and I have been preparing the comm center for the reskinning. We have had to pull off everything from bulletin boards, old paneling and all kinds of antenna cables that come through the middle of the wall.

The Polar Duke left Punta Arenas yesterday, so hopefully I will have a few letters from home and from Europe. My sister Dee sent me a group of letters that arrived at home, but I don't think they made it on this trip with as late as they were mailed out. We should see some mail when the tourist ships start to come in again in January. They will usually bring in mail and some freshies for us.

Dear Jeannette, Cathy and Pat, 15 December 89

Sorry I have taken so long to respond to your message. It was great to hear all of you and Lisa Crocket over the ATS a few weeks back. I was trying to explain the Bastille Day party to a few people here, but it is one of those situations where you just had to be there! Speaking of Bull Elephant seals; we have quite the gathering here on the dock and on the rocks by the pump house. They have taken over the place!

I'm glad that I've had the chance to stay longer. This group is great this year. Lots going on with the building being reskinned. Al and I have been going crazy getting everything ready for our walls to be removed. There isn't a lot of science going on yet, but that is partially due to the two SAAM flights getting cancelled. We were all sorry to miss Peter Wilknis and all the other DV's (about as much as missing case of the runs!)

Ned left on the last ship out. He was going to stay on the ship after the SAAM flight left, but as you heard, the SAAM flights got cancelled. He is planning to study Spanish in Ecuador, like Al did for six weeks or so. No telling when he will get back to "Long-a" Island, but I'm sure you'll all hear from him there at SUNY when he gets back. I think he will have the same homesick feelings for Antarctica as everyone else seems to get.

Looks like our weather is better than yours now. We have been having temps anywhere from 32 to 45 degrees. Had some snow the past couple of days, but only flurries and nothing that stuck. Most of the snow is finally melted too. Craig - Dave Ainley's assistant got to fly over Dream Island in a helo from the Polar Stern when they visited last week. Guess the snow didn't melt fast enough and many of the penguins abandoned their nests after their eggs froze. Dave was here earlier and he and Craig had been over to Dream Island. They had predicted then that there would be a high mortality rate for this group partly due to the snow cover even back when they were here around October.

16 December 89

The Duke is going to be a little late coming in, but only about twelve hours off. I am hoping that maybe the envelope of letters you sent made this ship. It would be nice to hear from some of the people you only hear from once a year. I will try to call next weekend, but you know how difficult it can be to get calls through to the States during the holidays.

We have been moving many antenna cables from the outside wall and rerouting them to come under the floor. I'm still working on learning Dbase III, but need to spend more time on it. I think I may wait until we get our new computer in and then I can do it in our shop without bothering anyone else.

I can't believe it is already the week before Christmas. I don't know where the time goes to. I still get confused over what month is it down here! Two nights ago, we had a spectacular sunset. I had gone to bed around 9:30 p.m. and woke up about 11:30 p.m. and the glacier was orange from the reflection. It was like waking up in a dream. The sky just glowed orange, purple, pink and blue and the glacier and the remaining snow we still have were glowing.

I think that I already said that during this time of the year, the sun goes down around 1-1:30 a.m. but the sky stays fairly light throughout the "night" until sunrise at around 3-3:30 a.m. This week, we will have the longest day of the year on the 21st, but that won't change the length of the days very much here. We probably won't notice any actual darkness again until March sometime.

Wish everyone a Merry Christmas for me and have a Merry Christmas yourself!

02 January 90

I miss being there with everyone over the holidays, but I had a good time here too. The weather was nice and we had a yacht come in on New Years Eve. The Damien II was in last year around the same time. They had three kids and two National Geographic guys onboard. It is strange to see kids again after not seeing them for so long.

The weather is nice out and the glacier has been noisy. Our first tour ship comes in on Thursday. Hopefully, I will get some mail on it, but we're not sure yet. I didn't get too much this last time. Guess I should expect it. The novelty has worn off and people forget your address when they haven't seen you in awhile.

You shouldn't be so shocked about my haircut. We raised money for the March of Dimes and had a great time too. Nothing is really out of the norm here! You should know by now that to keep your sanity you have to be a little crazy every once in awhile. It ain't no beauty contest here, no matter what you've heard! The other advantage is that I won't need it cut now until I get to Punta Arenas. There have been women at South Pole on winter-over that have shaven their heads too!

06 January 90

Been keeping busy over the past couple of weeks with the building panel project. Seems like as soon as we get things in order in one spot, they come up with something else that needs to be moved. Next week the roof on this wing comes off. "It just goes to show you, if it's not one thing, it's another."

We lived through our first tour ship of the season this week. It isn't that bad, but it does disrupt the station. Some old geezer made a crack about one of our antenna riggers standing up on the balcony and not working. We were on break at the time, but no one explained that to him. If he was so worried about his tax dollars, he shouldn't have even come ashore. The tourists waste our time and "his" tax dollars by disrupting the whole station and require our people entertain them. It isn't enough that we have to work six day weeks and don't get most of the national holidays off. Stupid old fart.

We have also had visits from two yachts over the past week. Jacques Cousteau is supposed to be making a stop here in his ship the Erebus with a child from every continent sometime this week or early next week. That should be interesting. Next week we will be getting mail and some freshies in on one of the tour ships, the Illiria. Last year we were invited out to the Illiria twice. They had a floorshow of Greek dancing and lots of ouzo. We had a great time. Hopefully, since they are bringing down three people on the ship, we will have the chance to get out to this ship again.

The weather here is kinda overcast, but still mild. We haven't had too much rain or snow lately, just a lot of clouds. The temps have been staying between 32 and 40 most of the time. It sounds like your weather has warmed up a little from the cold snap you had over Christmas.

So how was Christmas and New Years? It went well here. We had a great New Years party and for the first time since Halloween, DANCING. Yes, it was quite unbelievable for us too. Guess no one has been in any mood to let loose in awhile. The mood was quiet until the decorations were broken out around 10 PM. Had a great time and drank my share of Champaign. Started out on ice water and shots of Grants scotch and graduated to Champaign after midnight.

07 January 90

Well, I'm back. Took a break from writing yesterday and didn't get back to it. The divers went out to the Bahia Paraiso this morning and pulled up another helicopter wheel and assorted parts that broke away from the two Sea Kings helicopters that were onboard. Garbage has been floating up and falling off of the ship during the whole year and people bring it in when they see it.

Had a great meal last night. Bob had swordfish steaks on the grill and made up a great clam casino to go with it. It is really rough to have such a great cook here! It snowed for about two hours last night too, but no accumulation.

Was just looking at the calendar yesterday and realized I have only another 90 days before I leave here. The time since October has gone fast. Seems like only last week since I was in Chile. I have been getting more anxious to get back since about Christmas. But things are going great here and I know the rest of the time will go quick. Looking forward to getting back and seeing all of you again.

15 January 90

The weather has been pretty nice. Normally, the temperatures should be around 0 Celsius, but this last week we had one day that was +8.3 C. We have been having more rain lately, but a few snowflakes here and there at times.

Not so many whales this year as last, but many penguins and elephant seals. As always in the austral summer, long days and a lot of light. Now it is light until about 1:30 a.m. and then the sun comes back up at 3:30 a.m. Between these hours it really doesn't get dark.

19 January 90

I just received your Christmas card last week. The World Discoverer brought in two big boxes of mail, so I got most of my Christmas mail then. The pictures you sent were great. I know you haven't had much chance to do anything, so if you don't get to any of the things I asked for, it can wait. I'll be home in another two months anyway.

I am going to try to get out on a SAAM flight out of Marsh Base at the end of March. That will put me home before Easter. I would like to be home for the Easter holiday. If I don't get out then, I will be spending Easter in Chile. I will let you know how things are going when I know myself. Even if I get to go out on the SAAM flight, it doesn't guarantee the flight schedule. The last SAAM flights that were supposed to come to Marsh were cancelled and backed up scientists coming to Palmer by almost two weeks.

I am looking forward to Easter Island and I have to do a little more shopping in Puerto Montt. So we will see how my schedule goes.

I am looking forward to traveling in Chile again. You would love Chile. The people are really great and friendly. I never felt like they were trying to take advantage of me. If anything, they were very patient with me stumbling through Spanish with the dictionary. The Chilenos seem very welcoming and friendly and the crime rate is probably the lowest in all of South America, maybe even better than in a lot of places in the States! If I were studying Spanish and had a choice of studying in Spain or any other South American country, it would be Chile in a heartbeat.

The weather here today has been shitty. This isn't a marsgram, so I can say that! It has been rainy since last night. But at least the temps have been nice. It is probably averaging around 35-40 degrees F. Last week we hit 47 again for the second time this month. The glacier has been calving more often with all the warm weather. It almost sounds like thunder as the calving ice breaks off and falls into the harbor behind us.

Chapter 13 - Just Another Austral Summer in Paradise

2005-07-07T11:47:00.000+04:00

27 November 1989

You were asking me about what my responsibilities are here.

Over the summer months my title is (and has been) technically Comms Tech. Al Oxton who is my supervisor again this year is a much better repair person. Al is also a "whiz" with computers. I have learned more working with him than any class could teach me over the last year him. A lot of the job concentrates on supporting the science groups here in one way or another.

We run the base station for our radios (channels 6 and 16 in particular) when the scientists go out in the Zodiac boats to study islands in the vicinity. We also maintain a watch on the radio frequencies 11553 Mhz for McMurdo on the other side of the continent, 5583 Mhz for the Chilean Base at Marsh on King George Island, and 4125 Mhz which is the general calling frequency for all ships and stations in the world. Normally we meet a party up on 4125 then switch over to another working frequency since business isn't to be conducted on 4125 since it is to be used as a calling frequency only.

We keep a daily schedule with the Polar Duke whenever they are not in port in Punta Arenas or at Palmer at 1630 local. We also have daily scheds with Faraday Station in the Argentine Islands (only about 25 miles as the crow flies) to pass weather conditions three times daily. Unscheduled radio ops occur when we have planes fly overhead such as unplanned Argentine planes in to check out the sunken Bahia Paraiso. We have had the Canadian Twin Otter airplanes stop in and land on the Glacier behind Palmer three times. It is a funny sound to hear planes overhead when you haven't heard that sound in awhile.

At the moment I am trying to learn dBase III to straighten out my inventory. I have picked up some of it, but does take time. I had to reorganize things this winter in our shop and update the inventory. I am also working on a help folder on "how to" do comms here. There were no help files or operations plans written up when Al and I got here last year. So much of the operations side has changed and modernized that any old plans are not functional. So the past month I have spent a lot of time on the PC putting in drawings of equipment set ups, writing instructions-help files on how to do telex, facsimile, conduct weather observations, inventory, radio operations, making a current listing of frequencies used, a once-a-month file for maintenance of the batch files which use month names to operate in our PC files and that type of stuff.

Al is a night owl, staying up late in the shop and I am usually up by 0530. This actually works out well since I have been working out in the morning and start work at 0800. With the boating parties out at 0800-0830 someone needs to be here to answer the radio. This gives me the chance to get something done on the PC when he isn't here.

Al has been revolutionizing our methods of doing traffic on the ATS-3 satellite as of late. He is creating programs that cut down on the human interface time with the computer. He is all about reducing the number of key strokes to do anything on the computer. So now it is more often that you only press a couple of buttons and everything else is "automajic." (This is a little joke and also a play on words around here. Al is known by his initials of “ajo” which in Spanish means garlic!) The only glitch in the system is that noise on the satellite can put a real crimp into the transmission of data. He has been working on a bunch of batch files to take lines off the top of the messages sent out and coming in to copy information to our logs instead of physically writing in message number, time sent, subject, who-for etc.

It's hard to sum up everything that happens in a day. One day I ended up entering and sending about five telex messages and three fax messages and other days involve only sitting in front of the computer and answering radios. Over a period of about a week I dug out the pathway to the weather shack and the pump house. The pathway had a bunch of ice and snow about three feet deep covering the area and with the meltdown; it was easier to dig and melt off a bit at a time.

I am going to find it hard to endure a full two day weekend once I get back. Here we work through most of Saturday with the end of the afternoon spent doing a station cleanup. Everyone is assigned a specific detail on a rotating basis. My personal favorite “house mouse” chore would be either; cleaning of the guys bathroom or vacuuming, sweeping and mopping of the berthing hallways in Biolab. I say the cleaning the bathroom, because with so many people using the shower, I like to know that it is really being scrubbed down at least once a week!

My least favorite job has been Trash n’ Mash. Trash and Mash is the nasty duty of hauling the garbage down on the lift from the galley to the staging area where the masher/compactor is. You fit a trash bag into the holder and then fill the holder with all kinds of trash and hit the compactor button. If you’re having a bad day, the galley mess will squirt something out at you and cover you with something particularly disgusting! There is never a good day when assigned Trash n’ Mash detail.

But I must say that there is a certain amount of camaraderie between the crew here. That is probably increased since we live and work in the same buildings. Even on the worst details, everyone pulls together and participates.

We had a great party this last weekend. Bob Taylor the cook who got his Mohawk the same time I shaved my head, set up six whipped cream pies for peoples faces. It looked like a scene out of the three stooges or keystone cops. People who were hit were pulling the pies off their faces and hitting others too. Then later in the night around 3 am one of the beakers (a common term for scientists) wanted a Palmer Station Mohawk haircut. He wanted and received his Mohawk the day before he was leaving for home. As his head was being shaven, he had this big old smile on his face. He looked like he was in bliss and getting a massage or something! His wife isn't probably too happy with it! Life isn't that bad here as you can see. Normally ordinary gatherings playing pool or bs-ing at the bar can turn into events.

We have had visits by the Greenpeace ship Gondwana and just this last weekend by the British Antarctic Survey ship RRS John Bisco. Usually these visits include ship tours, refreshments, exchanges of beer and/or food and having the chance to purchase or trade T-shirts, patches, pins and other things from the ship. Once the tourist visits start in January there are invites to go out for dinner and drinking too. The tourists always have a million silly-ass questions for us, but it is a lot of fun.

Guess I haven't said too much about my family, but that's because I don't always hear much from them. Most of my friends from the States have stopped writing once I started my second year. Guess the novelty has worn off for them. I still am keeping good contacts with all of my Dutch and German friends, so that keeps me out of trouble.

29 Nov 89

Just got news that I'll probably be employed longer than I had expected. Looks like I won't leave here on the SAAM flight in late March like I thought. I'm pretty sure at this point that I will be staying until the summer season end/station close on the 6th of April. Let's see...4 days to cross the Drake Passage and get to Punta Arenas, one day in P.A, two days in Puerto Montt, one day trip to Santiago and a day waiting in Santiago, one week in Easter Island and 1-1/2 days transit back to Chicago comes up to about the middle to the end of April. I'm not too upset actually. It means another three weeks of pay too. I will also get my on Ice bonus around June sometime.

The weather this morning was cool and rainy. Temp was around 40 F but cloudy. The C-130 out of Pope AFB, NC that is to carry all the DV's (Distinguished Visitors) from Punta Arenas to Marsh Base, broke down in Barbados (well, isn't that convenient) so they will be about four days late getting here. How it works is the Polar Duke goes up to King George Island where the Chilean base is and the planes fly into Marsh Base. Then the Duke shuttles the people down to Palmer on a trip that takes about 22 hours. It is nice when the weather is agreeable, but not too dependable as far as a schedule is concerned.

In the meantime, the Ambassadors of Chile, Argentina, the head weenie of the National Science Foundation, the New Deputy Director of Peninsula Affairs from our new contractor, Holmes and Narver and a small multitude (if it is possible to have a small multitude) of assorted workers and scientists are sitting in Punta Arenas visiting and drinking at the ever distinguished Mama Theresa's (no she isn't exactly a nurse, but she will take good care of you) and drinking and eating good at some of the better eateries.

I really feel sorry for the poor people on the Polar Duke sitting in the harbor (kinda like a buoy in a bathtub) at King George Island and waiting to catch the flight going back north. They thought they would get out early (ha!). The weather can throw things off even if the plane arrives in P.A. today. The weather has to be good at both ends for the plane to get off the ground at P.A. to begin with. Then when things get stacked up it is a matter of waiting your turn until the backlogged flights are out.

So here we wait with high hopes that the DV's schedule back home will chase them back to the States before they get down here. Other than that, all's well. I'll close for now and get back to you later.

01 Dec 89

Well, it's already December! The SAAM flight will arrive at Marsh sometime around five pm or so, so we should see them around tomorrow evening or Sunday morning. The DV's are to stay only about two hours (most of that time going out to the Bahia wreck which will probably be mostly submerged by high tide). Sounds like a prudent way to spend our tax dollars if you ask me!! The whole idea of them even bothering to come for two hours is a real circle jerk anyway--complete waste of my tax dollars. Kind of like driving out to Denver for the weekend from Chicago.

I'm gonna close this letter now, but hope you do have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

06 December 89

Sorry I've been so slow to respond to letters. I got all of my letters out for Christmas and was burnt out on writing over the past week. The Polar Duke won't be returning now until next week. They were supposed to be making two trips back to P.A. and Palmer, but with the cancellation of the SAAM flights to King George, we will only see them once. I am hoping to get some mail this time around, but don't have my hopes all that high!

I have been watching the temps on your end of the globe and I see that we are having better weather now than you. The days are long and the temps have been staying between 32 and 40 F degrees lately. Haven't had too much rain lately, but the past couple of days have been overcast.

The time here is really screaming along. It is hard for me to believe it is already December. I am anxious to travel again. That trip to Puerto Montt was a lot of fun.

07 December 89

I can't say there isn't enough going on around here as a reason for not writing! The Polar Duke just left late last week for Punta Arenas, finally. The SAAM military flights from the U.S. got cancelled enough times that they didn't run down to King George Island, so the Duke came back to pick up everything and everyone that needed to go north and made the trip across the Drake. I have been busy the last two weeks writing letters and cards for the holidays. Didn't get through everything, but got through the necessary ones.

I have been working out and keeping a pretty good sched. I have missed a few days here or there, but overall, it is nice to be back into a regular routine. I have been pulling myself out of bed between 5-5:30 a.m. every morning. I seem to have more energy when I first get out of bed than later in the day.

I don't remember how much about my vacation in Chile I told you about, but it was a great time. It seems now like years behind me since I was up there! Here it is already December. Next month the tourists start to come and visit enmasse. That will make the time go by quickly too. I have been learning Dbase III over the past few weeks. It can be tough to force myself to sit down with the book and practice, but I'm coming along with that.

To put last season and this one in a comparison, this one has been a little slower. But I think part of that is because Al and I are already set into our patterns and have a grasp on the job here. Both of us are more relaxed about things too. I'm glad that he is pacing himself; he has to make it through the winter season yet!

The weather here is getting better. It has been staying between 32 and 40 degrees F. Haven't had as much rain as last year at this time, but still have some bouts of snow without accumulation. The days are continuous now. The sun comes up around 4 a.m. or so and goes down around 1 a.m. We have a kind of perpetual dusk in between those hours. Probably won't see dark again until around late February or so. The penguins, cormorants, skuas, gulls and petrels are all nesting now. Yesterday, we saw a couple of whales off the pier about 500 yards. Seems somewhat early compared to last year for whales, but they're always welcome!

Hate to break it to you, but the "Men of Antarctica" calendar was only a winter project with a very limited number of copies available (probably too many if you ask me) following the Wincruise III. Actually, we did it, then only sent out copies to those few female scientists who were down over that winter season. It was quite the scene and I'm sure they roared when they saw it.

Our cook, Dick, never lived down his picture. That's what he gets for trying to cover everything up with an eggbeater and a knife!! He tried to use a frying pan to cover things up better in a reshoot, but the editors didn’t approve of that reshoot and ended up just using a magic marker to cover uncompromised parts on the first picture since it was a better shot! (The editors being Marcia, the only woman winter-over this year and Pat, who was the brain-child of the project).

08 December 89

Everything here is going well. The weather is great here too, just not quite as warm as by you. We have had many more sunny days this summer than last. Yesterday it was about 41 degrees and sunny. It's about the same today. We have had some bouts of snow flurries, but overall, the weather is beautiful. Finally, the snow and ice is melting off and more of the rocks are visible--not that they are anything spectacular to look at. Looks like it has been warmer here all week than in Chicago. This last winter here didn't even get as cold as it is in Chicago now!

I know how difficult it can be to speak over the HAM connection, but you seem to do better than many others. It takes some getting used to, but by now I say "over" without thinking. It will be strange to go back to a normal telephone again.

Had a great Thanksgiving here. Holidays are always nice. Everyone is kind of like a family here. We live, work and eat in the same two buildings, so it keeps us pretty close. The camaraderie is about the same as it was in the military, maybe closer at times. I'm sure Christmas dinner will be good too. Last night Bob, our cook made up rabbit. He baked it up in two different sauces. One was with tomatoes and onions and the other was a cream and sherry sauce with mushrooms. The rabbit was real tender and practically fell off the bones.

Chapter 12 - Winter Over Report for 1989

2005-07-07T03:40:00.000+04:00

WINTER-OVER 1989 REPORT

INTRODUCTION:

This report is written to give the reader information concerning the performance of various systems at Palmer Station and to provide an overview of the tasks accomplished during the winter-over period from 04 June 1989 until 14 October 1989.

With the current continuity of personnel in the Comms Department this season, this report will not give a status on every piece of equipment or every responsibility of the communications position. It will give a concise review of the problems that arose during the winter months and provide an explanation of the solutions. This report will also contain an account of other activities that required attention during the season.

Software and hardware changes made during the summer season of 1988-1989 made a significant difference in the operations of the communications at Palmer. During the winter period few changes were necessary to maintain the flow of traffic. The Comms Inventory has on the other hand, received a major facelift this season to create a constructive and useful document that reflects the available resources.

COMMS CENTER OPERATIONS AND MESSAGE TRAFFIC:

As noted in the introduction, few changes were necessary to maintain the flow of traffic during the winter months.

During late June, a Users Reference Guide was written in preparation for the incoming Wincruise III scientists. This guide consists of answers to common questions asked by the scientists concerning message handling, E-mail addresses, facsimile and telex transmission, as well as INMAR$AT use. A Marsgram Reference Guide was also written to assist the large number of people incoming who are unfamiliar with the Mars network. Similar to the Users Reference Guide, this guide answers common questions of "how to" write a marsgram.

The Black Box arrived in late June. Phone connectors for the clean air building, T-5, the phone patch, the fax machine and the modem that were previously lying loose behind the computer are now interfaced into a switching center type box. The Black Box allows the INMAR$AT line to be switched from Comms to various users as required. The DR and WHEREIS tool programs and Word Perfect were installed on the Compaq computer in lab 5 to prepare for WINCRUISE III users.

Mid-August after receiving the Blast books, we began to send UV files in an archived format. After reading through the manuals and speaking with South Pole, we discovered what was necessary for us to transmit files in an archived format that would not be corrupted. Upon confirmation of the files being received uncorrupted and without error by Rocky Booth, the required script changes were implemented to allow the script to send the files automatically.

During late August, McMurdo began sending VAR message traffic through the Telemail system. This was in part due to a lengthy communications blackout at McMurdo Station. To date McMurdo is sending VAR traffic over the Telemail system concurrent with their RTTY transmissions.

The end of August brought many problems sending through the ATS-3 system due to problems with the transmitter at University of Miami. Traffic during this time fell up to four days behind, but according to the station manager did not warrant using the INMAR$AT for sending Telemail traffic. Malabar made the switch back to 1200 baud during the early part of September relieving the ATS-3 transmission problems and requiring minor changes to the scripts. An adjustment was necessary to decrease the deviation of our SAM-08 modem, which was accomplished with Malabar's assistance.

Normal radio schedules were kept with the R/V Polar Duke and Faraday Station as required. In addition to these, impromptu schedules were occasionally arranged for communications with Marambio Station and Jubany per request of the Argentines regarding updates on the state of the Bahia Paraiso. Regular contact was maintained as required on the aircraft frequency during pass overs and landings made by Kenn-Borek Twin Otters and Argentine air traffic during the winter months.

METEOROLOGY:

Meteorological information was collected and passed to Faraday Station without problems this winter season. The fan in the shelter was removed in June to avoid being exposed to winter weather. The dew point cell was mounted vertically in the shelter to keep it from sitting in snow inside the bottom of the shelter. In September, a hinge to the shelter broke loose under the weight of the snow and ice built up on it. Rich Skane replaced the hinges and repaired the damage to the door. At the end of September the wind indicator stopped operating. The indicator was repaired after the start of the '89-'90 summer season and is operational at this time.

ANTENNAS:

The only major problems to occur during the winter months requiring repair were with antennas. The Yagi antenna on top of the Biolab building started working sporadically in July. The connector had pulled out of the casing and was replaced. The antenna worked well for one week and stopped working again. The cable, connectors and baluns were then replaced. It appears that the baluns were corroded and were not sufficiently protected from the weather and salt spray. Upon replacement the baluns were covered with a sealant to protect them. The Yagi has been operational since that time.

During a severe windstorm at the end of July, the VHF antenna on the Biolab roof broke loose from its bracket causing the antenna to lean over. A missing/broken bolt and nut were replaced with no other damage to the antenna. An antenna check was made at this point to make sure no other antennas were damaged during the windstorm.

INVENTORY:

The communications inventory system has, during the winter season, evolved into a useable document that represents the shop's available resources. The inventory file now reflects the actual locations and amounts of supplies and equipment on hand. Along with these changes, the inventory once divided into three different files is now combined into one file. This allows the user in Comms to page through only one document when looking for a particular piece of equipment instead of three or more. Files now in one document may be arranged in any order (i.e. by description or alphanumerically) with dBase III to find the desired part without searching through many files.

By far, the most difficult task was reorganizing the semiconductor parts by generic or ECG part numbers. This task required researching every part number and cross referencing that number with an ECG number. Two sections of the inventory required cross referencing and reorganizing. The inventory now reflects this reorganization.

Changes in the inventory were made to reflect the packing of the FRT-39 transmitter and associated equipment and Model 40 teletype equipment scheduled to go to McMurdo in December. Over the winter season this equipment was packed in boxes and an inventory for each box was prepared.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

After spending so much time working with the inventory this winter, my first recommendation would be to keep the Communications Department inventory current. This should be accomplished by regular entries into the inventory of incoming supplies as well as documenting with some regularity the parts usage over a given period of time or whenever a new shipment is brought in.

With communications becoming increasingly dependent upon computers and programs, it is necessary to have some type of continuity folder. This folder should contain a breakdown of the responsibilities, explanations concerning the handling of both data traffic and voice traffic, and provide general guidelines for using the equipment and programs available in the communications center.

I cannot stress strongly enough the necessity of allowing more turnover time than the ten days I was given, to train the incoming Comms Coordinator and Comms Technician. A one month turnover would be considered adequate to provide the required time for training new and returning personnel without jeopardizing the communications support to the science community at Palmer Station.

The training of incoming personnel to handle ATS-3 traffic should begin with the use of manual commands. This will stress understanding of the scripts and macro keys by demonstrating how each interacts with the VAX to accomplish the mail process. Scripts accomplish their job nicely in the summer, but are easily corrupted and may require manual commands during the noisy periods on the satellite in the winter months. Without knowledge of how the scripts and macro keys operate, it will be very difficult and confusing to send or receive mail. It must be pointed out that different processes are used by Palmer than South Pole. Attempts to train Palmer people at the corporate office by South Pole communications people tends only to confuse and frustrate the learning process at Palmer.

If a time constraint in hiring is any problem in filling these positions, it is considered by me to be far more important to deploy the Comms people to Palmer one month early in lieu of sending them to schools for two or three weeks prior to departure. Certainly schools are rewarding in their opportunity to provide knowledge of the operation and the repair of equipment, however, the on-the-job training being less structured than the schools but broader in scope takes more time than is presently allowed to insure continuous and unimpeded support to the scientists at the station.

CONCLUSION:

The summer installation of BLAST in place of Crosstalk and ProComm cut down to almost nothing our traffic backlog during "blackout" times in the winter months. Previous Comms Coordinators have in past winters spent many hours trying to catch up on a backlog due to poor satellite conditions. The longest period of downtime experienced over this last season was four days. This software has helped the Comms Department to continue business as usual under conditions of frequent noise and periods of dropouts in the satellite operations. BLAST has more than proven itself reliable software for the conditions of satellite communications on ATS-3.

The accomplishment of a piece by piece inventory this winter now reflects the inventory on hand and the equipments' current location. The inventory previously was divided into so many files, it was frustrating and futile to try and locate any equipment using the printouts. With the combined inventory file, locating equipment is as easy as indexing your inventory by fields to find what you need. As with the old inventory, equipment may still be crossed referenced by the "equipment supported" field.

Although the reorganization of the semiconductor parts was a tedious job, the result is an arrangement of like parts filed by a generic part number. It is not necessary to have like parts in different drawers throughout the shop. This arrangement combines the inventory location of similar parts and indicates the true availability under a generic name.

I feel that this winter has been a rewarding experience for me. I expect the changes made to the inventory system are going to make locating items easier for the Comms people yet to come. The information sheets made over the winter season steps users through the process of how to use the editor and how to copy message headers for their outgoing traffic. These sheets are being actively used by the scientists and changes are made whenever necessary to clarify points as they have been brought to my attention. I believe that I have given my all to support the science effort here at Palmer and have enjoyed working with and learning from the scientists this winter.

David D. Gallas
1989 Winter-over
Communications Coordinator
Palmer Station

(insert Palmer Wx here)

Chapter 11- Back to Palmer

2005-07-06T03:38:00.000+04:00

04 November 89

Sorry it's taken me soooo long to respond to your marsgrams. I did live through the ship rides--both ways!! Actually, the second trip was smoother, but I wasn't up to par. Didn't woof my cookies, but did a lot of sleeping and reading. The trip north was the worst storm that many of the crew has seen. We had up to sixty foot swells and did a couple of nice 45 degree rolls.

We did make it to P.A. in one piece, somehow! Spent a day in P.A. with the departing Palmer crew and then flew up to Puerto Montt for a few days. The temps were great, in the 60's the whole time in Puerto Montt and 50's in Punta Arenas.

We got back to Palmer on the 29th of October. I received the second box from you on Halloween. The candy was a nice touch, especially since I received it on Halloween! Thanks for buying all that stuff for me. I suppose that I could have lived without the most of it, but it is always nice to have personal items that you are used to. The jeans fit well. I did send off a letter and I think some postcards from Chile, so you should have those by now.

I caught some kind of bug when I got back and have been sleeping most of my evenings away to get rid of it. Feeling better tonight, but I'm on watch till 4 a.m. and it's only after 1 a.m. now. I ended up taking a nap earlier in the evening to prepare myself. I haven’t opened the Christmas presents yet. I'll hold onto them so that I have something to open then.

05 November 89

It's been a busy day here. Greenpeace came in yesterday and will do some inspections for pollution from the station and probably from the Bahia Paraiso as well.

I'm cooking dinner with another guy this afternoon and just got the steaks in a marinade an hour or so ago. Spoke with Gram this afternoon on the ATS sched. She sounds like she is doing well, but is worrying a lot about Dad, Mom, Dee and you. She says she doesn't worry about me down here as much as you guys up there!

The job here is going alright so far. I have enough to keep me busy and out of trouble. I only hope that my attitude can stay this good for another five months. So, now I've been back to work for a week and I am feeling settled in again. I'm happy that I've stayed.

The weather has been fairly nice with temps around 30-34 F. I see you are starting to get colder temps than us. Guess summer is coming, finally. Greenpeace is here checking things out this weekend. All things (political and ideological differences) considered, the visit went well.

The crew invited all of us on the station to visit with them on their ship, the M/V Gondwana which is anchored in the harbor. So we had a good afternoon listening to their spiel over some Kiwi beer. Then yesterday, the Greenpeace people spent the day standing on the overturned side of the Bahia Paraiso with their banners while the helicopter with the Fox film crew was flying over taking pictures and video tape. Fox is bumming a ride with Greenpeace to produce some kind of special for television.

I told you this was going to be a circus this year! Poor Peter, our station manager was a wreck worrying about liability problems and what the front office and NSF are thinking about Greenpeace being so close to Palmer.

Hello again, Rick, 07 November 89

I sent out the postcard with the Faraday cache around the middle of last month along with a short letter that I wrote while on the Duke. I asked Al if you had said anything about receiving it, but he said no. Hopefully, you have received that by now. Let me know. I do have another card that I can send if that got lost.

I had a nice week of vacation in Chile before coming back. Took three days and flew up to Puerto Montt. The area was beautiful. I ended up meeting Dennis Hampton, Marcia Medford and Robin Lamere at the airport the next day and we ran into Vince Kelly from the Polar Duke, too. The five of us had a great time.

The seafood was beyond words. I don't know how I will be able to go back to the Midwest after having eaten so much fresh seafood in Punta Arenas and Puerto Montt!

The Puerto Montt area also has a market that sells wool sweaters, straw woven stuff and lapis jewelry. So I managed to pick up sweaters for the family at around $12 a piece which would have run around $75 in the States. What a suitcase load! Robin had to buy another suitcase in Puerto Montt for all the sweaters that he bought! We had a great time, but it was too short, as are all vacations.

So, now I'm "home" back at Palmer and working on settling back into the grind again. I expect to be here until the end of March or April. I have a ton of marsgrams to catch up on too, so you will be seeing them from me for awhile to come.

07 November 89

Dennis,

How is life back in civilization? Life here is going along alright. I think I'm finally settling back into a normal pattern again. Still need to start my workouts again, but everything else is humming along. I wanted to thank you and Marcia and Robin for stopping in and spending some time in Puerto Montt. It really made my vacation fun. I'm anxious to hear about your journey on the train back north through to Santiago. How was your car drive around the Big Lake? I really want to make that trip myself, so any helpful hints you can offer would be appreciated.

I have to write Robin yet, but I figure that I have a couple more days until he gets back home. I wonder how his New York pilgrimage went. I'm sure that he had a blast. Has anyone heard from Pat or Dick? I don't expect that we will hear from Dick for a couple of months with him in Ecuador.

As it turned out, I could have stayed in Puerto Montt since the container ship didn't arrive in P.A. until the following day. So we left 24 hours behind sched. The trip back wasn't as rough as the trip north, but I still spent most of the trip sleeping and reading. Maybe it was just depression about coming back. I did have serious thoughts of going north while waiting in the Puerto Montt airport.

We had a good Halloween party. It seems like it is going to be a quieter season than last year. There was finally some dancing and general craziness on Halloween, but for the most part, we could have considered the place a morgue.

I've heard enough griping already about the winter-over manager Tom from this group. I'm glad that I haven't been called upon to defend him or his actions! He made such a big deal about the cohabitation on station with the oncoming summer crew, but things are going alright now. Peter seems to be a bit more at ease with people and the wide range of personalities with forty-five people on station now.

We did get a pep-talk from the new oncoming contractor, Holmes-Narver. They are interested in names and addresses of people who may want to come back in the future. If you need their address for when you get out of the navy, drop me a line.

I hope everything is going well for you back home with your family and your new assignment. Lisa and Andy say hello.

08 November 89

I'm sorry I woke you up when I called a couple of weeks ago. Our new ATS satellite time is now at 11 a.m. your time.

My trip north to Chile was great. I couldn't say too much over the phone, because I would have ended up spending the whole time talking and would have needed another half hour to finish!

The trip back to Palmer was relatively uneventful. We got back on the Sunday before Halloween and had our big party on Sunday night. It felt nice to be back "home" again. It's funny to think that I've lived here longer than at the condo we own! Just a few more months now.

We have just caught wind of the German's opening of travel restrictions in Berlin. I can't believe it's actually happening. It's about time! I only wonder how long until Germany is once again reunified. As much as no one wants to admit it, or as much as the Russians will fight it, it is only a matter of time. I have read that people were taking chunks out of the wall too! Someone here received a letter that the said the East Germans were astounded at the consumer goods available and some even saw a VCR for the first time. Unbelievable! Hopefully, there is no turning back now.

17 November 89

Boy, you are cranking out the letters lately! I have been trying to get my Christmas cards/letters out when the ship leaves next week after Thanksgiving. Guess I'll start answering all of your questions from you last marsgrams:

Yes, the jeans fit well. Maybe I can lose weight over the next four months to make them not fit, but don't bet on it. I'm at 185 now due to two big meals being served every day of the week and too many deserts and beer.

Next letter; say no more, it was too depressing!

About the CD's: Yes, please turn them over, but only into six month CD's. I don't want to tie my money up for too long of a period at this point.

18 November 89

There are so many of this new crew that have earrings. Talking with our assistant cook Meg last week, she volunteered to do piercings for any of us that wanted them. Bob our cook has said that he had a spare earring he’d give me, so I was ready to take the big step.

Meg, with leather needle in hand, met a few of us at the bar that night. Medicated with only a couple of drinks and bar ice applied to my ear lobe (for not long enough, I might add), I now am officially decorated.

Good thing she did mine first! Greg went after me and she had one hell of a time getting the needle through his ear. I thought that she was going to have to put him in a Three Stooges headlock in order to land the needle through his earlobe! It wasn’t too bloody, just much more effort than it took to do mine.

In other news; Bob Taylor, our cook and I received some unique hair styles last weekend. I had my head shaved and Bob got a Mohawk! We raised money for the March of Dimes. We decided that we may as well have a reason to lose our hair. So far, I'm growing back pretty quick. I did get some good pictures from all of it. I had someone here take some shots!

The weather here is getting warmer and the penguins, cormorants, kelp gulls and skuas are all back now. The penguins have eggs already. The scientists here studying them say that the mortality rate will be high this year due to the amount of snow that is still on the ground. The temps have already hit 43 F and we are getting a lot more rain and snow mixed when we do have precipitation. Soon, all the rocks will be exposed again. I don't even want to think about the tourist ships coming in around January. It can be like having company that won't leave!

You were asking about the southern lights. We don't get the chance to see them because we are so far north. They are supposed to be more visible at the South Pole and at McMurdo Station, I'm told from people here now that have worked there. We do have a good view of the southern constellations though.

Thanks for offering, but there isn't anything that you can send me. After being here for a year, you either learn to do without or improvise (in all respects)!

Chapter 10 - On to Puerto Montt

2005-07-04T01:54:00.000+04:00

I left Punta Arenas, Chile on 20 October 1989 on a flight to Puerto Montt in the heart of the Lakes Region of Chile. I had the go-ahead from Karen, so I decided to take the opportunity and head up to Puerto Montt. On the same flight was the NSF Rep Al Sutherland and Bill Spindler. They were heading back stateside and would remain on the plane up to Santiago, during its stopover in Puerto Montt. It was an exciting feeling to think that I would soon be in the air again.

Once at the airport, we got checked in with no problems and had headed up to the balcony overlooking the tarmac to have a view of the runway. While we headed up the steps, we passed a well dressed guy of about twenty or so who gave us a look of amazement to hear someone speaking in English. He came up and introduced himself and told us that he was a missionary from the Mormon Church in Utah. He and his friends had been in Chile for eighteen months and were headed up to Osorno for another six months before returning home.

The flight to Puerto Montt was about two hours and ten minutes. Bill and I sat across from one another and chatted during this time mostly about ANS that type of stuff. Bill was reading the newspapers and translating what he could with my dictionary about the earthquake in San Francisco. During the last couple of days, we have heard many stories of the number of dead and the extent of the damage.

We arrived in Puerto Montt around 3:45 p.m. and the view was just breathtaking. From the air I could see the snowcapped mountains and volcanoes and the sun reflecting off the lakes. I was somewhat nervous about arriving in a place that I knew little or nothing about except what I've read, but somehow I would manage.

I ran into our missionary friends again waiting for my luggage. I think they were surprised that I had no idea where I was staying or going to! They then boarded a bus for Osorno and I hailed a cab headed for the city.

For the first time since I have been in South America, I had to pick up the dictionary. I asked the cabbie to take me to the Hotel Central. I figured that this should pan out ok since the South American Handbook recommended it and said that it had a German owner, Hans.

The cab ride from the airport was great. The two main volcanoes/mountains towered over the countryside---their caps still covered with snow. Spring had already sprung here and the bright sunny color of goldenrod ran rampant. The temperature was now about 65 degrees compared to the 55 degrees when I left Punta Arenas this morning.

Well, we arrived at the Hotel, and the cab driver couldn't break the 5 mil I had (which was the smallest bill that I had!) So we somehow agreed that we could get it changed when I got into the hotel. He rang the buzzer and the door buzzed. Soon enough, we were up the stairs and in the foyer of the hotel. An old woman about sixty or so was now running the place. She and the cab driver were chattering back and forth. From what I caught of the conversation, she wouldn't change the bill for him, but she would change it if I gave it to her as her customer.

She broke the bill and gave the cabbie his money. I thanked him again and he was gone.

The proprietor showed me the room at this time and all I could think to myself was, "What a fleabag motel!!" I knew that I had stepped into it with both feet now, but figured that I could manage this for a few days.

The door to the room was covered with split bamboo poles and was like a set of French double doors. The beds were low to the floor. The room had a sink and shower, but a community toilet. Well, what do you want for 2 mil a night?!

The bare wood floor was buffed with paste wax which made the rubber soles of my gym shoes squeak as I walked across it. The wallpaper was water stained in places and gift-wrapped around corners of the room. The linoleum in the bath area was an ugly blue pattern, curled up around the edges. The shower and sink looked like an afterthought addition to the room!

I was told that breakfast was not included and there is no TV in the room. I also found out about 9 p.m. that the "hotel" had this security system that locked you in your room. So if you had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom you would have to buzz the buzzer, wake up the dogs who in turn wake up everyone else. I guess if I had to, I could pee in the sink!

If there were no other redeeming qualities to this hotel, the view from the windows of the harbor was captivating. The massive eight foot high by four wide, windows of the room overlooked the middle of Pedro Montt Street and gave a beautiful view of the sea, with the snowcapped mountains as a backdrop. I had already committed myself to staying here and hadn't done any further research, so I stayed.

I didn't want to waste any time sitting around the room, so I quickly sat down with the old lady and asked where to go and what to see in my piecemeal Spanish. Debi, I could kiss you for sending that dictionary! Without the dictionary, life in Puerto Montt would have been difficult if not impossible. I did find out that Angelmo (on-gyel-mo) was nearby and was a good place to buy sweaters. The book had stated this too, but she drew me a map of where to go. She also suggested that I go to Chiloe (chil-o-ay) and advised me that there were bus trips that ran there.

So I was off! The gringo loose in the streets of Puerto Montt. I did find out quickly that although there had been a strong German influence in the city, not much was left of that influence now. In other words, my German did me absolutely no good here!

My first major journey would be to Angelmo. Somehow I took the long way through the side streets and passed a German consulate. It felt great to be able to walk a long haul again after being cooped up in Antarctica so long.

I walked for only about fifteen minutes before reaching the first market stalls that were selling sweaters. The stalls were brightly lit on the sunny side of the street and were typically constructed with cedar or mahogany bleached shingles. I stayed on the other side of the street until I had past the harbor area and come to the market on the shaded side that I was walking on.

I looked in those stalls, and then crossed the street to walk and see the bay area of Angelmo and check out the harbor. A massive cross sat on the top of the hillside across from the harbor towering down and looking out to the open water. Wooden boats lay along the beach due to an apparent low tide. I wished I had brought my camera, but I didn't want to look any more like a tourist that I already was. Besides, Doc, Marcia and Robin would be in the following day. We could get some better pictures then.

Touring through the stalls, I did start to get great ideas for gifts for everyone. But, why load up now? The sweaters were beautiful as was the lapis jewelry. There also was quite a bit of woven type items.

At one stall, I did find a sweater I liked. I struggled through a few words in Spanish until a dark haired girl intervened for me and acted as translator. I surprised to find someone who could speak English so well in such a remote area. Her dialect was noticeably not Spanish. We got to talking and I found out that she was German. She was a student traveling for a couple of months in Chile. We spoke about Germany and Chile for about five minutes or so and then said our goodbyes.

I walked back to town basking in the warm Puerto Montt sun. The wind picked up some off the harbor and it was already six p.m. I wandered my way back to town, past the German Consulate building I had passed earlier and found my way to a bakery in town. That was as good of place as any to pick up a bottle of mineral water with a screw top. I know my body well enough to not chance any change in water!

Walking back to the hotel, I detoured into a leather shop. The salesman was a young guy probably about eighteen or so. He spoke a few words of English, but not too much. I really liked the leather jackets they had and the prices were very reasonable. We were still chatting in his broken English and my dictionary Spanish. I told him that I only spoke German and he then lead me over to another customer in the store. He told her that I spoke German, and she instantly started speaking with me in German.

Turns out that she is a German teacher in the school in Puerto Montt. It felt so comfortable to speak and be fully understood again. English may be my first language, but German works pretty well for me too, no matter where in the world I end up!

I was kind of tired from all of the walking, but needed to write out some postcards to everyone back home. Tomorrow the group would arrive and we would be reunited again after our one day separation. It would be a welcome meeting since I have felt like such a foreigner here. While writing out postcards in my room at the hotel, I was starting to wonder if I wanted to stay in this dumpy hotel and whether I could expect the others to tolerate the atmosphere I was barely tolerating.

I finished my postcards and was anxious to do some reading. I had picked up international issues of the current Time and Newsweek. At Palmer all our magazines would arrive in bulk and usually a couple of months old. Boy, it's great to read CURRENT news, as its happening. Too bad there wasn't any news on the earthquake yet. The hotel manager had a TV that I could hear through the paper walls, but the rooms did not. I turned in around 10:10 p.m.

What the heck is all of the racket?!? I just got woke up out of a dead sleep by a lot of laughing and loud music. I scrambled for my watch and found it was 2 a.m. It sounds like a damn disco is under my bed!

I lay awake until they finally closed up and pulled the gait over the doorway at around 4:30 a.m. Next thing I remember is the alarm clock going off at 8:30 a.m. I was still pissed about being kept up all night and decided that I had had enough of "roughing it." I would shower, dress and go out to look for another hotel. I couldn't stand the noise another night and I couldn't expect Robin, Doc and Marcia to put up with this either.

I opened the handbook and started walking. I smartened up and started asking prices and to see the rooms first. I came across the Hotel Montt and knew after I walked out the door that this was the place I wanted to be. I made my reservations then and there. It may have cost 8 mil a night, but after last night, I would have paid anything for a good night of sleep.

I high-tailed it back to the Hotel Fleabag to grab my bag and check out. I felt relieved at this point and my whole attitude started to change. Earlier in the morning, I felt like leaving Puerto Montt completely and going straight back to Punta Arenas.

The rooms in the Hotel Montt were great and almost reminded me of the Holiday Inn or Ramada Inn back home. Carpeted floors, full bath in the room, hot water throughout the day (not just in the morning between 8 and 8:30!), TV in the rooms, the rooms were clean and the desk people were polite and patient with my inability to speak Spanish. Breakfast was not included, but the restaurant was good and fairly inexpensive. There was also a bar in the lobby and the restaurant.

After I moved my suitcases into the Hotel Montt, I realized that I was hungry and still had not eaten breakfast. I went downstairs to the restaurant and ordered breakfast.

The waiter came over to me and in Spanish asked if I wanted coffee. The thought of a nice hot cup of coffee sounded great about now. I replied, "Si," to which he asked, "con agua o con leche?"

Well, I have always been one to take milk and sugar. I said, "Con leche."

Next thing I know, the waiter has brought over a tray with Nescafe, freeze dried coffee. I spooned out a couple of spoonfuls into my cup and he then picked up the silver pitcher and proceeded to fill my cup with hot milk! All I could think of at that moment was, "Well, this is different. When in Rome...."

It actually reminded me of Ovaltine and still was refreshing for a morning drink of caffeine.

While in the restaurant, I started to talk to another patron. He was from California and quit his job to travel for about six months. We exchanged addresses, but I never had the chance to look him up when I got back stateside.

Now that the move was over with and I had breakfast in me, I could go to Angelmo again and pick up a couple of things before I had to get the others. They would be arriving at 3:30 p.m.

As I was walking down the street, I realized that I needed some more money, so the first bank I came to, I went in. Too many people, so I went to another.

I walked over to the counter and asked the uniformed officer where I could change money. He pointed over to a couple of desks on the other side of the room. When I got there, a Chilean in a black leather jacket said to me, "You don't want to change money here. The rate is only 280---Come with me..."

So I followed him out the door and down a small hallway of storefronts next to a black market cambio. He said the rate was 310 and it was reliable. I thanked him and complimented him on his English. He replied back that he was Canadian!

Now, with money in pocket, I was ready to head off to Angelmo. I only went a couple of blocks away and I heard someone shouting, "Dave, hey Dave!" There are very few Chileans named Dave, but who the hell knows me in Puerto Montt!?

I turned around and there is Vince Kelly, one of the former Polar Duke coordinators. I said to Vince, "I thought you were in Belize already."

"No, I was in P.A. for awhile, then I took the ship from Puerto Natalles up to Puerto Montt. That is the ship over there in the harbor that we arrived on."

Vince and I walked over to Angelmo, a little fishing village nearby and ate lunch. As an appetizer we ordered fresh oysters and sea cucumbers. The oysters were great and really fresh, but I left the sea cucumbers to Vince. There was just no way that I could have choked them down. I had this reflex thing going on in my throat once I saw them! My stomach doesn't get queasy very easily, but to see these things floating in a bowl was quite enough. It looked like a big bowl of snot! Vince kept telling me that these were a delicacy.

We met up with the two other guys he was to meet. One of the guys had been one of his bunkies on the ship. The other was a Canadian from Montreal who ended up as one of the roommates from the hostel they were at - Raul's.

You know, I looked for that place, but it looked like part of a warehouse complex! I ended up going up there with Vince later and met Raul. He was a great guy as Alison Hedberg (the first season Palmer Assistant Cook who traveled Chile when she left back in March) had said.

Raul's boarding house that has rooms for two or three people with a full bath in the room. If you are alone, that's no problem as they will room you with others. Vince ended up meeting a few good people there, but admitted he liked the Hotel Montt much better once he had a look around. Raul speaks English pretty good, likes Americans and is genuinely friendly.

This would be the next best alternative if you are traveling alone and out to meet people. His place is located on 136 Concepcion. Find Concepcion and walk away from the waterfront inland to the end (it's a very short street). Turn right and follow the crushed stone alley-way to the end. I know it looks like a bunch of warehouses, but his door is the last one there or the next to last one.

I scrapped plans to go to Angelmo at this point and tagged along with Vince and the Canadian. We walked up to the tourist center so that they could get more information on the area, and we got the chance to see some of Puerto Montt.

Around 2 p.m., I asked Vince to get me a cab. Vince speaks Spanish, so he had no trouble getting me where I was going. I also asked him if he could get the cabbie to wait at the airport with me, because I didn't want to get taken advantage of again as I had the first time. So we arranged a price for him to wait with me until the others' plane came in.

The plane was on time, but we were early. I tried to make small talk with the cabbie who was only probably about thirty. He didn't speak English and I didn't speak Spanish, so we alternated on using the dictionary to get our points across to one another and carried on an actual conversation. It beat the heck out of charades!

The others arrived on the flight from Punta Arenas and collected their bags. Soon all four of us were crammed into a Ford cab with all the luggage. I kind of felt like a travel agent; picking them up at the airport and taking them to the hotel and getting them checked in, then showing them around town. It was great having at least part of the old crew back together again. It was like brothers and sisters seeing one another after a long time. Staying so long together at Palmer made me a little lost inside when I was separated from them, and we were only separated for one day!

I'm glad that I was able to hold the cabbie. It saved me the trouble of having to get another one along with the worries of whether I would get taken to the cleaners for the trip. I made sure to make up the favor to the cabbie with his tip. The cost of the cab was only three mil, but I negotiated the price up to four mil. I got ribbing from the others about what a "great deal" I made. They reminded me that you are supposed to negotiate prices down!

That night we ate at Matt's Pizza at 65 Pedro Montt. Food was good and the atmosphere was good. Not too much English was spoken, but armed with someone who can speak Spanish or a good dictionary, it's no problem. The pizza was pretty good and Robin opted for the chicken sandwich. He recommends the Aves (Av.), palte, tom sandwich which was chicken, avocado and tomato.

After dinner, we wandered around Puerto Montt just doing some window shopping. The others wanted to see the dive that I had stayed in the night before and find out what night life we were missing. This based off of my description of getting woken up the night previous.

We walked into the door below the Hotel Central and discovered there were families eating and dining together there. The others looked at me strange and gave me more grief.

"So, it's a disco, huh? Dave's Family Disco."

Really, it didn't sound like any restaurant I've been to at 2:30 a.m.!

We settled in for a beer and kicked back for a bit at "Dave's Family Disco" before going back to the hotel to turn in for the night.

The next day, Saturday, we rented a car and made our way down to the island of Chiloe. The weather was beautiful and the countryside was great too. We caught the ferry across to the island. The island reminded me of Wisconsin only more rural. On all the roads on the island and on the mainland, the road is shared with cattle and oxen-driven carts. The goldenrod was all in bloom, so the rolling fields were blanketed with gold. The houses are all made of wood and covered with cedar type shingles that have long been washed out by the sun.

We finally got to Ancud by around noon. Ancud is home to the old Spanish fort, Fuerte San Antonio. The fort on the island was the last Spanish stronghold to be turned over to the Chileans. The museum and the artifacts were interesting.

We ate at a fantastic local restaurant just off of the market square on B. Encalada and Pedeto Streets called the Balai. We were fortunate enough that Curante was being served that day. Curante is a huge serving of fresh steamed mussels and clams from the local beds; served with a spicy tomato sauce on the side, a portion of chicken, a portion of pork rib and two different types of starchy pancake type things that we were unable to identify but tasted good. All this is put together and steamed in the ground. I have never eaten such fresh clams and mussels. They were taken fresh from the local beds which we saw from the fort, overlooking the shallow bay. Of all the meals I had in the Lakes Region, this was probably the best. The Chileans never seem to let you go away hungry.

After all that, we drove another 50 miles south to the city of Castro. Castro is well known for its wool market and for shipbuilding. The big pink church with the leaning steeples are also one of the cities claims to fame. The church looks like it had been built during the Spanish occupation prior to independence.

The houses on stilts as you're coming into town are interesting and are mentioned in the South American Handbook. These homes are built on stilts around an inlet which forms a lake during high tide and is a dry bed during low tide.

Vince let us off at the market and he went up the road to check out the shipbuilding going on. He wants to have a small wooden boat built and shipped north. The island is pretty densely forested and the wooden boats are built locally.

We stopped on the way back home at a pub on the waterfront. As with many other waterfront buildings, the pub was on stilts and jutted out into the harbor alongside the docks. It was a nice place to watch the gulls and catch a beer while relaxing for a few minutes before our journey back to Puerto Montt.

We ended up getting back to Puerto Montt that night around 11 p.m. and went out to grab a bite to eat at 11:30 at Dino's. Dino's was kind of like a Perkins or Denny's and great for a cup of coffee or quick sandwich.

The following day, the other four took me to the airport. They had one more day left, so they headed out on a car tour around the Big Lake. I had made copies of maps and photocopied info about the towns around the Big Lake--Puerto Montt-Puerto Varas-Puerto Octay-Ensenada and back. The mountains and volcanoes are beyond words in this region.

While waiting in the airport at Puerto Montt to fly back south to Punta Arenas, I was starting to regret my decision to return. I came back to reality as my plane taxied onto the runway and we began boarding the flight. Seems there were some bets running back at Palmer on whether I would jump ship before I made it back to Palmer!

Ended up with another day in Punta Arenas since a ship with a container we needed didn't arrive on time. So, I could have stayed the extra day in Puerto Montt after all.

I did have the chance to see the crabbers bring in a fresh load of King crab and load the baskets onto the trucks. That night we went over to one of the local hotel restaurants and had a huge plate of crab meat. Yes, I am very spoiled. If nothing else, I ate very well in Chile.

I seem to have even started to pick up the Chilean habits of eating late. The Chileans eat around 9-10 p.m., party late and don't start work until 10 a.m. Siesta is from around 12:30 p.m. until 2:30 p.m., and they work till 8 p.m.

Had a miserable trip back south. I wasn't "throwing up" seasick, but lay in my bunk most of the time and just read. Didn't even feel like watching videos. The trip wasn't as rough as the northbound crossing, but it was by no means "Drake Lake" like it was when I first came down last year!

Chapter 9 - Boondoggling the Antarctic Waters

2005-07-01T00:52:00.000+04:00

10 October 89

Today is the tenth and it's the third day I've been on the Polar Duke. It is sort of a vacation until I get back on the 28th of October to Palmer.

The first night we went up to the Gerlache Strait and then spent two days going in circles for the scientists on the ship. I know, it does sound stupid!!

The scientists were surveying an island to set up a weather station for six months, but the snow was too deep at the best landing site, and the swell was three feet---not the most favorable conditions for landing a Zodiac. There was too much snow on the island to land anywhere safely. Now they are trying to find suitable alternatives to the initially chosen sites. They did end up getting the sediment traps down.

The UV studies went well from what I hear. From there we were going to go out near the Drake Passage, but stayed in the Bransfield Strait and came into the Dahlmann Bay just north of Anvers Island. No luck locating a spot for the weather station, but more UV studies. Now it's about 11 p.m. and I hear we will be in the Lamere Channel by morning (if I'm awake!).

The view is beautiful. We still have a lot of snow. Yesterday we did a circle around an iceberg that was about eight stories tall and about a half of a city block square.

There are only four of us on the ship from Palmer right now. Dick our cook, Pat the GFA from Elmhurst and Alan Campbell who is working on being the most famous Antarctic artist (seriously, no joke) and me. Alan will be getting off when we go back to Palmer. He will stay until the next ship goes north. Pat has been having mild bouts with seasickness but won't admit it. The rest of us aren't too bad.

This morning when we were in the Bransfield Straits and the sea was the roughest I've been in since I came down. But I felt ok. Had to tie things down in the Lab since it had all been undone earlier this week. We are going into another circle now. It's a funny feeling when the ship is circling around.

10 October 1989 9:30 p.m.

Just got back from a slide show. One of the scientists on the ship gave us a show on the beaches of Texas near Port Aransas. He has been documenting the destruction of the beach over the last twelve or so years. Just found out that we aren't staying overnight here. The ship is enroute now to the Lamere Channel. Too bad, I was hoping to be able to get some nice pictures of the Neumeyer Channel. Hopefully, the weather will be nice and I can get some good shots of the Lamere. My slides didn't turn out the last time we were in the Lamere when we went to Faraday Station.

Karen, the science coordinator on the ship was telling me that I don't have to stay in Punta Arenas during the four day stay up north. She was suggesting that I either go to Puerto Natalles or go and see Torres Del Paines. I want to wait to find out what the others are doing. I'll probably tag along with one group or another and do some sight-seeing. Wish there was enough time to stop at home.

10 October 89

Boy, do I feel like a schmuck! I looked back and your last letter to me was more than a month ago. Actually, I have an excuse, but I don't know how good it is. I was waiting to find out what was going to happen with my job here. About the time I was supposed to write you, my job situation was changing. I'm going to stay at this position for another five months! I wish my life was a little less impromptu at times.

At any rate, things are going alright with me. Right now, I am on the R/V Polar Duke just sailing around for a little break from the normal pace of life at Palmer Station. Most of the crew that came down to Palmer were from last year, so I feel very comfortable with them all. Some of these people we relieved when we came in last year in October! So it's like old home week at the Palmer Ranch.

I boarded the ship three days ago and am being generally lazy. I have managed to watch some movies and have been putzing around with the computer too.

I've not been very diligent at working out over the past couple of months. I feel bad, but I was putting most of my attentions to completing the inventory on station. My shop had not had a complete inventory in three years and for some reason, the inventory was divided up into three different sections. So Marcia and I combined the inventory into one folder so that we could have an accurate idea of what parts are available and how many. I also tasked myself to reorganizing the spare parts by generic number. This required looking up in catalogs all the part numbers and the generic equivalents.

I just finished the day before the ship got in. So that made me feel good. Now that I think of it, I didn't do too much of anything over that last month BUT inventory.

It is always nice to get a plane in with visitors. We got a visit at Palmer by the Argentines who were doing a flyby on the Bahia Paraiso. That whole mess will be stirred up again once the weather is nicer. The Argies also made a fly-by with a KC-9 with "spectators" from Buenos Aires. Who knows what kind of circus that will end up to be! Isn't this the same type of circus that ended up in a plane crash near Mt. Erebus near McMurdo a few years back?! An Aussi tour doing a sight-seeing of Mt. Erebus crashed in the Antarctic "desert" killing everyone.

It's funny, my sister in Naperville had held onto a letter for me from a Dutch friend. Well, she finally sent it to me (postmarked on 22 April!) and I got it on the ship three days ago. I started to read it and it wasn't making any sense. So I finally read the return address and it was from a guy who was on one of the tour ships that came to Palmer during the austral summer. I was thinking it was from my Dutch friends from when I was over in Europe. I didn't expect that at all, so it came as quite a surprise.

Anyway, he was a tour leader and after this Antarctic tour last year, he followed it up with a tour to the Galapagos Islands. So I have to get a letter out to him too.

Take care of yourself and I'll see you later than expected!

10/16/89 02:30 a.m.

Just wanted to jot down some notes about the worst sea experience of my life!

We left port out of Palmer a little late, but around 1115 a.m. on the 14th of October. I realized that we didn't take the Neumeyer Strait when things got rough in the first half-hour into the trip. We headed out north around the west side of Anvers Island and directly out to sea. I've been out on the Duke three other times, but now I am able to distinguish what is meant by "Drake Lake" on a good crossing--as was my initial crossing when I came to Palmer.

My second trip was up to King George Island to the Chilean Base-Tenente Marsh during a five day stint. The third time out was just a quick day trip out to Faraday Station, the British Base, on a winter boondoggle. This, the fourth trip is part vacation that I am getting before I return to do another austral summer at Palmer. I will leave Punta Arenas on the 23rd for my return trip south.

Yesterday at lunch, I was able to put down something, but poor Robin Lamere who is my bunkie had his difficulties. He was losing it by about one in the afternoon.

Robin had taken to marathon puking from about 1:00 p.m. until about 5:00 p.m. He reassured me that he had seen god and sold many Buicks that afternoon.

I switched racks with him and took the upper rack, then made his rack up since he was having such a rough time of things. I haven't thrown up before on the ship, but had the feeling that I could probably make it down faster than he could if the situation required it.

Robin had taken a liking to the sitting on the chair in front of the sink and dry heaving. At one point, he said to me, "You might want to get a different roommate with me puking in the room."

He had already lost all the contents of his stomach and I hadn't requested a non-puking room, so I'd deal with it. Believe me; I was still going through my feelings of queasiness. Once the Dramamine kicked in, I did feel a little bit better. Nonetheless, I stayed in bed just to make sure!

At this point, Robin and Dick led the puking pack with Pat and Marcia running close seconds. BJ was on scopolamine (and probably valium), and Tom was sleeping. Doc was up and about, but being the Navy man that he was, this was a given.

By two, I was feeling queasy, but still managed to compose myself! I took my second Dramamine, and then slept through dinner at five.

I did run into Dick Wall, the cook in the hallway about three. He had just come from the other head (bathroom) and looked like Hell. I asked him if he was ok, and he smiled and replied, "No," in a sickly voice.

Marcia got up at one point to use the head. She was still a little under the weather. During one of the severe pitches, she was opening the head door and tried to brace herself on the door frame while the door was still open. Unfortunately, the door closed completely on her thumbnail. Her thumb swelled up like a balloon. Doc had a look at it and said that she may lose her nail. He didn't have any x-ray equipment on the ship, so that was about as much as could be done until we got to port in Punta Arenas. Kind of a bad deal. She is supposed to go onto New Zeeland and meet her other half to do some scuba and sailing, etc after we get back on solid ground.

(Post Script: Marcia did go to the doctor once stateside. Turned out that she had fractured the bone in the top part of her thumb and had to have the nail removed prior to leaving for New Zealand.)

Got up out of bed around 6:30 p.m. to shower and grab something to eat. As long as I can keep food in my stomach, I am able to handle the sea alright. Doesn't matter what it is, but anything with sugar seems to help me some.

Robin asked me for a Dramamine about 8:00 p.m., but didn't hold it down long enough to work. He was back in bed right away.

Went up to the lounge and watched videos until about one a.m., back to bed at 1:30 a.m. and slept through until about 5 a.m. on the 15th.

Dragged myself up to the kitchen to grab a couple of crackers and cookies and something to drink. The seas were already rough, but the sunrise was a beautiful orange glow on the horizon that peaked in through the round galley window. Then back to the bunk again.

By the time I pulled myself out of bed again, it was 11:45 a.m. I decided I needed a shower since I hadn't showered since the morning before and I felt like garbage. Although it was only a "ship-shower", I felt refreshed enough and headed up for lunch. A ship shower consists of getting yourself wet, turning off the water; soaping yourself up, dousing yourself again with water to wash off the soap. Water is to be spared on the journey and even washing clothes is for the most part reserved as an in-port activity and done sparingly while at sea.

Somehow, I managed to shower with the ship all over the place, rocking back and forth like a rubber ducky in a bathtub. I did want to get up on the bridge to get some pictures of the water breaking over the bow. Man, I wish I had a video camera!

By noon on the 15th, the sea state was at 10 and the ship was taking steady rolls at between 20-30 degrees on either side, back and forth. The waves were around forty feet high. It was very strange to see the seas roll like a big wall in front of you and then disappear, only to find that you were now on top of that wall of water!

BJ came up to the bridge to get some pictures too and Karen was already up with her video camera. About this time, we started taking 40-45 degree rolls and the waves had increased to anywhere from 45-60 feet in height.

It was quite a show! Drawers throughout the ship were flying open and closed as the ship rocked from starboard and port sides. We regularly checked the science labs in the hold to make sure the equipment and drawers were staying latched down and closed.

While down in the hold checking the port side lab, I ran into Vernon Asper (literally!). He and I were walking toward one another in the hold about fifty feet from one another. The next minute the ship rolled to the starboard side and he had disappeared behind the starboard lab while I was crashing into a crate that was latched down in the hold. I ran over to check him and he was ok. We both got quite a laugh about how the scene looked. It was like a big hook just dragged him off-stage after a bad performance!

Back up on the bridge, Karen was filming the breaking waves over the bow. BJ and I were standing on the starboard side of the bridge and Karen was on the other side of the controls on the port side doing her filming. Just then, the ship pitched 45 degrees to the starboard side. Karen dropped the video camera in her clamor to hold onto something. She was able to grab hold to a post next to her. With the 45 degree roll she looked like she had been caught in a stiff wind and her legs were suspended horizontally towards us!

After the ship righted itself, Karen ran over and grabbed the camera which had crashed into the port side wall on its roll back. The impact had been broken by the carpet sliding over during the roll and the camera was still filming. Checking out the footage, Karen definitely caught the thrills of the moment with the video camera.

I went back to bed around 3:30 p.m. after Robin and I put scopolamine patches on one another, in hopes of kicking the queasiness. I missed Brenden's special meal of the day: Smashed Turkey, Smashed potatoes and smashed Broccoli. Dinner may have been a challenge to eat all the same, since the chairs were all bungi corded down to the tables to keep them from dancing around the galley.

Got up around seven p.m. and the waves had calmed somewhat with less severity and less frequency. Snacked on some turkey and went up to the lounge to catch some movies.

It's about 03:15 a.m. on the 16th now. We are still rocking and rolling, but at least now I can write and am able to catch the events of the day on paper. I've tucked a pillow under the edge of the mattress to keep me in the rack should we run into more rough water again while I'm sleeping.

Chapter 8 - Labor Day Picnic on the Glacier

2005-06-30T01:44:00.000+04:00

Labor Day Picnic - September 3rd 1989 (Sunday Night)

We had a picnic on the glacier for the Labor Day holiday on Sunday night. It was great. Everyone got bundled up in their warm clothes to get on a sled pulled by snowmobile to go up to the top of the glacier.

I was still sending out traffic, so I told the rest that I would hike my way up and meet them up there. It took me about thirty minutes to finish up what I had to do and soon I was on my way up the glacier at around 7:30 p.m.

I walked out of Biolab and past the carpenter shop, GWR and continued up the hill past the T-5 building and then behind the Clean Air Facility. The glacier starts at ground level at a dip in the rocks behind the Clean Air Facility and slopes at a nice 25-30 degree incline about one half mile up to the top. The top of the glacier on a clear day is a long flat surface of normally, snow-covered ice. During the summer months, the snow melts off this ice surface and is very slick to walk up in most places.

I couldn't see the campfire up top, but that wasn't too unusual as it was dark and there was a light mist in the air and a low cloud ceiling this night. Under normal circumstances, the light from the station reflects with all the snow and ice, illuminating the path to the top of the glacier. On a clear night from the station, you will see to the top of the glacier and all the stars above.

The trails up to the top are marked at the beginning of the summer season and then regularly checked for crevasses and marked with posts. When I first started my trek at the base of the glacier, I was able to see the posts and was using them as my guide. As I proceeded up the glacier, I hadn't noticed that the fresh snowmobile tracks I happened to be following had pulled away to the left of the posts that marked the trail.

About half-way up the path, I suddenly noticed that I did not see any trail flags. I was still able to see the snowmobile tracks but as I proceeded further up the glacier, the mist became thicker. I didn't have a flashlight and the light from the station had soon faded out of sight into the mist which was growing thicker.

Soon I found myself stuck in a no-man land between the station and the top of the glacier. It was something out of a dream with white mist on every side of me. I was hoping that I was still on the proper track, since I couldn't see light from the power plant any more and couldn't yet see the light from the campfire that was on top of the glacier.

A moment of fear gripped me and I suddenly felt lost. I started to second guess whether I was actually on track. I resorted to getting on my hands and knees at times to feel the freshly packed snowmobile track to make sure that I was still following the fresh snowmobile tracks.

Too far to the left and I would be in Arthur Harbor and over an ice cliff. Too far to the right and I would plunge down into Hero Inlet off an ice cliff. Would I see the ice edge or any hidden crevasses before the plunge in? I couldn’t hear them at the bonfire. Would anyone hear me if I did actually take a fall or plunge? The air was so thick with ice and fog that about all I could hear was hear the crunching of snow beneath my own boots.

I pushed my fears down and reassured myself that the snowmobile tracks that I had been tracking were, in fact, the fresh tracks. I reasoned to myself that we had just had fresh snow only yesterday. That covered up all other tracks; that much I knew. Now, I had to push down my fears of falling off the glacier or falling in a crevasse.

As I slowly continued, I started to see the trail markers to my right. The snowmobile must have cut a bit to the right at this point, bringing me closer to the path. This meant now, that I was between the path and the glacier edge of Arthur Harbor about 500 yards to my left. The snowmobile had taken a path up on the left hand side of the marked trail. At least now I had established my bearings and my fears started to subside.

The freezing mist quickly built into a icy fog, which made seeing any distance ahead difficult. But by this time I was finally far enough up to the top that I could see an orange glow like a sunrise at the top of the glacier. I couldn't see or hear anyone over that glacial horizon yet, but I had made it to the top and could breathe a sigh of relief.

As I walked up to the group, BJ looked at me and started laughing.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

BJ replied, "With that frozen mist all over your beard, mustache and clothes, you look like you've aged fifty years!"

At that point I felt like I had aged fifty years. I've never been lost in a forest, but now I know what it must feel like. The only difference was my forest was like being lost on a cloud where you can only push forward. Nothing ahead, nothing behind and nothing on either side but white snow and white mist.

A campfire was made in a 55 gallon barrel that was split in half and a grill was set up for a regular holiday cook-out on the glacier.

Hamburgers, hot dogs, and baked beans were all hot and ready for me to dig into. The beans were cooked two hours in the oven on the station and were still soupy until after the cast iron pot had been set directly into the fire. They cooked down to just the right consistency and were mushy in about half an hour! That and some good cold beer and we had a great time--all 13 of us. Tom, Richie, BJ, Ned, Dick, Robin, Pat, Marcia, Doc, Allen, Don, George and me.

By the end of a couple of hours, we were ready to go back, even if the beer kind of made me forget about the cold. Being on top of the glacier with no mountain to block the cold winds can send a chill through your bones fast.

The trip back down the glacier was memorable! Two guys took the food and supplies down on one snowmobile, three hiked down the glacier--following the flag-marked path and the remaining eight of us crammed on a sledge hooked up to the second snowmobile with a psychotic driver!

As we were heading away from the campfire, BJ was starting to shout that we were not going the right way. As the rest of us recognized this, we all started shouting at Pat, but were unable to get his attention.

At this point, BJ was prepared to dump himself off the sledge. We all finally somehow made enough noise that Pat stopped long enough for us to let him know that he was way off the path. Pat had taken the snowmobile to the far right, intersecting the trail at about a sixty degree angle. We were now on the opposite side of the trail that I had come up on and headed directly toward Hero Inlet. Pat had not seen the trail markers and blew right by them.

Pat pulled the sledge around to his right and we soon found the trail markers which would lead us back down to the safety of the station. Somehow we made it down alive! For a minute, we thought we would end up over the cliff into Hero Inlet! Wouldn't those headlines have been interesting?!

The next morning, we used the telescope to have a look at how far off the marked path the snowmobile tracks were for our return trip. The loop was pretty visible in the new snow; Hero Inlet almost had a new name.

Doc told us that he didn't know if he had enough body bags for that kind of a disaster. We would have just been put into the sub-zero deep freeze, stacked like cord-wood until someone could arrive to take our remains northbound.

05 September 89

Sorry I didn't get back to you when you sent that letter home. My sister just told me about your letter about two weeks ago and said that it has been sitting around back at home for four or five months now!

Everything here is going great. In fact, I was supposed to leave Palmer on the 14th of October, but was asked if I wanted to stay until the end of March! So I accepted the job, new contract and a 5% pay increase.

Winter is almost over here and temperatures haven't gotten all that cold. The coldest it has been has been -11 C. The British Base who we report our weather to, has said that this winter is one of the warmest since 1956. We have had almost no ice in the harbor. Even though there has been snow, there hasn't been that much.

It will be great to spend another (austral) summer here. The penguins should start coming back within the next month along with a lot of other birds common to the area during the summer. Hopefully, we will start to see more whales too. They only come down here on their migratory routes, but during the last summer, we saw them quite often.

Things are a little more relaxed during the winter, and when a good day does come along, we try to get off the station. Last week, we took a couple of Zodiacs and cruised around the harbor. We checked out the shipwreck of the Bahia Paraiso. The ship is settling more and still spewing out oil and diesel depending on the waves and the winds. Over the past ten months, we have seen the ship roll over more and sink further below the waters surface. Not very much of the one-time hospital/warship is above the water now.

Also went over to the Old Palmer Station about a half mile away. It's on the same island as we are, but you would have to cross the top of the glacier with all the crevasses, so the only safe way to get there is by boat.

I guess I haven't told you too much about the people that are here. Right now there are 13 people. We have a government sponsored artist who has been painting some nice paintings of the station and its surroundings. Also have two scientists on station now studying the ozone here. We have one woman who is in charge of the laboratory and its supplies. The rest are all guys. We all seem to get along well and enjoy ourselves a lot. The sun is now up from 7 a.m. until around 5:30 p.m., so the days are almost normal again. That will change come November when the summer days get real long--even longer than where you are in Holland.

Take care and say hello to all the family.

07 September 89

Don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but if you have any friends that operate on the HAM radio frequencies, Palmer Station operates on 14325 MHz with the call sign KC4AAC. Normally people are up from 0000GMT until 0400GMT or so. We had a communications blackout during the winter on most of our HF frequencies, but now HAM is coming back, so it gives us a chance to talk with friends and family back home. Some operators have phone patch capability and have been very supportive by putting collect calls through to our families back home.

We also have an hour on Saturday and Sunday that we can make calls out over the ATS satellite, collect from Florida, so we aren't always as isolated as you may think.

08 September 89

Thank you for your letter back in June. You mentioned something about South Pole in your letter, but we are actually closer to Chile than to South Pole, believe it or not! We are located in the “Banana Belt” of the Antarctic and sit at 63 degrees south which is just north of the Antarctic Circle (70 degrees south).

I was just starting to get ready to leave when the opportunity came up to stay another five months. Probably won't get up to Punta Arenas until the first week in April. Then I'll do the traveling I was planning on in October. My parents are probably sure that I'm crazy now!

Last week we had a twin otter plane stop in. They were on their way south to deliver supplies and a sled dog to the Transantarctic Expedition which is now in the middle of the peninsula. It was the first time I have seen a domestic animal in eleven months. So we got to pet it and took our pictures with it.

I have been climbing the glacier more often to get some exercise. It is a great view of the area and the mountains behind the island. We went up to the top for the lunar eclipse, but the clouds rolled in just as the eclipse started. The weather hasn't been too bad, but is colder this month than last. We have stayed mostly in the lower 20's range this month, and have an inch or so of snow every few days. Got out in the Zodiacs and got to see some of the area again. It is nice to have the chance to get away for a couple of hours during the day.

The job is going alright, although communications with the satellite has been difficult lately. It gets hairy trying to get out my backlog of data after a couple of days of no satellite traffic.

I'm still working on my inventory and hoping I can finish before summer open during the first week in October. I may have a chance to get off Palmer for a few days in Punta Arenas. It would be nice to get away for a change. A couple of the guys who will be leaving on that ship are planning on renting a car and going down to the tip of Tierra Del Fuego on the Chilean side. So I may be able to break with them for that, then head back up to catch the Duke back to Palmer. I'll just have to wait and see what the time constraints are.

Today is beautiful out. The sky is clear and sunny and only a few clouds in the sky. The temps are colder than they have been, around the upper teens and lower 20's. Last week was the coolest week we have had all winter. We had an average temp of 27 degrees.

09 September 89

I started a letter to you in mid-winter and never finished it. I also wasn't sure where to send it. You move around more than me!

We had a plane come in yesterday and stay the night. It is surprising how little ski-way the twin otters need for landing. Our ski-way is on the top of the glacier about a half mile from the station. We have had about a half dozen planes land during this year up on the glacier. This plane that came in today had been trying to get here for three days, but the weather had been bad either here, at Punta Arenas or at King George Island. Weather needs to be good at all three sites so that the Twin Otter can make a complete round trip without an overnight if possible.

This letter is coming to you earlier than expected because the twin otter has been hired to come and pick up some scientific equipment that missed being loaded onto the Polar Duke when she left port in August. This little mid-winter plane visit has given us the chance to send out mail and they also brought mail in for us. So I was writing some letters to send through Chile. I got your card yesterday, but didn't have time to write a response due to the celebrating last night. They left this morning at 8 a.m., and it was hard getting up so early after last night.

10 September 89

It was great to speak with you, even if it was only for five minutes. The connection over the ATS on my end was bad, but good enough that I got some answers to the questions I had for you.

Still working on inventory. It has become the story of my life. I have been relocating parts and it can be a real pain. The satellite is still a little fickle. Sometimes it works great and other times it is just too noisy to get traffic in or out. I've been putting in some long hours too, but managing to keep my attitude up.

The weather was great two days ago. We had a perfectly clear sky and went over to Bonaparte Point just to wander around. Got some pictures of a fur seal and of the station. The temps have been cold this week and last week, staying around the lower 20's. Today it has been snowing, freezing rain and back to snow. Not much accumulation and generally a good day for sleeping and being lazy.

16 September 89

The excitement of the ship coming in less than one month has kind of caught everyone. I have been trying to work on my inventory completed before the ship comes in. I will still have to make all the updates in the computer file in Dbase III, which I will have to learn.

Monday, I will send off a telex with everyone’s travel arrangements. I haven't heard yet if Al is going to let me go on the ship to P.A., for the trip up and back. But I can't see any reason why he couldn't handle it alone until I get back. It would be nice to get away for a small break. If it happens, I will leave with the others on the 14th of October arrive on the 18th in Punta Arenas, then leave Punta Arenas on the 23rd to arrive Palmer on the 27th. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high yet though.

The weather hasn't been real great the past couple of weeks, but we have had a few nice days with beautiful sunsets. A couple more inches of snow this past week and a lot of wind. Yesterday I got out for about an hour to take some pictures of a few gentoo penguins that were out behind the station about a half mile. We don't normally see too many around here since most of our colonies are adelies.

I'll try calling next weekend over the ATS-3 or over HAM if I can't get through.

18 September 89 11:50 pm

Sorry I haven't written you a marsgram in awhile. I did send off a letter via Chile when the plane came in, so I hope you have received that by now. I sent along a couple of polaroids with that letter too, hope you liked them. I got your letter when the plane came in and I just received your marsgram tonight, so I figured I would get another letter off to you since I'm on watch tonight.

I haven't received that last box you sent me yet, but it is on the manifest for this ship coming down the beginning of October. So hopefully, if you have sent this other box off by now, I might get it the beginning of November or so. It just depends on the space available in the shipments sent off from Paramus. Thanks again for taking care of these boxes for me.

Oh, stand by, I have to go do a generator check. It's midnight. I'll be back in a minute.

OK, I'm back. Had to make sure we would still have lights and that the reverse osmosis and desal is still making fresh water.

The weather here has been overcast the whole week. Also had watch last night and when I finished at around 2:30 a.m., I took a nice dip in the hot tub--oops, strike that--the therapeutic bath. It was snowing hard and the water was so warm. We had about eight inches of snow last night after temps around 36 degrees the whole day! It is going to be great to see the full change of seasons come summer-time here.

You commented in one of your letters about me being lonely here, but I'm really not lonely. We live in such a tight-knit community, that everyone is kind of like family. We all miss our families, but I wouldn't say that we are lonely.

The mood is really starting to get high here with the ship due in in less than a month. Of course, two weeks out on the Duke and crossing the Drake Passage twice just for a boondoggle makes it sound like I'm a real gluten for punishment!

If you have never been sea-sick, you will never know what I mean! Mine usually passes after the first day (and a couple of Dramamine!). It is like having the flu, only worse because your head is woozy even if you lift it up off the pillow. Most people get seasickness to some degree at some time or another, if you make the trip enough times. You should hear some of the horror stories!

I'm going to close now and do my last round for station watch. Take care of yourself and hang in there. Thanks again for packing that stuff up for me and for keeping such good letters with me. I'll be looking for your letters and the boxes and I'll let you know when I get them.

21 September 89

It's about 1 a.m. right now and I'm on watch, so I thought I'd drop you a quick letter before my final watch.

It will be a big change to go from 13 people to 45 again, but I think I need the change again. I'm still working hard to complete my inventory and traffic is starting to pick up with the preparations for the upcoming summer season.

You wouldn't believe summer is right around the corner with the weather we're having this week! Yesterday and today we have had minimum 30-35 knot winds constant with gusts up to 60 knots this morning. It has been snowing some, but mostly blowing and drifting all over. The harder snowfall didn't really start until late in the afternoon and we will probably get another six inches now. It is funny to think back on how rocky it really is under all this snow during the summer.

Guess we will have our share of tourism again this summer too. It will be nice since the Polar Duke will be heading over to McMurdo during December-February. At least we will have a way to get mail and freshies (fresh veggies and fruit). Our cooks are able to trade things we have for things the tour ships need. The tour ships also will take mail out to the States and bring mail down from Punta Arenas on their way down.

I haven't received any final word on going to Punta Arenas for those few days, but I'm pretty confident that I will be allowed to go. Al can handle this place while I'm gone, probably on his head if he wanted to. Of course, this is not a pretty picture. A man who wears a tunic with nothing underneath but what nature intended, standing on his head in the comm shack!

How, you might ask, do I know that nothing is worn underneath the tunic? Well, I’ll tell ya. Not so long ago, Karen, one of the science coordinators on the Polar Duke was out on a cruise with the scientists. Al was on that ship and just so happened to precede Karen up the ladder to the next level on the ship. Suffice to say, Karen was somewhat shocked but apparently not scarred for life at this display. So now we are all socially aware of what nature intended to be worn underneath a tunic and probably a kilt. She told us about this at the bar during the summer season; I swear!

It’s late, I’m tired and about goofy right now. Guess I'll close now and get ready to make my last rounds.

22 September 89 11 p.m.
The past few days haven't been too pleasant and we have had a lot of wind and snow. Temps have been staying in the high 20's and 30's most of the time.

I did get word just today that the credit card arrived at the office in Paramus this week. Thanks for getting that to me. You will probably have to do the same thing with my Visa card in December. Before the extension, I would have been home to receive the new card. Also, let Debi know that the box she sent off for me has arrived in Paramus and was being taken to the shipping department. Hopefully, I will get it the end of October.

It is hard to believe that the ship will be here in less than two weeks now. I don't know where the time is going to. It seems like just yesterday that the winter season started! I'm still not done with my inventory and Marcia has volunteered to help me update the inventory records that I've been making corrections to all along. With her help, I should be able to finish about the time the ship gets in. The satellite has been behaving most of the time, but it can really be a pain when it acts up, like tonight. Take care of yourself and say hello to all for me.

24 September 89

I got word from Paramus that the second box that you sent out around the 12th has arrived in Paramus and was being sent to shipping. With any luck, I may get it in November. Since there is a lot of stuff still to come down, it may have a chance of getting loaded into a container sooner. I will get the first box when the ship comes in this time around. I also found out that I will get to go out on the ship for the two week break!

The weather has been nasty tonight. We are in the middle of another snowstorm with winds around 25-35 knots steady. Visibility is only about 500 feet and the snow is drifting all over. Some of the people that have been traveling between the buildings look like snowmen when they come back in!

Since winter started, we’ve been going through what looks like a three pound “coffee-cans” of mixed nuts in the military olive drab color. They have probably been around here for twenty years or so, but are still fresh and go very well with mixed drinks, beer and good conversation.

The other night, a group of us are over at the bar just chatting and drinking. As I’m drinking, I’m looking through the bowl of nuts and not finding any almonds. I’d eaten through the almonds and hazelnuts and dumped a few more nuts from the can, only to discover no almonds at all. Finally, Doc and BJ can hold back no longer and just bust up. They knew my love of almonds and gone through the entire can and removed all the almonds to see my reaction.

But I’m not the only one that has been providing entertainment for the group. Since we’ve settled into the winter-over mode, Ned has gradually evolved into watching like four or five movies, over and over and over. Having discovered Ned’s weakness, BJ has hidden Ned’s movies from him. Oh the humanity! No “Wizard of Oz”, “Godzilla” or “Gamora” among the essential classics Ned has seen week after week into the wee hours of the morning. I don’t know if BJ has slipped them back into the movie collection yet. I think it is still payback for all the pounding on the punching bag Ned did all those weeks that drove BJ and me crazy!

29 September 89

One more week until the Duke gets in. I'm really pushing hard to finish this darned inventory. I am hoping to put in a few extra hours and finish the main inventory during the weekend. I am going to wait to inventory the tools until I get back at the end of October.

I was informed this week that I will go out on the science cruise during the six days out at sea from October 7th until the 13th. Then I will remain on the ship when it leaves for Punta Arenas. Wow, what a vacation! I will still help out when and where they need me, but it will still be a break from the routine at Palmer. I think I will be ready to get back to work after twenty-one days aboard the furthest thing from the Love Boat! It will be a good rest though. So if you have any other pictures to send off, you need to do that soon. The ship is going to be leaving Punta Arenas around the 23rd. You should be able to get a letter through the Chilean post by then.

I had to laugh about your comment from Dad about my decision to stay. It makes me wonder if I'm doing the right thing when he compliments me on a decision I've made!

I still am looking forward to going to Europe when I get back. My German friends have been keeping me up to date with what's going on there too. I'm still writing in German and keeping up on it, so speaking it should come back to me fairly quickly.

As far as the “haps” here; the seals are starting to pup. I haven't gotten out to get any pictures yet, but a bunch went out today and got pictures of a new elephant seal pup. There is also a Weddell seal pup in Hero Inlet not far from the station here.

The weather has been pretty overcast most of the time, but the temps are fairly comfortable and the winds aren't too bad. But then again, comfortable to me is cold for you now. Mom was saying that the temps have already dipped to 35 F. Here that is a heat wave, we're talking T-shirt weather!

I'm going to miss fall again. Fall is my favorite season and now I've missed two. Not only do I miss the leaves turning, but I miss trees, period! They say that after such a long time away, it is like sensory overdrive when you get back up north the P.A. Up there spring should just be starting. I'm looking forward to the trip north.

I'll write you a novel on the ship when I have more time. Say hello to everyone for me and take a break. What would Julie Brown say? "Hey, like chill out and have a mental margarita!"

Miss ya,
Love, Dave

Chapter 7 - Men of Antarctica 1989

2005-06-28T21:57:00.000+04:00

05 August 89

The Polar Duke will be pulling out tomorrow, so I'm trying to get this into the envelope tonight. We are having a Mexican Fiesta tonight complete with Margarita punch, so I'm half expecting not to be able to write this later on! It is really going to be hard to see this group go, but I guess that them leaving brings us closer to our departure date.

I got your marsgram, but I haven't had much to write about, so I'm waiting. I should have any letters that you have sent me via mail by the end of the month. The Polar Duke will be back in around the 25th or so of August, so we will be back to ten people on station till then.

I was telling you a couple of months ago that I may have a lead on a job next year in October. If everything goes right, the guy who is working comms on the Polar Duke is going to put in a word for me at South Pole. I may get the chance to do a summer season from October until about February. The job I want to try to get would be a computer operator position. I really would jump at the opportunity, plus it would give me an excuse to see Australia and New Zealand. But I'm not going to get too worked up about it yet. The contract will possibly change companies at the end of this year. Although the people usually follow the contract, nothing is ever certain.

I just got myself a Margarita and am sending traffic over the satellite on the other computer. Even though I'm missing dinner right now, it's alright as long as I've got some refreshment here to keep me going!

Dinner was great, as usual. Dick, our cook had frozen some guacamole in the freezer awhile back. So, our Fiesta wasn't too bad. The Margarita's ran out, so I've switched to Dos Equis at this point. I'm sure tomorrow morning at 08:30 a.m. when the Duke pulls out, I'll be sorry! We have snow falling right now and have accumulated about an inch so far. The wind isn't blowing and everything seems pretty quiet. The party has continued in the other building—“across town.”

Guess I'll close this letter out and get across-town to the party. Just got a call on the ring-down crank phone to bring a ladle over to the other side. Doc made a punch with pineapple and tequila; some kind of sedative he is trying out! The pineapple has sat overnight in the tequila, so I'm ready to try it! Sounds like it may be just what the doctor has ordered.

10 August 89

The weather this last week has been varied. This week we have had a snowstorm, a windstorm, and one beautiful but overcast day with temps of 35 degrees. Today started out at 0730 with a fire drill. There was a blanket of fog across the whole area this morning, but half of it has lifted behind us and the sun is shining now. The days are starting to get longer with the sky getting light at around 08:30 a.m. and the sunset around 5:30 p.m. Spring will be here before we know it!

We had a crab eater seal up on the station a couple of days ago. He had four deep gashes in his side from a leopard seal. So he sat on land for a day to recover and had to keep moving around because a sheathbill was pecking at the wounds.

14 August 89

Ham radio is starting to come back in again.

We've had a stretch of days that have been really nice out. The temps have been around 25 degrees and the sky has been pretty clear too. Tonight we got our first snow in 1-1/2 weeks; but only .5 cm. Not anything to cheer about.

The harbor has some grease ice around and the glacier has been calving more, so there is a lot of ice in the harbor now too. But it only takes a day and the right winds to blow all the ice out again. Actually, we are all hoping the weather stays nice so that we can go to Faraday Station (the British Antarctic Survey Station about 25 miles from here) when the Polar Duke comes back in at the end of this week.

The big item around here now is the "Men of the Antarctic" calendars. One of the guys here is creating a Chippendales type calendar for the last group of female scientists that were here. We were a pretty close knit group and Pat wants to give them something to laugh about. Eight of us guys are posing in semi-compromising positions with the "naughty bits" covered.

Marcia, the only woman here is judging the pictures to determine which shots will be used for the calendar. She says she is looking for "originality, poise and maximum exposure"…among other things! Marcia has a great sense of humor and has been enjoying this picture judging! Some of the conversations heard by Marcia and Pat (our photographer,) “Don't you have a bigger spatula?” “You're revealing too much…Dick” (our cook of course!! Where is *your* mind?)

Lessons learned from their kitchen photo sessions are that a violin (Pat) and a keyboard (me) cover a lot more than a spatula (Dick)! (But I don't know how one would play a violin that low.) However, for the oil can shot in the garage (Robin), it depends on how big the spout is!

After judging the initial photos against the second shoot photos of Dick’s kitchen shots, Marcia liked the first shots with the naughty bits exposed. So she took a magic marker to the “over-exposed” shots of Dick! As you can tell, we are having fun with it and I'm sure the recipients won't be disappointed. It's amazing what we do to humor ourselves down here, huh?

Now sign me,
Divulgingly Dangerous Dave

14 August 89

It is great, as always, to get mail! Thanks for writing.

It will be strange to work out at a regular gym after this one here. Most of the time I arrange my workouts so that the gym is all mine. As of late, I am working out in the mornings since my satellite sched is around 7 p.m. The afternoons have also gotten busier, so the mornings are about the only time I can get my workouts in. I've been doing the stationary bike every workout,
but I need to do more aerobic work to burn the extra calories.

One of my coworkers Ned has this knack for trying to piss people off. Since I’ve started working out in the mornings, he will purposely beat me in there and start banging away at this damned punching bag. He knows that the noise wears on my nerves. Well, little did he know that he was also pissing off BJ. BJ’s office is right next to the gym and has a door into the gym. So poor BJ is trying to work and can’t hardly hear himself think once Ned starts in on this punching bag.

Well, things finally came to a head when one morning this week when the punching bag held air no more. Of course, I got the blame since Ned has continually found ways to try my patience throughout the winter. But truth be told, both BJ and I knew it was BJ who resolved the punching bag problem. An ice pick through the stitching conveniently rendered the inflated tube inside incapable of holding air anymore. Boo-hoo! BJ and I are just devastated. It was worth it, even if I did have to take the blame.

The winter is most of the way gone now. It seems hard to believe that I've only got another two months this week. The Polar Duke is to arrive this weekend with mail, freshies (fruit, veggies, etc) and more people. We will only get in four permanent people, so it isn't that bad. Two science people to study ozone, one carpenter and an artist sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Also have a Navy person coming down to check out the medical equipment, but he'll leave two days later when the Duke goes back north to dry dock in Val Paraiso, Chile. The next time the ship comes in will be the 6th of October with our replacements.

We are hoping to get the chance to go to the British Station about 25 miles away when the Duke comes in. The Duke brought out a guy from Faraday that wasn't very stable mentally, so their doctor had to accompany him north to Punta Arenas. Sounds like he had a break-down. The Brits do two year stints and this group was only on station for six months. Our Doc will provide radio support until their Doc gets back down from P.A.

So, when the Duke comes back in, they still have to drop the British doctor back at Faraday. Hopefully, we will get a field trip out of the exchange! I work with the comms guy there everyday--pass current weather observations and also collect marsgrams for them for Rick to send to England. I would really like to meet them after working over the radio for so long with them.

I'm sure it's gonna be hard to give up my social life here to settle down into a functional normal being back home. I'll have to learn how to be a couch potato and flip channels!

Guess I'll close for now and go to bed so I can work out in the morning. Take care and hope to hear from you again before I leave the 14th of October.

19 August 1989

Faraday Station Boondoggle

The Duke came in to Palmer from Punta Arenas and dropped off mail, freshies and supplies. They still had one more stop to make, however. The doctor needed to be dropped back at Faraday Station after he escorted one of his former winter overs from Faraday back up north to Punta Arenas.

This would be the perfect opportunity for a day-trip away for most of the station personnel. This would give me the opportunity also to meet Peter Lomax who I pass daily weather observations to at Faraday twice a day. Everyone was really looking forward to this.

The only hitch is the weather. Antarctic winters are very unpredictable, but the weather patterns appeared to be clear and the sea ice wasn't too bad at Palmer. Everything was a go.

It was a clear day all the way up to the Lamere Channel. Things then started clouding up some and the sea ice seemed to thicken. There was discussion of not landing anyone at Faraday except the doctor, but that decision was changed once in the harbor at Faraday.

We had the chance to see the station, meet the people who would spend the next 1-1/2 years remaining at Faraday and have a beer with them if we chose.

Our visit was cut short however, since the weather seemed to be closing in. We didn't want to get stuck in the harbor trying to work the Zodiacs around the sea ice and the barometer was starting to take a dive indicating we were probably in for a change of weather.

At least we had the chance to get off the station for a day and got some great clear shots of the Lamere Channel too.

22 August 89

We got some mail in when the ship came in. I got a couple of letters from Europe and Dee said that Roland and Angelique from the Netherlands sent me a letter to Naperville. Dee will mail that one off to me. I'm anxious to read that since I got a postcard from them on their honeymoon in south Germany. If you remember, they are from Holland and Roland is in the Dutch army. Angelique went into the army also around last September or so.

We did get to Faraday Station this weekend. The weather was kind of flakey, but we did get in a short visit, at least. It was nice to get off the station for a change. I don't mind going on the ship too much anymore. I have been lucky enough to get off station aboard the Polar Duke twice since I've been here, so that isn't bad. The weather has gotten bad again with another six inches of snow and ice built up in the harbor. Don't know if it will freeze over or not. Overall, it has been a mild winter and it isn't looking like the harbor will freeze over at all.

24 August 89

Sorry that I haven't written back to you sooner. The mail that we received last week was the first that we have seen here since the beginning of June. I should have given you the address for Rick in Pennsylvania. Those letters reach us over the internet, so there isn't too much wait time.

Winter here hasn't been too bad. We have had a couple of windstorms, and naturally, some snow. But, I think that I have seen more severe weather growing up in Chicago than we have had here, so far. The temperatures mostly stay between 0 and -2 degrees C but we have had some days below that. Today, it is 0 C and we are having some snow. As always, it is cloudy. I think it is almost as constantly cloudy as in Kalkar, Germany!

30 August 89

Thanks for the letter. It was also great to speak with you last weekend.

The weather is still cool, but nice. We haven't had any real storm in the past few weeks. Went up the glacier a few times and one night we had a bonfire in a barrel on the glacier. Got out in the Zodiacs and got around to a couple of spots in the harbor.

Saw quite a few leopard seals, more than we have seen before sleeping on ice floats. The giant petrels are back and were checking out the Zodiacs invading their territory. The Antarctic terns were also buzzing our heads and watching us. Most of the penguins are gone, but they'll be back in the next month. I can remember how many were here when we first arrived last year in October!

The temps have been staying in the low 20's to upper 20's for the most part.

31 August 89

We haven't had any sea ice form in the harbor and the temperatures have stayed in the 20's most of the time. We have a low pressure closing in on us today, so the weather started out clear, sunny and nice and has gone bad over the last five hours.

Earlier this afternoon, we had a twin otter plane land here for a quick visit. The plane is a leased plane from a Canadian company--Kenn-Borek and they are running supplies for Will Stieger's Trans-Antarctic Expedition. After lunch, we all went up the glacier on the snowmobiles to check out the plane. The plane has no trouble landing on the short landing field and is equipped with skis for glacial landings. They had with them a Siberian Husky, Razor that was headed down to meet the expedition. So I got to touch and pet a dog for the first time in eleven months! It was nice to see a domesticated animal for a change.

Today is Robin, our mechanics' birthday. He has a thing for flatulence and requested a dinner of pinto beans, sauer kraut, hot dogs along with grilled onions! That and some beer and I'm sure he will blow us to the continent tonight! I have a feeling that it may be a crazy night. It started last night when his door was saran wrapped!

Some people here have set up a birthday/treasure hunt with clues hidden all over the station, including one clue hidden in a bag of elephant seal dung. Every time he finds a clue, he has to take a shot, then proceeds to the next clue. So each clue is a clue to the location of the next clue and eventually it will lead to a present. I'm not sure what the big present is yet. One of the smaller ones is a “soap on a rope.” They’ve drilled a hole through the middle of a bar of Ivory, attached a rope and adorned the one side of the hole with steel wool. Enough said about that! I think that is probably an indication of the direction this birthday party is going to go.

Things are starting to wind down now with the summer crew expected to be in around the first week in October. We haven't made any reservations yet, but probably by next week. Guess I should mention that I've been asked if I want to stay on for the summer season from October till March.

How it all came about was that I had seen that my position was still unfilled. We’ve known that Peter was coming down as the manager for next season and I asked him if he wanted me to stay for a month or so until they could find someone. He came back to me the next day on our daily phone time over the ATS and asked if I’d be interested in staying for the whole summer season.

Peter has worked on the Polar Duke as a coordinator and a few other jobs, so all of us have worked with him at some point or another. He has a great reputation with everyone that has worked with or for him. So from my side of things, I am more than happy to stay and work with and for him. He is very no-nonsense and will let you do your job without butting in.

Along with Peter, Al is coming back to be my supervisor again. Now that we’ve done a season together, I think that he and I will get along alright. There is a lot scheduled to happen this summer and I think I can learn from it. I figure it doesn't make any difference if I stay here another six months. So now I just have to wait and see what happens in the office up north as far as the paperwork and request goes.

01 September 89

I'm back. Just got confirmation today that I can stay next season if I want to. The way it looks now, I'll get a short break for a couple of weeks and head up north with the Duke to Punta Arenas in mid-October. I'll spend a couple days in Punta and then I'll come back down. I don't know the exact date I'll return, but it looks like it will be around the middle of March. I know the five or six extra months won't be that much more. I am actually looking forward to the idea of spending another summer here.

02 September 89

I would like to ask a large favor of you. Since I had only planned on staying until October, I'd like you to send out a few things to the office in Paramus for me. These need to be sent to Paramus no later than the end of the week if they are to make it down to me in time. The Polar Duke isn't going to be down but twice more before March this season.

I just spoke to Dad tonight and he said he would tell all of you about the job. He sounded a little (no, a lot) shocked about my decision to stay.

Chapter 6 - The Bastille Day Party

2005-06-27T22:27:00.000+04:00

The Bastille Day Party - July 15th 1989

Sitting at the bar one night, Lisa, Megan, Cathy, Robin, BJ, Pat, Marcia and I were thinking that now with Fourth of July past, there weren't any real excuses to party. Lisa then remembered that Bastille Day was just around the corner. So it was settled. We would throw a Bastille Day celebration.

So we through a Bastille Day celebration on Saturday night that shook the panels off the building, or was that the wind? Dick Wall, our cook would put together some French Cuisine; I would produce a banner which read Viva Bastille; Cathy and Megan would set the table to include candles, table clothes complete with scalloped napkins and party hats; and Pat would insure that enough firewood was cut. Strings of white Italian lights were strung all around the ceiling in the galley and the galley's pot belly stove had a great fire going to give the galley that certain ambiance. Finally, Lisa would provide the refreshments since she advised us she could make killer Margaritas--appropriately renamed Margarit's for the occasion.

Dinner was to be served at six, so Lisa began her mixing at about five with the punch bowl and a big chunk of bar ice. Carefully and skillfully, she worked on creating the proper blend of alcohol to mixer. By the time six rolled around, Lisa was sure she had the proper mixture....she was speaking from experience since she was pretty lit by this time!

Dinner was nothing short of fantastic! Filet Mignon, Pomm Frites, homemade pasta with shrimp, fresh baked French bread, good red wine and topped off with a tasty chocolate mousse. Of course, there were toasts after dinner with champagne and then dancing. If this isn't roughing it, I don't know what is!

Since I was on watch, I had to restrict my drinking, but still managed to have a good time. As you might expect, since I had watch till 4 a.m., I cleaned up after everyone crashed. The fire was just going out as I headed off for bed.

Robin our maintenance/generator guy provided the entertainment for the evening by blessing our eyes with his ever-famous belly roll. It's something like a belly dance, except with a hairy belly. He just had us in stitches. Dancing around and rolling his belly while being egged on by all of us in the crowd.

For an encore, he was "persuaded" to show Cathy (one of the scientists) his "tattoo". To everyone's surprise, Robin bared his thigh to show off a heart with Cathy's name on it and he was able to move his hip and thigh to make it pump! Till the next morning, Cathy thought the heart was real and the name was only written in, but the whole thing was a set-up. Pat and Robin had drawn in the “tattoo” with magic marker. Too bad we didn't get that show on video! Robin had us all on the floor laughing.

16 July 89 8 p.m.

I have been talking more with Jeannette and Megan, two of the scientists who went to Easter Island on their way down. Trying to get some idea of where to stay, what to make sure to see and everything else. I think that trip will be the highlight of my return trip back north. I just have to decide how long to stay there now.

They both agree that I should at least stay one week. The beach and eucalyptus grove are supposed to be beautiful too. Jeannette worked for the University of Hawaii and had nothing but great things to say about Easter Island--How nice the people were and how unspoiled the island was compared to Hawaii. The islanders are also of Polynesian descent, so there are many similarities.

The island is only about 30 x 15 miles, and even thought it's small, it's as dry as a desert and there aren't many paved roads. I am pretty sure that I'll be doing some traveling with a couple of the people from the station when we get to Chile too, so it's just a matter of arranging my travel schedule with the few flights that do go into Easter Island.

18 July 89

A group of us got out today in the Zodiac again. It was nice to get away from the station even if it is only a mile or so away and for a couple of hours. Saw a couple of lost penguins and a whole den of nasty sounding and smelling elephant seals. Then we went over to Old Palmer Station and checked out the old station and had a look in back to see if the ice cave was still open. All the snow and wind we have had covered the ice cave up.

Froze my fingers and toes, but it was worth it. The sun went away almost as soon as we left the station, but we did manage to get some pictures of the mountains behind Palmer. As you look to the north across the horizon, you can see Mount Williams on Anvers Island, the lower mountains on Weinke (pronounced wink ee) Island and the coastal range on the continent; all covered in snow. It's a sight we don't get to see often since winter has arrived.

Everything else here is going along alright. I had watch all last week and it really set off my schedule. I have a late schedule as it is because my satellite time has slipped later into the night past midnight, but staying up till 4 a.m. and getting up at noon left me with no energy or attitude to do anything! So now I'm getting back to normal again and facing the reality of inventory.

Today we had a leopard seal on the station right by the weather shack. It was a young one, but that is the closest I've come to seeing a leopard seal where I could make out the markings and shape of its head. If you don't know better, it's easy to confuse a leopard seal with a Weddell or Crab eater. Leopard seals heads are shaped differently and come more to a point at the snout. In the water, they are stealthy hunters and live up to their name. During the summer season, we had seen several leopard seals capture penguins in the water and shake them out of their skins. I hope the pictures turn out clear enough.

22 July 89

......Just heard about that United DC-10 that went down over Sioux City. Can't believe that anyone lived through all that!

We have been having snow and minimum 25 knot winds constant now for three days. As soon as we shovel out, it snows and blows more. We are walking on the railings again when going between the Bio and GWR buildings since the snow keeps burying portions of the deck. We had a break for three hours this afternoon, and then it started up again. It must seem funny to hear how bad the snow and winter are here when you're in the middle of summer with temps in the 80's and 90's. I hear that your weather hasn't been as hot as last year though.

The scientists gave a presentation on Copepods and had shown us slides. Pretty interesting. These little guys are like the size of brine shrimp and smaller and are fed upon by the whales and other creatures of the deep. Then Meagan and Jeannette, the two who went to Easter Island showed us their slides. Really beautiful with a certain intrigue attached to it. I still had a few slides of the Bahia Paraiso that I didn't send home, so I pulled them out along with some slides taken over the last few months.

A lot of the people in these slides from last season will be back in October. It will kind of be like old home week once they get here. My old supervisor, Al will be back too. He did manage to send a marsgram to us here last week. He is still traveling in South America--since the beginning of June. He went through parts of Chile and the Lakes Region in Argentina, then up to Ecuador. He is in a Spanish school in Quito living with a family and learning the language.

I'm in the middle of wrestling with the satellite at the moment. The past week has been noisy and difficult to keep the connection. I don't think these winds help matters at all the way they push around the antennas. Talking of problems from the weather, we are currently having problems with an iceberg over our seawater intake now. Unlike in the summer, we have the freshwater melt pond to draw water from. But now, we have to rely on the desalinization units and reverse osmosis from water drawn from the seawater intake.

This big old piece of bar ice is dropping all kinds of silt into the system and clogging up the works, so we are trying to conserve water until it moves permanently. It not only provides water for our desalinization units, but also for the scientist's fish and copepods (and for refilling the hot tub---um, therapeutic bath!!) If the scientists aquarium tanks don't get fresh seawater, the specimens will die. Specimen mortality isn't an issue yet, but we will have to conserve water until the berg moves.

The berg moved when the wind shifted today, but came back tonight with the storms resurgence. The glacier hasn't calved too much lately either. The chunk over the intake is probably fifty feet by fifty feet (the part above water), but 90 percent of an iceberg is under water. To give you an idea how deep this berg sits, put an ice cube in a glass of fluid and imagine the area you see on top of the ice cube to be 50 x 50 feet. By looking under the surface, you can better understand how deep an iceberg sits in the water. So this little iceberg is doing a dance on our water intake and probably smashing the pipe like a smashed down straw.

26 July 89

I started a letter a few days ago to you, but things got pretty hectic and I never finished it. Things here have been busy. I had trouble getting traffic out on the satellite the past four days. I could bring stuff in, but couldn't send anything out. Some of the scientists get a bit worried when they can’t get data and correspondence off to their counterparts back stateside. They have such a short stint here in the Antarctic that they really depend on our ability to transmit and receive all their info in a quick manner. From our standpoint, we really miss getting in the news on a regular basis. I pull down the latest news stories and print it out for everyone to read when they’re in the galley. So finally yesterday, I got everything out. I had quite a backlog, but put in the extra time and sent it out all at once.

Had an antenna bracket come loose on Sunday. So I went up on the roof with another guy, tilted the antenna and put a new bolt in. Normally, this is just a five minute job, but the wind was blowing at 50 knots and temperatures at about a minus 3 degrees C, the wind chill was bad. My fingers were numb within minutes, but it's done fixed.

The scientists did us a favor and performed a dive down by the seawater intake to scope out the damage from the iceberg. They ended up removing the end portion of pipe. The last four feet of the pipe was smashed down almost flat from the berg dancing on it. The intake is still far enough below the surface that it won't draw in bad water or garbage. Bilge is released on the Hero Inlet side and the seawater intake is on the Loudwater Cove side of the station, so it shouldn’t be an issue. At least now we won't have to worry about our water usage so much.

Within the next two weeks, this group of scientists will leave. It's hard to believe it's almost August. I'll be sad to see them go...this group has really been a lot of fun. We received a tentative schedule this week to leave here on the 14th of October. Another 2-1/2 months to go. We will start to make travel arrangements in another month.

We have had two beautiful days of clear cold weather. We have been able to see the mountains again for the first time in months. There is some grease ice coming into the harbor now, so parts of the harbor may freeze over yet. The stars were out in full force last night, so got a nice look at the Southern Cross and the Milky Way.

26 July 89

It was really great to talk to you on Saturday. For once I didn't wake you up and we had a chance to talk. The weather over the past couple of days has been cool. Today, the scientists on station insisted that we needed a group photo, so Tom, our station manager pulled out the Caterpiller and we had our picture with all of us on the Cat with the mountains in the background. The sun was bright for a change and the sky was pretty clear too. Tom and Robin have been clearing snow for the past two days after the storms we have had.

I'm still working on inventory now, but it is tedious and puts me right to sleep. I've got the rest of the winter to finish it, but I need to spend like a couple weeks straight on it and just get it out of my hair! Aside from the normal weekly reports to be written, inventory and satellite woes; everything else is going well.

We just had the most beautiful sunset today. I took about a dozen pictures and will send some out the beginning of August. I have a couple of other pictures taken of me with the beard that I'll send out too. Debi got a real kick out of the last one I sent with my beard. This beard is a little longer, and I've had it for a few months now. A lot of blonde and red like my mustache. I'm going to shave it before I leave though, since I don't want my tan to be uneven on my face when I go to Easter Island! Besides, you get hassled in South America if you have a beard going through the airport and customs.

Chapter 5 - Winter Over; Palmer Style

2005-06-26T04:53:00.000+04:00

15 June 89

Just a quick marsgram to say hello and let you know that I had a nice birthday. The cook gave me my choice of meals and I chose lobster. He also cooked up scallops in a wine sauce with fresh made pasta. The cake was great too; chocolate with a chocolate kaluha frosting! To say the least, I porked out!

Got my choice of movies too, so I chose Witches of Eastwick. I hadn't seen it since it came out and we just got it in here. Took a late night dip in the hot tub, but only a couple of stars were out last night. We had a warm front come in with lots of clouds. Three nights ago, the sky was so clear, you could see forever.

We're having an Indian Summer right now. Winter starts next week, but our temps yesterday and today soared above 32F for the first time in over two weeks. Down here that is almost like T shirt weather! The breeze smells fresh like spring. By the time you get this, it will probably be back to cold and snow. But it is nice while it's here.

The ship comes in on Saturday. My old supervisor, Al, said that I have a bunch of mail coming. So, I'm looking forward to Saturday. I'm hoping to go skiing today. The station manager and the cook have been up on the glacier already and seemed to have a good time. With so little light now, you have to be out at noon and the sun is setting by 2:30 p.m. I've taken a couple of nice sunset pictures. I don't think I've seen the sun above the glacier in the past week or so.

BJ and Ned were able to get rooms apart once the last crowd left, but that still hadn't solved the arguement about Ned snoring. Unbeknownst to us and Ned, before BJ had moved to his own room, he went to the pains of recording Ned's snoring. Last night we were at the bar just drinking and playing pool and BJ brings out a tape to play in the bar. He turns up the volume and all we hear is snorting and snoring! We were all dying laughing, but now we can be a bit more sympathetic to BJ's plight. BJ has dubbed this recording "Ned's Snotbox Sonata."

23 June 89

Just passing some time while my data goes out on the satellite. The satellite conditions have been good for crap all week and tonight it looks as though we may get the news for the first time in a week!

This new batch of scientists are really keeping me on my toes. I forgot how much instruction they needed and how busy it makes us here. It is kind of nice to have the new faces in.

We had a darts party with the British guys at Faraday Station on Tuesday night. We are only about 25 miles away as the crow flies, but cannot get there, so we set up the radio and gave a shot by shot description of the shots! I don't know if the Faraday guys really believed that the women at Palmer weren't really wearing see through teddies while throwing darts, but it kept them interested in the game! Palmer didn't win, but we didn't lose anything more than a few songs losers sing. Then the following night, an impromptu party broke out and we danced for the first time since New Years Eve. It was great and we all paid the price the following day!

The weather has been great all yesterday and today. We have had at least a foot of snow with some high winds in the morning to blow all the snow around. It is nice to see some foul weather for a change. The temps are staying fairly warm between 25 32F.

I've finally had the chance to do some reading since the winter has started. I am almost through the J.R. Tolkien series, Lord of the Rings. I have started into the final book and can't believe how fast I've covered the series. I have also started the listen to some Spanish tapes, but haven't made any serious effort yet to keep up with that...soon though.

Thanks for sending me the care package. I owe you one. It will be nice to see some new things by the time it arrives. By now you should hopefully have received the boxes I sent home. Don't dig through everything, but there is a letter in the box to explain things.

23 June 89

Happy mid winter from the bottom side of the world. This week is officially mid winter Celebration everywhere on the continent, but here! The South Pole and the British particularly have a huge feast and party during this week to celebrate.

I'm starting to get anxious about leaving already. Some days it feels like I've been here such a short time, but this week was eight months. The winter here so far hasn't been all that harsh. The temps haven't been below 20F and most of the snow we have had up till this week has not been anything serious. We're in the middle of a snowstorm and mild wind storm since yesterday and it looks like it may last through tomorrow at this rate. It's nice to see the foul weather...it makes me feel like I'm roughing it a little! You would be surprised at how mild the climate is this far north in the southern hemisphere.

It's 2:30 a.m. on the 24th and I've decided to finish this letter before I go to bed. Got my traffic out and news in for the first time in a week. The satellite has been noisy most of this week and South Pole has first dibs on the prime satellite time since they have a very small window to see the satellite this time of the year.

It's still snowing like the devil, probably the worst storm I've seen since I've been here. The drifts are stacking up and the snow hasn't shown any sign of letting up. The Polar Duke is supposed to come in on Sunday and pick up the scientists on station now for a science cruise and drop off the others that have been out for a week. The ship will only be in for a night, then back out again in the morning. The longest stay the ship had on station was when the Bahia went down. All the science then revolved around studying the effects from the oil/diesel released from the sinking ship.

24 June 89

This week made my eighth month here and the countdown is started. We have a full house on station now with about 20 people. It has been nice to have some new faces on station, but the Duke comes in tomorrow and will take this group of beakers out on a cruise and will leave off the other group that is on the ship now.

The weather has finally started to break after a two day snowstorm. Looks like we are in the middle of winter now. Some of the drifts are five and six feet high. I think we had about 1 1/2 feet of snow and the winds are pushing it all over the place. Can't wait to get back home and sleep in my nice warm waterbed with the covers pulled up to my neck!

I spoke with Gram and she is doing well. She was bragging about how nice the weather is in Arizona after I told her about our snowstorm. I told her to send some of that sun down here for a week or so.

01 July 89

Things here have picked up over the last couple of weeks since the ship came in. We have two groups of scientists that came in, but they aren't all on the station at one time. The bigger group is out on a cruise now and will stop in on Wednesday for three hours to drop off their catch then head back out. So there has been a pick up in traffic and I've been busier since I've started my inventory.

The weather over the past couple of weeks has reminded me that I'm not in Florida anymore. We had a snowstorm last week that lasted a good two to three days and dropped close to two feet of snow on us. We had five and six foot drifts all over. The one part of the stairway to the other building was completely covered and you had to walk on the railing. This week things are back to normal. Temps are a little cooler between 20 and 30F. The days are now getting longer, but I don't see any difference yet.

The sun still doesn't come up till ten and still disappears around three. We haven't had too many clear days to see the sunset either, but we're better off than South Pole. They haven't seen any sun since the beginning of April, and won't until I think sometime in August. Then it's only a little light and no red flaming ball. We haven't had any sea ice collect in the harbor this year. The water temp is around 31 degrees, but seawater doesn't freeze easily.

02 July 89

Yesterday and today we had a low front scream through here, so we have been having some great winds! The walls in the Comm Center bow in with every gust. The wall in the comm center here was breathing this morning with every gust. It looked like something out of Poltergeist! The wall would push in, then relax and shake everything on the wall. Sleeping in my bunk was like riding in a train last night. Shake, rattle and roll! In addition to the wind, there has been a lot of solar activity lately too. Trying to send and receive data from the satellite has been loads of fun. I get halfway through a file, get thrown out and can't call back up the remote script!

We are going to be roasting a pig here tomorrow. We will have tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday off, but had to work through this weekend. The only thing we will have to do on Wednesday is tie the ship up and send them off after they unload their fish samples. They are collecting krill, copapods and I think some ice fish too.

A couple of the scientists here went to Easter Island before they came down, so I've been bombarding them with questions about what to see and where to stay and where to go. The one girl brought down the book, Aku Aku and I did manage to read it this week. Written by Thor Heyerdahl, was really interesting and give a good background on Easter Island's history, people and culture. At this point, I'm not sure if anyone else is going up to Easter Island from our group, but being alone has never stopped me before.

I still want you to send the copy you bought for me so that I can refer back to it while I'm there. That way I'll know the significance of the sites as I'm seeing them. The only other thing I'll need is the sun screen and I'll be set to go. The more I talk to these two, the longer I think my stay on the island should be. I'll keep you informed once I solidify my plans.

03 July 89

The weather has calmed down some since I last wrote. The snow is packed down somewhat now, but the temps are still in the lower 20's and the wind comes and goes. The Polar Duke is coming in tomorrow to drop off some animal samples krill, copapods and ice fish for the scientists. We are also going to have two small pigs on a spit for the occasion. The crew is Canadian and Canada Day was on the first, so I think they will be celebrating too.

06 July 89

Fourth of July here was great! The Duke came in a day early, so we had a full house for the party. Robbin and Pat (our new GFA), cooked two piglets on the spit. We all had a great meal and a good party that night. I’ve hidden the head from the pig in the deep freeze for the Fall crew to discover when the resupply comes in in October!

Things are starting to get back to normal after the holiday and the Polar Duke stopping in and going back out. We worked through the weekend last weekend and took off on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Still had some things to get done throughout the weekend like traffic and weather observations, but overall, it was a pretty laid back few days. Too much partying, too much good food, the way it is supposed to be over a holiday.

Yesterday the Duke left and the weather was really snotty. The wind was blowing and it was raining. We had to crawl over icy rocks and snow drifts to get to the hasps that the bow lines were hooked to. Plus, it wasn't a lot of fun to get up at 10 a.m. when you didn't get to bed until 05:30 a.m. We did have a good snowball fight with the scientists on the ship before the ship pulled away.

Today it has been raining most of the day, but surprisingly not much of the snow has melted away. One of the scientists birthday was also on the fourth, so we had another reason to celebrate. I've been playing with this print shop program, so I made a banner for her birthday and colored it in with highlighters.

I'm nursing an infection in my shin right now. I tell ya, it takes forever for sores to heal here. I slid into a wall on a wet floor and buried my shin into a metal corner strip a few weeks ago. It didn't show any signs of infection until last week. Doc has instructed me to use warm compresses to bring the infection out and some bacterial cream. Give it a couple of days and the infection should be cleared.

Stand by, dinner's ready and I'm hungry. I'll be back!

1900 06 July 89

I'm back, dinner wasn't too bad lamb stew and fresh baked bread. The cooking here is too good. It's a good thing I'm still working out and doing time on the stationary bike or I'd be big as a house! I'm about the same weight as when I left and that was after not working out for a month, so I must have a little more mass now. If Dee gets those boxes I sent home, please let me know. I am kind of anxious to see how long it takes.

Hold on.....Ok, I'm back again. Had to go check the hot tub. I'm putting some more water into it. It's nice to just sit back and relax some nights in there. Haven't been able to do too much star gazing lately with all the clouds and the bad weather. Gotta go do my weather observations now, so I'll close for now.

under 100 days left!

08 July 89

It's now Sunday night and I'm trying to finish this before I send out traffic. Fixed that cable for the other satellite antenna and had to crawl around in the snow and rain to pull the cable back up to the antenna. I really don't care for the roof covered with ice, but at least it's done and working for now. Still have to go back up tomorrow and seal the connectors with sealant, but that won't be too bad.

10 July 89

The Bahia is still staying above water, but is turning slowly and belching out oil/diesel here and there. The railing from the bridge used to be above water, but as she has settled, the rail is now under water. The scientists did a dive around the ship and took some video. The ship is resting on one of its masts. They were describing how eery it sounds as the ship creaks when you are so near to it under the water. The ship is resting on a slope off of DeLaca Island. Only a small portion of the starboard side of the ship shows above the water. Maybe all of a twenty five by fifteen foot section shows during low tide now.

The scientists have reported their findings back to the NSF. I think the National Science Foundation is hashing over now what to do about the ship. Whatever they decide is going to require negotiations with the Argentine government. Too bad their attentions seemed to be drawn away to their staggering economy and another possible war over the Falklands (or Isla Malvinas if you prefer). Guess it isn't enough to get your butt kicked once!

I'm on watch this week, so it's about 2:30 a.m. and I'm just typing out this letter and listening to the British Forces Broadcast on the AM band of the shortwave broadcast from the Falklands. It's the only radio we can pick up fairly strong other than a few South American, Spanish speaking stations. I really should concentrate some efforts to learning Spanish while I'm here.

10 July 89

I really got into a winter slump after Al left for about three weeks, but that changed quite suddenly after this Winter Cruise III got in. Langdon came back down and brought about ten kids from California. They were only on station eight days. The group that is on station now is a different group; more our age. We’ve all seemed to mesh well together. Lots of impromptu partying, dancing and carrying-on. We haven't danced so much since New Year's Eve.

While the Duke was in over the 4th, I did meet Tom Smith. He didn't seem to be as burnt out as when you saw him last year. He is having all of the same problems you had on the Duke with the ship communications, plus some. Al installed Blast onto the Duke's computers and Tom hasn't a clue how to handle it. I don't know why this company insists on dropping people into jobs without the least bit of preparation! So during the few hours that the Duke has been at Palmer, I've tried to give Tom crash lessons on using Blast and the scripts that Al has written up for it. Unfortunately, as usual, the comms on the Duke leave much to be desired. Bobbing up and down in the water like a rubber ducky in a bathtub isn’t exactly conducive to stable signals and stable comms!

By the way, the Duke had to reclaim their Compaq from us about a week before Al left. So he and I spent some grueling hours reloading everything back onto the ITT Xtra's. Duke and Palmer had to send back two Xtra’s to Paramus. But, Al and I got our last laugh. We made sure to replace one of the spare hard drives that was laying around on the shelf into the one we sent back.

Actually, we wanted to verify whether or not it was a functional drive. As it turned out, it was fried. So we left it in and sent it north! They have better facilities to deal with repair and replacement anyway. At least now we have a spare drive on station. We still have three Xtra's on station and I wouldn't stake my career on their dependability.

Guess Tom is going to go to South Pole in Austral Summer for November 89 and work there as a tech. He was also mentioning that they are going to hire three comms operators for South Pole. So I asked him to put in a word for me and maybe come November of 90, I can try for a summer operator position. Only problem might be trying to find out who has the contract.

We had quite a snowstorm here about two weeks ago that dropped about two feet of snow and winds that left five and six foot drifts all over the station. Paths had to be plowed to the pier so that the Duke could lower the stairs. Other than that, the weather has been fairly mild. Temps have been as low as minus 10C and this morning hit plus two C. We are still getting rain and snow mixed, but the snow that is here isn't melting.

I had my ATS 3 transmit Yagi lose its connector. Pulled clean out! As you know, the cold and salt spray really does a number on things here. I ended up having had to climb up on the icy roof to rerun the cable. I repaired the broken end inside then had to feed the repaired end out through the access hole and reach around the end of the roof to pull it up to the antenna for reconnection. I hate climbing on the roof and leaning over the edge. You know how much I hated it when you, Al and I were raising that channel six antenna after the bolt snapped and it crashed down in May.

I started my inventory and I'm sure that it will take forever to finish. I don't think I'm going to screw around with the drawers that have the transistors. If he needs to know what is where, he only needs to look in the inventory book!

Well, that's life in a nutshell (no pun intended) here at beautiful, balmy Palmer Station. We have only another 96 days left...BJ keeps on reminding us! He probably has it counted down to hours at this point. His promise to not shave his beard or cut his hair has him resembling Moses at this point!

14 July 89

Things here are going pretty good so far. I'm on watch all this week, so I've been up till 4:30 a.m. every day and get up at noon. It feels like half of my day is wasted and it's really hard to motivated. I've been working out in the evenings in between watches, so I haven't let that sched get too screwed up. Our satellite time is around 9 p.m., so this late sched works out good for that. I don't think I count the number of hours put in anymore. It is hard when you work and sleep in the same building; you know something needs to get done and you just stay in front of the computer or in the shop. Even during my idle hours, I seem to end up in here!

Winter here hasn't been that bad, more like a mild Chicago winter at this point. The guys that I pass weather conditions to at Faraday (British Antarctic Survey Station), say that this has been the mildest winter on record since the 1950's. The temps haven't been below a minus 11 C and have been staying anywhere from minus two to plus two C. The wind is what makes life difficult here.

Last night was calm at six and forty knot winds at 1 a.m. The night before last was like a dream. I was running my last round at four a.m. and the sky was partly cloudy with the half moon peaking through the clouds and some scattered stars, with the station dead quiet except for the pounding of the station generators. I took a deep breath and the air reminded me of being in the mountains in Colorado skiing cold, crisp and refreshing. It's moments like that I would like to put into a jar and save.

Yes, it does get light here. Since the winter solstice, it is getting progressively lighter. Daylight comes around 9:30 10 a.m. and sunset around 3:30 p.m. So the days are getting longer now. We still don't see the sun over the glacier, but give it a couple of months and it will get over its' shyness. Some of the sunsets have been beautiful with the pinks, oranges and purples. You'll have to see some of the slides that I've taken.

Speaking of skiing, no, I haven't dared to go back up on the glacier skiing yet. Aside from not having the time, I'm not that agile to downhill ski on cross country skis. I may get talked into going back up though. This group of scientists are pretty active and keep everyone busy.

Everyone has since recovered from the party on the fourth, so we are planning a Bastille Day Party for tomorrow night. I know, I know, today is Bastille Day, but we have to work in the morning on Saturday so it works out better to have a party on Saturday night. I won't be able to drink since I'll be on watch, but I'll still have fun. I made up a sign and hung the sign and French flag in the galley. We decided to have the party in the galley for a change. So we'll put up the white Christmas lights and have a fire going for atmosphere. We have a few here who are real entertainment packages in themselves, so parties aren't too boring!

My workouts are progressing well. I've been striving to do more aerobic activity, so I ride the stationary bike every workout day for a half hour minimum. I've been pushing up the resistance lately, but it really wears me out overall. Instead of working a three on one off, I usually work out two days, take a day off and pick up on the third day and first day, then take another day off. It seems to give me enough rest and I still feel like I'm making gains.

Chapter 4 - Winter Over Begins

2005-06-11T00:34:00.000+04:00

April 1989

The time down here has really given me a lot of different experiences. The most memorable up until now has been when the Bahia Paraiso ran aground and sank 1 1/2 miles off shore here in January. The station came together and did as much as we could to bring in the life rafts of people, pulling canisters and barrels and other assorted floating garbage from the harbor AND somehow managing to keep our sanity with over 300 people on the station from the ship.

Fortunately, two other tourist ships came back and took 200 or so passengers from the ship off station and northbound that night. I don't know where we would have slept that many and kept them over any period of time! It was a challenge enough to find sleeping spaces for over 100 Argentine soldiers from the ship on a station that was built for a maximum of 45 50 people.

The cooks here got help from the ships cooks with meals and dishes, but is still was quite a task for them. Instead of the usual one person watch, we had three people scheduled for station watch. Certain areas had to be manned 24 hours to make sure the clepto's were kept away. We still lost a few items, but things worked out ok, considering as many people as were here.

The Argentines left over 100 soldiers here from the ship to "help" in their half hearted cleanup effort. I made a couple of friends among them, and would like to stop over in Buenos Aires on the way back if possible. With all the political turmoil in Argentina, I will have to wait and see when I'm ready to leave here.

The ship hit the rocks on Saturday, January 28th and rolled over on its side on Tuesday night January, 31st. It took the American Government some time to get the oil response equipment and people to Palmer from the States. An American C 5 flew down and landed at the Punta Arenas airport with all the equipment and people necessary to control and clean up a "worst case" oil spill.

Within weeks, scientists came down to study the oils effects on the environment and wildlife. The NSF needed to know the ramifications of this disaster on any future science to be conducted in the future. Palmer is only one of three stations that are kept open by the American contingent in the Antarctic region.

Our spill was nowhere near as devastating as the incident in Alaska, but it was the first real spill in the Antarctic and the first involving commercial sea tourism in the Antarctic. Around the same time, a Peruvian vessel ran aground at King George Island and was leaking oil and fuel. This was not a tourist carrying vessel and did not sink.

The first month was the hardest on the birds. Over the last couple of months the scientists generally had concluded that not enough oil was spilled to have had a permanent effect on the area. Even with the initial losses of bird life and non
vertebrates, the damage isn't expected to carry over into the following year.

Chilean divers hired by the National Science Foundation went down to investigate the wreck and give some kind of an idea what the situation looked like below the water level. They corked up a few holes and closed the portholes that were left open when the ship sank. This seemed to have stopped the heavy oil leaks we were smelling and seeing on the surface of the water. That's not to say that the wreck still wasn't leaking...just not so badly now. Whenever we get a good stiff south wind, it still smells like a diesel filling station here.

The oil response people weren't able to predict what effects the ice and winter will have on the ship's hull at this point. They say that at worst, the ice could crush the ship and spill the remaining contents into the harbor. But we can only wait and see. If only the engine room doors had been closed, like they were supposed to, the ship may have been saved. The two Sea King helicopters onboard were probably worth more than the ship. Once the ship took on water and started to list, there was no way the helicopters could be launched off of the helo deck without sliding into the water.

17 April 1989

Everything here is ok. I was depressed for about a week after this last group left, but I'm finally getting over it and carrying on. Al has already started to pack, so I'm getting more prepared to settle in for the winter. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the crew leaving and the station going into winter mode.

I'm going to retrograde a box of stuff back from here in May. It probably won't be home until July or August since it will go back first to Paramus, NJ on a slow boat, then be mailed back C.O.D. to Naperville. I'll send home the sweatshirts I've bought among other things I've collected. You may want to have a look at the literature about the shipwreck and all that. It's a good collection of information and will give you a good idea of what went on here during that time.

I got the box from Dee and I'm glad she sent what she did. There were a few things I wish she would have sent, that I did ask for, but I'll live without them. I have as much as I need to get me through.

I'm kind of curious as to what new music is out since I've been gone. I heard the new Bangles song on the BBC shortwave broadcast and it sounded good. I still miss driving my car.

The weather here is cooler now. Looks like winter is here to stay. Average temps are running around 28 30F and we have been seeing more snowflakes around. Last night we ended up with about an inch on the ground. We had a day last week when the whole station smelled like diesel again. The ship is leaking again, but there isn't much that can be done about it. The fumes were bad like standing around at the Dixi truck stop on old Route 66 in Mc Lean, IL!

I see your temps in Chicago are getting warmer now. We get the news through the main computer in Florida. So we can kind of keep track of what's going on in the real world. By the way, did Daley win or what? I hope so. Chicago really needs someone who knows the system and the ins and outs of the city.

21 April 1989

The weather here is just starting to remind us of winter. We have had snow all this week and have probably two or three inches on the ground now. We are having a lot of gray days the past couple of weeks. Winter seems to be finally kicking in. Guess we won't be seeing bare rocks again for quite a while.

As we will soon be closed for winter season, I'm not sure about the frequency of mail. It sounds like there will be a spell where we won't see the ship for 1 1/2 months between mid June and August. So I'll keep in touch by marsgrams during that time.

Al, my supervisor, will be leaving on the next ship out in three weeks and has been trying to prepare me for the winter and take care of some projects he doesn't want to leave hanging. Communications traffic has slowed down some since the last group of scientists went out two weeks or so ago. The mood is definitely more relaxed and everyone is settling into a winter mode here.

We had a picnic at Old Palmer Station this last weekend, snow and all. It was nice to get away even if it is only a mile or so. The boat ride is normally only five minutes or so, but we had a bit of brash ice in the harbor and it took around 25 minutes to get over to O.P. We cooked steaks on the grill and a few of us went and checked out an ice cave in back of the station.

It was interesting to see light shining through parts of the cave lighting the way through it. A couple of people did some cross country skiing and I pulled a sled up to the top of the hill and did some sledding. The second time down did me in. Busted my butt. Hit a rock mid way down and flew something like two feet in the air. So I've been sitting on one cheek this week!

Just call me, Dangerous Downhill Dave.

28 April 1989

The job here has been very interesting and challenging. I have learned how to use a PC like never before. I can remember how afraid I always was of them before this job. Al, my supervisor has managed to somehow bang into my head most of the information I'll need over the next five and one half months.

I have had many chances to see the wildlife in the area. We have penguin rookeries on the nearby islands and cormorants (blue eyed shags) on another nearby island. Elephant seals are all over the place and fur seals have just started coming in within the last month. Many sitings of whales; humpbacked mostly, but orcas too. The divers from a few different teams have brought up loads of animal and plant life that I've never seen before. It is hard to believe that such a variety of sealife can live in such a cold climate where the sea water temps stay around 30 32F.

29 April 1989

No, I haven't grown my beard back…yet. I am waiting until we close up for winter. Besides, Dee just sent me six cans of shaving cream.

The weather here just turned cooler today. We got a cold front in after a week of fairly mild temps 28 32F and about a foot of snow during the week. It's funny to see all rocks covered again. It looks like it did when I first arrived in October of last year. I was just sitting in the hot tub the other night and the wind was blowing and the snow was really coming down it was so relaxing. I'm still working out, although I had to take a few days off when I took that tumble sledding last week at Old Palmer. I have two big bruises on my behind. Soon we'll be able to ski on the glacier, and with some snow, it won't be so icy. It is hard to think that we are just starting into our winter and the temps on your side of the world are in the sixties.

Things are winding down here and we're starting to get into a winter mode. The next ship to leave will take the most of the regulars out with it. So we will be left with ten or eleven until the ship comes back with the two other winter overs. Last chance to get mail to me will be on the ship that leaves Punta on 02 June. I don't know how long it takes to get mail from Chicago to Punta Arenas, but we won't see mail during most of this austral winter, so we will have to write more marsgrams.

01 May 1989

The weather is probably the most exciting thing happening around here. We had winds gusting up to 60 knots and staying steady at around 40 50 knots all day yesterday. The days before that weren't much calmer with constant winds around 30 knots. I was staring out the window yesterday just watching the waves crash up on Bonaparte Point and sending a mist into the air. The glacier has been calving a lot too, but the ice is being carried out to sea with the wind and waves. The snow that we had last week is slowly melting away and we have been having more rain the past couple of days. The temps aren't too bad and it's been staying between 30 34F for most of the week.

I'm almost caught up on writing letters. We won't get mail in for another 2 1/2 weeks, so I have a break until then. The Polar Duke will be in on Thursday and leaving on Friday to go back to P.A. So you'll be receiving another letter (handwritten) from me in probably two weeks. Not too much happening here since the last group left. There are 21 of us now and we will be down to ten after the ship leaves.

Tom our station manager pulled us all together after the ship departed for a meeting. He informed us that we will eat one meal per day as a group. It would be our decision, but we needed to be together for one meal each day. This would help us bond and give us a chance to check in with everyone while not allowing anyone to cut themselves off from the group. Winter over can tend to do strange things to peoples minds and personalities...or so we're told. So we've decided that we will all make lunch at 12 noon. That may be a challenge once my satellite schedule slips till late in the night.

09 May 1989

Deb, I have a few things I would like you to do for me. One; buy me a pocket (Random House or something similar) dictionary for Spanish to English. I want to do some traveling on the way back north and will definitely need it. I would also like you to pick up a book by Thor Heyerdahl by the name of Aku Aku. It is a book all about Easter Island and the cultures that built the giant statues.

What would also be nice is to record some music on Saturday night or even during the day. I miss hearing the normal radio programs. The tapes, book and dictionary should be sent to the office in Paramus and that way it won't get lost in the Chilean mail and will be shipped down air freight or hand carried by someone coming down in August. There isn't any huge hurry on that though.

15 May 1989

I'm starting to think about leaving and have been looking at the books to decide where I'm going to visit on my way back to the U.S. I know that I'm going to do at least a few days in the Lakes region of Chile. I've mapped out a course around one of the main lakes near Puerto Montt. The area is supposed to be somewhat bilingual (Spanish/German), so at least if I can't learn much Spanish with the tapes this winter, I can speak one language they'll understand.

I'm also starting to check out the possibilities of going to Easter Island.

Thanks for staying in touch. I'm glad you are writing again. It sometimes gets lonely not hearing from all of you way up there. Plant some radishes for me. I'm waiting at my mailbox!

22 May 1989

The weather has been generally like garbage. It rained yesterday all afternoon and changed to snow it the evening. By morning today, we had probably another six inches or so of snow and the wind stayed a steady 35 40 knots throughout the night.

Got my hair cut off last night. It's down to about 1/2 inch now. I figure that I have four or five months for it to grow back. I won't look like a fugitive forever. We may have an opportunity to take a field trip to Faraday Station. That is the British Antarctic Survey Station that I speak with every day at least two times a day to pass our weather observations to. It would be nice to get a change of venue for a day or so. I'll let you know if it happens.

Finally able to find a radio station!! Found BFBS (British Forces Broadcast Service) on the bottom of the AM band transmitted from the Falklands (Islas Malvinas). I used to listen to BFBS in Germany too since we were in the British sector, so I kind of feel right at home. Some of the broadcast is from London, so we do get live news now, other than reading it in the news updates we get from the computer in Florida. I'm not able to pull in the station with a regular radio, I have to use the shortwave.

The Duke (R/V Polar Duke, our resupply ship) is due in on Wednesday, so I'm hoping I will get some mail from home. It will be nice to have fresh fruits and veggies again too. Our new winter cook is also coming in on this ship. So we will see some new faces again too.

I'll let you know more about my plans as they solidify over the next five months.

Antarctically yours,
Dangerous

26 May 89

Got your letter this week. Glad to hear that everything is going well for you. You may not be too surprised that I'm staying on until October. This doesn't mean you will see me in October though. I plan to do a lot of traveling once I leave here.

My workouts seem to have more breaks in them, but I'm still keeping relatively close to a three on one off sched. I'm doing stationary biking and trying to do something cardiovascular at least two of the three workouts I do. I'm still eating like a horse and the new winter cook isn't going to help things any! I am eating more here and bigger meals because they are prepared and there, plus I live and work in the same building that the kitchen is in. If all else fails, I'll come to you for meal counseling to help me lose my midsection pudge. I think you'll be surprised at the gains and the definition I have been able to make since I left Chicago.

You asked if slides are easy to process. Yes, they are and it does require a few more steps, but as long as you are able to keep the water temperature and solution temp constant, it only takes about a half hour to do. I think the big problem for me is that to do processing at home, I just don't take enough pictures to use the solutions while they are fresh. I don't know how long the solutions keep once they have been mixed and out of the packages. The slide processing we do here is E 6 Ektokrome and there are only seven total steps including the rinses.

Everything here has wound down this last month. We have only 10 12 people on station now and soon that will be even fewer. Around June sometime, we will have some scientists on the station, but the station population will still be fewer than 15 or so. So it has been real quiet.

The weather has been less than pleasant. We have been having either rain or snow almost every day in the last three weeks. We have also had a lot of wind. Normal blows are around 20 30 knots steady most of the time. Today we have already had gusting up to 76 knots. Snow is still blowing around all over in general, pretty stinky weather.

Spoke with a friend of mine last week and he kindly reminded me that by the time I get home and spend winter at home, I'll have had 1 1/2 years of winter! That's ok, I'll look forward to spending a nice week in the sun on Easter Island before I come home.

28 May 89

Got your letters this last week. I know it takes awhile to get letters back and forth from here. I'm writing you a marsgram now because June 15th will be our last chance to receive mail until the beginning of August. This way you only have to drop a letter to Pennsylvania and I'll have it within a week.

Well, don't pull the grill out yet. I won't be leaving here until the middle of October and am hoping not to be home until December. I'm in the process of planning a trip to Easter Island to tan my skin a little and give me the chance to sightsee. I'll keep you posted as my departure date gets closer.

When the last ship left two weeks ago, it left us with ten people on station. Now, since the ship came back in, we have a couple of science people here and got our new cook in. But when the ship leaves again, we will be back down to seven. The next ship coming in will have a group a beakers and a couple of new station personnel.

I'll be seein you before you know it and then I can bore you with bunches of slides!

30 May 89

Things here are going okay. I can't believe I have been here in Antarctica seven months already. I have really seen and learned so much, it is hard to write it into one letter.

The weather here has been nasty the past three weeks. Winter is without a doubt, here. Today was the nicest day that we have seen in weeks. We even saw the sun and some blue sky! The winds finally died down today too. It may not be cold here compared to the rest of the continent, but the wind makes sure it isn't too pleasant. This is known as the sun belt of Antarctica since the peninsula has nicer weather and more animal and bird life than most of the continent.

Most of the station personnel have left for the winter, so we have about 15 people now. After our resupply ship R/V Polar Duke leaves on Saturday, we will be down to seven. Then in the middle of June, we will have some beakers come in, but I don't know how many will be remaining on station. That ship will be the last we will see of mail from the states until mid August.

Chapter 3 - Shipwreck

2005-06-05T20:44:00.000+04:00

28 January 89

Another two tour ships on schedule for visits to the station today! The Argentine ship Bahia Paraiso was the first. People on this ship were a mixed bunch, not like the others of previous visits which brought predominantly American passengers. Crew on this ship include about 150 Argentine military. The Argentines are using this ship to resupply their sites in the Antarctic but also hauling tourists to various sites in the peninsula area in order to raise money for their government which is in such dire straites as of late.

The visit went as usual and the weather was a cool 35F or so, but clear and sunny. The last Zodiac pulled out around 12:45 in the afternoon, but most of us were finishing eating or had eaten and were milling around the galley area until the station meeting was to start at 13:00. The meeting was just basically to cover when station clean up would be done and who would choose a movie schedule and cook Sunday dinner.

I had been sitting by the window before the meeting just reading and staring off into Arthur Harbor. The meeting had started and was in progress, but my eyes were lazily watching the Bahia as she made her way away from the station. We were expecting our second tourist ship visit from the Society Explorer around 13:00,
but they called via the radio and advised that they would be closer to 14:00. No problem, it would give us a chance to catch our breath.

It was around 13:10 and the Bahia was out in the middle of the harbor and was starting to take a sharp turn to the right. It appeared at first that she would head straight for DeLaca Island, but then veered to cut between DeLaca and Torgersson Islands. We were told that the Bahia Paraiso came in that route on her last station visit last season. We had seen no other ships ever come in by that route since we have been here, so her route really was strange from what we were used to seeing.

Mike and Chip opened the meeting and went through the usual spiel. I can't say that I was paying too much attention. Just trying to bear with it and hope it would be over soon.

"All the monkeys look!" has been Brian's catch phrase of the week. As usual, he was up to his monkeying around again at the meeting. He always knew how to break up the tension and monotony of our meetings. So jokingly he spouts, "Look, the Bahia Paraiso has run aground!!" Naturally, everyone is supposed to look so that he can spout his little phrase.

A few of us were laughing off Brian's comments only to realize in a few moments that the Bahia was bellowing thick black smoke from her stacks and was not moving anymore. She had really run aground and was trying to back off the low submerged pinnacle she was now impaled upon.

We all watched and waited over the next half hour to see what would happen. The binoculars and the telescope were passed around between us all in the galley to get a closer look. It was about 13:45 when we started to see the life rafts that were
being set down into the cool harbor water.

Back in the communications shack, the captain had summoned our station manager, Mike on channel 16. The captain of the Bahia asked Mike if we had any boats that might assist in pulling his ship off of the rocks. To us, this was kind of comical since our largest boat is a Zodiac with a 50 hp Johnson outboard! The Bahia Paraiso was a warship/hospital ship complete with helicopter deck and two Sea King helicopters chained in back.

Mike advised him that we hadn't any larger vessels that could perform that type of function, but that the Society Explorer was due in soon and that they may. It was around this time that and Inmarsat satellite call was initiated for our NSF Rep currently on station, Ted, back to Washington D.C. to brief his bosses on the current situation.

As we had been briefed earlier by our previous NSF Rep, Tony, "We cannot offer help unless it is officially requested." It sounds callous, but with American liability laws and all, it wasn't our responsibility (the individuals or the American governments) to take nor ours to offer. The official request came from the captain of the Bahia between 14:00 and 14:15. He advised that he had already sent off one life raft and was dispatching more and would like assistance from our Zodiacs at Palmer.

Actually, the captain's first request for assistance was almost an apology.

Mike proceeded to ask, "Is this an official request for assistance?"

The Bahia Captain replied, "I'm sorry, but I must direct my passengers and put them on Palmer."

Two Zodiacs were already in the water at this point, thanks to Eric. Our people were ready to assist in the rescue of the passengers of the Bahia Paraiso, we only awaited the request of the Bahia captain. The "official" B.S. was out of the way now.

Jim Porter was in a Mark III and Suzy, Ted and Eric were in a Mark V. Al was busy working the radios at this point, so I was feeling like a fifth wheel sitting in the communications shack. I went down to the pier to see if I could assist any in preparing for our visitors as the first lifeboat was just arriving.

I helped Lisa scout down Bill who we desperately needed as a translator and whom we relied on heavily from that point on for translation assistance. Lisa and Alison were busy taking names of the passengers and country of origin, so we would have record of who was accounted for. We would soon find out that the crew of the Bahia would not have any kind of manifest for us to compare our manifest of passengers with.

The first lifeboat came in and I assisted the one crew member pull the rope in and gave a hand as passengers came up the ladder onto the pier. Still I didn't feel like I was much of a help. Just then, one of the crew members sliced his hand on the pier skirting. He caught his finger just below the finger nail about 1 1/2 inches in the shape of the letter t and it was bleeding pretty good.

I helped him to the Biolab building and sat him down in the foyer because the Doc's office was locked. Doc wasn't anywhere in site and I was debating whether to leave this guy alone and risk him going into shock, or go look quickly upstairs for Doc. I bolted up to the Galley on the second floor and just then I saw Doc coming down the stairs. I showed Dennis the guy and his finger and he took care of the guy from there.

On my way out the door, I saw Brian with a float coat. He said that he was headed out to see what he could do to help in the harbor. I grabbed a float coat and joined him in the little Mark II with a 25 hp. Out we went to save the Bahia!

Brian hauled ass out toward the ship and stopped at the first raft we came to. The people in it told Brian in Spanish that they were ok and to go get the older folks closer to the ship. It was quite a site to see. Ten or so of these circular orange
pup tents floating around the harbor.

We hitched up with two life rafts that were connected together near Torgersson Island. The poor 25 hp couldn't pull the load and started pulling us all in closer to Torgersson Island. Luckily a Mark V from the Society Explorer showed up just in time and gave us a hand. The two life rafts separated and we took one and he took the other.

Slowly but surely we pulled our life raft into Palmer. Our passengers got out and Brian suggested I go in and get my camera. He wanted to get his too, but did not want to wade through the crowd of people gathered on the pier now.

Once inside, the third floor berthing where my room was, was hastily blocked off with some yarn across the hall entry. This was to at least give the impression that it was restricted access. Most of the crowd chose to remain outside since the weather was sunny and clear. Temps were still only about 37 F, but with the sun out, you could at least feel some warmth.

I attempted to barge into my room, but remembered that now I needed a key. Keys were issued out to all of us for our rooms and work areas as soon as it looked imminent that the passengers would be coming onto the station for more than a visit. This precaution was taken because of stories of a previous bad experience with the crew of a ship two years prior to this visit.

The crew of this earlier visit had come on station and gone through the berthing areas, stealing anything that wasn't nailed down. In the end, the personal belongings were returned, but no money was ever accounted for. During regular ship visits, the tourists are fairly well contained and we hadn't ever locked the doors. This would provide at least some peace of mind amid all the craziness.

After about ten minutes, I was back down to the rocks on the other side of the boathouse, but Brian was already near the pier. He was helping to move some life rafts further down into the Inlet to clear an area for more incoming boats and life rafts. I gave him a shout and he said that he would be right over to get me.

In the mean time, Commander (a nickname, not any commander from a ship or the navy!) was holding an incoming life raft with a hook and asked if I would give him a hand. There was a passenger with a leg prosthesis who needed assistance getting out of the life raft. Actually, she was being carried out of the life raft by four other
people. They had laid one blanket out on the rocks because the algae on the rocks made stepping and standing difficult. Another blanket was laid down up past the rocks on the dry ground closer to the station to provide a dry and warm spot on the cold rocky ground after she was lifted out of the life raft.

I grabbed one of the empty rafts to give the line to one of the soldiers, but as I bent down, my feet came out from under me and I crashed down onto the slimy rocks. I caught myself as my elbow bashed into the rocks and ended up with one leg wet to the knee. My hand was numb either from hitting it during the fall or from whacking my funny bone, but I was ok.

I wanted to change clothes into something dry, but Brian shouted for me to get into the Zodiac. It wasn't until we started heading back out to the ship that I started to feel cold and I remembered then that I left my gloves on the bed in berthing.
Well, at least I had my camera and the weather wasn't too threatening at this point.

As we came up on the ship within 1000 yards, the smell of oil and diesel got strong. You could see the light brown wake from the motor as it churned up the fuel like a blender. Brian pulled up to the left side of the ship where we saw Andy and Bill working. We asked if there was anything we could do and they wanted us to stand by at this point. No one was very sure if the ship was going to list anymore than she already was or whether she was even still taking on water. But they wanted resources around just in case the Bahia took a sudden turn for the worst.

After waiting about twenty minutes, we were asked to assist another life raft on the port side of the ship. Brian brought the Zodiac around and was awful close to the ships port side which was listing over us like a long heavy limb of a tree. Sitting in the what looked like five stories of leaning ship didn’t sit real well with me. I was about wetting my pants and told Brian that I didn't want to die this way!

We got over to the group of lifeboats and got in close enough so that I could grab a lead on one of them. We had found out earlier that the reason our rescue was going so slow was that the life rafts have sea anchors to keep them from drifting all over. So when we got to the empty rafts, we had to find these anchors and pull them up out of the water. All they were was a cloth sling on strings that would slow the movement of the raft if the winds kicked up. We then took this raft to the starboard side as requested.

Back on the starboard side, Andy was still struggling with the pump. They were not able to get the thing primed well enough to get any pumping accomplished. Eric said he was sticking around since he had the Mark V and Pete Boudreau also was sticking
around. Jim Davis was just heading back, so Brian and I couldn't really do too much more now. No sooner had we arrived back at Palmer than Andy called us to bring out the shorter twelve foot pipe for outgoing water. Jim was still in his float coat, so I went back out with Jim to deliver the pipe and a couple of connectors per Andy's request.

Jim and I arrived again back at the Bahia and Andy and Bill took the connector right away. Bill was translating, but questioning to what extent the Argentines were following Andy's instructions. The first try with the pump was unsuccessful due to no prime in the hose. The second attempt they primed from below deck, but there wasn't enough water in the hose to take. The people on the ship could only prime the pipe so far. When water came out, they figured it was full. However, with the list of the ship and the ups and downs of the waves, they couldn't fill the hose
completely.

Andy was a bit curious as to what was going on at this point. This made twice that they tried to get the pump going without success. He asked Jim to take him over to the stairs and he boarded ship. Jim and I stayed in place next to the ship while
we watched the water swell on the markings on the side of the ship from XIV to XV. Between ourselves, we discussed the possibilities and the way things looked at this point for the future of the stranded ship. Nothing too hopeful, at this point.

A couple of Argentines on the ship brought us down a couple of Cokes which were a welcome relief. The salt air seemed to really drain me of all energy, not to mention drying out my eyes and throat. That night, Richie suggested to me that the dryness in my eyes and throat may have been from all the fuel in the water.

A few minutes later, Andy showed up above deck and made his way back to our Zodiac. He said that we would not believe the situation below deck. The slant of the floor combined with the oil and fuel along with the lack of lighting below deck made the
walk below dangerous at best. He primed the hose again and was ready to give it another try.

He started up the pump again, but it only worked for a few short moments and was flat dry again. At this point, the station manager Mike, suggested Andy come back to the station. Bill told the crew that we were going to have to give up for now and that we wanted the hoses and connectors back. The connectors and hoses were vital for the station as well and could not be left behind. It took some time to get that point across even as Bill spoke their own language, but we were soon on our way back to Palmer.

Andy boarded our Zodiac for the trip back just as the Argentines brought another life raft to this side of the ship. I tied it off to the boat that the pump was on and we headed back. Bill gave us a sad puppy dog look and was ready to come back with us. So after the Argentines backed away from the ship some, Jim brought the Zodiac along side the Argies Zodiac and we picked Bill up.

Finally, we were back home at the pier at Palmer. People and lifeboats everywhere!! I can't believe this station has this many people. I guess I expected the peninsula would just buckle up and sink under the weight of so many bodies and equipment. Lifeboats were lifted out of the water with our crane and set down along our road to be used for storage and as tents for the remaining military members who would stay behind. The real adventure was just starting. It's like coming home after a bad business trip and finding out your neighbors on all sides have moved in.

All I wanted at this point was a hot shower and clean, dry clothes. I darted up the stairs and stopped dead at the yarn strung checkpoint. Margaret was guarding the berthing area since the one bathroom downstairs couldn't handle the number of people
needing the facilities. Some of the tourists were using our dryer to dry out clothes that got wet in the transfer from the ship to the life raft and back on to Palmer. Mary was there too keeping Margaret company and talking with a couple of the tourists using the dryer.

Not that I didn't want to be cordial, but I had only one goal in sight a hot shower. I said a quick hello and I was off to my room. It was comforting to know that all was ok or as okay as it could be for now and we were back at home now. Safe and warm. No lives were lost, no serious injuries and 300 something new neighbors downstairs.

The hot shower felt great! I took a ship shower (water on, water off, get soaped, water on, wash down quickly, water off, shower complete) because I was pretty sure we would need to start rationing water usage with 300 now using the resources meant for fifty. As I was drying off, I spoke with one of the American tourists who was putting on some clothes he had just dried in the dryer. He was saying that he was only sorry that he didn't pick up his film before he left the ship. He said that things happened so fast that they didn't even have their passports and they were given reassurances that the problems would quickly be resolved and they would be on their way.

On my way back to my room, I told Margaret that I would spell her on her watch. I've been speaking with many of the passengers who are drying their clothes. Women are taking their pants off in the hallway and wrapping blankets around themselves or putting on some long underwear that Lisa brought out of USARP supply.

I have heard a lot of positive comments from the tourists about the station. One said that she was glad it was here that this happened, and that she was touched by how well we were handling the situation and the people. Another commented on how this made her proud that she was an American. Overall, the most of them were sorry that they weren't able to grab their video equipment, cameras or film from their trip that they had taken. I guess that most of them felt it would only be a few hours and they would be back on the ship and on their way back north to Ushuaia, Argentina.

Around 18:30 19:00, traffic kind of halted through the dorm area, so I went back down to see if Al was doing ok in the communications shop. There were so many people in the communications room using the radio equipment, I would only be in the way. At one point, I was asked to chase the people off of the rocks at Gamage Point by the antenna. Al made a joke about all the stray emanations they were probably picking up just standing so close to the antenna with all of the communications we were initiating. So I went out there and nicely in a tourist guide type voice, requested them to come down from the rocks. Turned out they were Swiss, so I was
able to use my German after all!

Got word around 20:00 that the Society Explorer was going to take 132 passengers to King George Island. Guess word has been given to turn the World Discoverer back for passengers as well as another frequent visiting tourist vessel, the Illiria. Sounds like the Argentine military people or a large number of them will remain on station. We'll see.

Society Explorer left with 132 at around 21:30 and the Illiria was to follow and take out another 132 only to leave with fifty or so. The Illiria advised that they would only take out fifty. Ted (NSF) went nuts. I guess Tony (NSF) had called the llliria on Inmarsat and the captain told him they would take out 130; only to renege once they arrived at Palmer. Ted and Suzi went onboard the Illiria and convinced them to take 65, I think.

I hear there was some fooling around in regards to taking the Argies (military) off of the station, and the ship nearly left without the extra military people. Something about the military people wanting to stay and not leave the scene. I thought it was the captain who goes down with the ship!

Sent out a Telex for the Bahia to the effect that they don't want the help of the Discoverer. By this time it was midnight and not too much else could be done today. People all over the place!! They were sleeping in the boat house, GWR; the gym, lounge, and even in the life rafts!!

Stayed up a little bit and was speaking with the ship's dentist, Roberto. He is about 29 or 30 and has been in the military about six years. He seemed to understand English well. Also started speaking with another Argentine that he knew, Gustavo. He understands English well when I speak slowly and has a great tongue for English pronounciation.

Lisa and Connie were cooking up soup and boiling water to send out to the people working on the ship. It has had no power since the engine rooms filled with water shortly after the ship hit the rocks. The engine room doors had not been secured prior to departing Palmer, so when the ship ran aground, water rushed into the engine
room, flooding it.

I showed Gustavo and Roberto some of my pictures from home and we talked about different places and things. I really find it interesting to speak with so many different people. I wish now that I had taken the time to learn Spanish when I got back from Europe.

Jan 29
I finally got in bed around 4 a.m. and was up at noon. I barely remember shutting off the alarm and then waking up at noon. It's January 29th. Looks like there are fewer people here than yesterday, but many more than we are used to! Alison and Connie cooked up a big breakfast, lunch, as well as dinner.

We've got all of our boats out and all of our radios out too. Oil and diesel in the harbor is a big concern at this point to the scientists. All of the scientists want to go out to check the effects of the oil on their penguin rookeries.

Sent out a message or two today via radio, Telex and facsimile. HMS John Bisco (UK) sent out an offer of assistance to the captain of the Bahia Paraiso. The Argentine captain returned an immediate response back that the Argentine Navy would take care
of the situation. Guess it wouldn't be right for an Argentine commander to let his men be taken out by a British ship. A little note; The Bahia Paraiso served time in the Falkland War as a hospital ship. Not too much more need be said regarding the feelings between the Brits and the Argies at this point!

Guess as far as we know, a Spanish ship, the Las Palmes and an Argentine icebreaker, Gurachaga, are coming to try to salvage the Bahia. She doesn't look too much different today except maybe a little lower in the water at the helo deck on the back port side. Andy went out again to try to use the pump to pump out the engine room. No luck though. Can't get the pump primed enough to remove any water.

You should see the tent city. It really looks like a refugee camp. All the circular life rafts with orange covers pointing up. A group went out today to find the C rats at Old Palmer Station in case they are needed by the Argentines. I don't quite know how good C rats from 1966 are going to be, but any port in a storm!

Jan 31 1989
We were all gathered for another meeting tonight in the galley when at about seven p.m. the Bahia slowly rolled over on her side. Mike got some shots of this on his camera connected to the telescope.

Feb 2 1989
We have learned that the best way to fax photographs across the facsimile is to photocopy them first. That will give them better contrast on the receiving end. Ted has been trying to fax some photos across to Washington D.C., probably so the big wigs can put out their news releases with dramatic photos! The communications
shack is still regularly crammed with people at all hours of the day and night. With no doors on the shop, it is hard to keep them out and give us some peace to complete the work that has to be done at times. It is hard to remember that our primary function is to support science, when you are inconvenienced with a disaster! Our proximity to the galley also lends to our increased traffic. Everyone wants to know the latest messages going out and coming in.

So much has happened since Saturday and I have really had a hard time even writing this much up till now and remembering all of the activities.

Chapter 2 - Arrival at Palmer Station

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Chapter 2

October 22, 1988

There isn't too much that we can do on the ship except watch videos, read and eat. Mike the ships telecom tech is on the ship, but told me that we cannot do too much in the way of satellite traffic until we are out at sea because the Channel walls make communications difficult at best. Even once we are out at sea, the signal is difficult to maintain if the ships movements are too much. Keep on losing the signal and having to rotate the direction of the antenna.

All the seasoned OAE's (Old Antarctic Explorers) are remarking on how the Drake is a real lake this trip around. Drake Lake is nothing like the Drake Passage in "The Bounty" with Mel Gibson.

October 24, 1988

Well, you know you’re in trouble when you arrive and the welcome wagon has a sign up on the balcony reading, "Welcome, Fresh Meat!"

October 25, 1988

I can see I have a lot to learn in a very short period. John Platt is trying to get me up to speed on everything in a nine day period. It doesn't help me that I'm computer illiterate. I have successfully avoided PC's since the military, and now I have to know everything about them in nine days!

01 November 1988

John and I over the next nine days have been putting in anywhere from fourteen to sixteen hour days to try to get me up to speed on the operation of the networks and radios. I never understood why they didn't just have him stay back until the next ship, but all of his plans were made around him getting on that ship when it left.

John's biggest worry was that I would get on that ship before he would! He was toast! It is a common definition used to describe someone who is mentally wasted and needs a big dose of civilization. It seems to be caused by the isolation and the constant routine of winter. I will hopefully experience that myself if I can only make it through the next month until Al gets here.

I was supposed to have a Communications Coordinator joining me in my south bound trip, but he was released while we were in training classes in Florida. The new person to fill that position was Al, who was coming over from the McMurdo side. Al
had just completed a winter over on the McMurdo side and was going to follow on with a summer at Palmer. The only catch was that he would not be down until three weeks after the Polar Duke departed with the old Palmer crew.

December 1988

Al and I didn't exactly hit it off from the start. He was a crusty old bird that came in with his own views on how things should be run. So after three weeks of doing what I thought was correct, he arrived and promptly told me that everything I was doing was wrong. OK, I can accept that. The only problem was that in his reworking of the operations, he wanted to leave me out in the cold. I found him very cold to me when trying to get answers out of him.

February 1989

I soon learned that if you wanted answers out of Al, you had to listen to his spiel preceding the answer to your question. In retrospect, Al helped me learn to listen to people. He taught me patience and he taught me how to hold my tongue.

Throughout the next couple of months, I was getting a strong impression that Al had all intentions of dethroning me of the winter over slot at Palmer. Sad part of it was that he was more qualified and was revamping the systems, making them seriously
more efficient. He was also making things more involved in their operations.

Al completed scripts to run traffic on its own, to bring up programs for the users, to assign message numbers depending on the type of traffic it was designated as. I was interested in what he was doing, but was always feeling like the fifth wheel. His best work was accomplished when everyone else was in bed or drinking at the GWR. I don't mind working strange hours, but I wasn't going to spend every waking hour in the same room with someone whose mind I was unable to read and with someone who made me feel anything but welcome.

I had packed my bags twice during the four months from September to December. It wasn't until around Christmas that I felt I belonged there. Mike, our new station manager did his best to reassure me that my position was secure as a part of the winter over staff.

One other interesting event happened in December. Kennedy from Paramus came down after some major complaints were emailed up to Paramus concerning some head-butting going on between the grantees (scientists on station) and our station manager, Jack. Kennedy arrived on station just after Thanksgiving and Jack was fired just before Christmas. We understood the reasoning behind Jack’s release, but not the timing.

The ship wasn’t going to leave for two days. Now we had to have Jack moping about the station for two days in an embarrassed state. This was not necessarily the most comfortable situation for him or for us. It was a bad situation for management, since they felt that he should not remain in charge until his departure and the ship wasn't leaving for two more days.

At this point, the supervisor of the power plant mechanics was put in charge of the station. Mike Rentel really didn’t want the position, but was very good at it. He actually listened to people and knew how to make sure that the grantees were getting the support they needed. The change was welcome and well accepted by everyone by the time Kennedy escorted Jack back Stateside.

Chapter 1 - Miami to Punta Arenas, Chile

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Chapter 1

“Jay is your responsibility! If he isn’t showing up to eat, you should be letting me know!!”

All I can think of in the back of my mind as Jack is reaming me out is “Pound sand, Jack.” He’s acting as though I am Jay’s babysitter. For Christ’s sake, Jay is a grown man. He’s only my cabin Bunkie while I’m on the ship. He told me right from the beginning when we were flying out of Miami that he didn’t take the trip down to Palmer well. He has been down to Palmer three other times and if he stayed in bed the whole trip, he told me not to worry. That was his way of dealing with the sea-sickness.

Jack has already gotten on most people’s last good nerve, so I am letting his rookie comments go in one ear and out the other. Most of this crew going down to Palmer are rookies. Very few OAE’s, or Old Antarctic Explorers as Mark Melcon, better known as Commander, has said.

I don’t feel the greatest myself, but I’m not puking my guts up or anything. Anything with sugar seems to calm my stomach, so I’ve been on the cookie and cracker diet since we got out of the Straits of Magellan and into the open waters of the Drake Passage. It seems like weeks already since my departing Miami.

Lisa, our admin assistant in the office in Paramus had told me that I would probably see a couple of people on the flight enroute to Chile, but Jay was the only one she could think of. Sure enough, when I was getting ready to get something to eat, that is when I ran into Jay Fields. It was convenient that I ran into him at the airport in Miami. It gave us the chance to exchange notes about the job and about Palmer Station in general.

We landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina around 08:30 a.m. for a one hour layover. Then another four more hours to Santiago, Chile. We arrived in Santiago around 13:00. The weather was cooler than Fort Lauderdale with temps around fifty to sixty. At least the sun was shining as we stepped off the plane. The area around Santiago didn't look much different than the eastern range of Colorado from the airplane.

We were met at the terminal by ITT’s agent named Jimmie. This guy walked up to me while I was in line to get my passport checked and asked if I was "Dabid Guyus". I said I was and he introduced himself to me and told me to follow him. He took me around the lines to an open booth on the far left. There he quickly explained in Spanish the situation to immigrations and my passport was quickly stamped.

Jimmie helped Jay and me with our luggage at the carousel and then took us to his car a newer Chevy wagon. In the airport parking lot, it seemed many of the cars were either Nissan, Toyota or Chevy's. For as quick as we got through customs,
Jimmie really knew his way around the Chilean system or had relatives in the right places. Turns out it is a little of both.

The ride into the city was relatively uneventful. Jimmie boasted about his great American car and by American standards drove like a maniac. He frequently crossed over the center line and honked at bicycles and pedestrians to give them a forewarning of his approach. The scenery, did, in fact remind me a lot of eastern
Colorado: semi barren with scrub trees and bushes, but the soil was a golden color.

It was a Sunday afternoon, so the streets were fairly empty and we arrived at the hotel quickly. I was really tired from the flight, but more interested first in checking out the market area. Saw some hand carved and hand painted round boxes, but I couldn't see buying this to drag it around. Besides, I couldn't speak Spanish and didn't have pesos in hand. The wife did speak English and said, "One fifty," but I declined.

I walked further down the square past two military people on one corner and found my way to a crowd of people. They were all gathered around a street comedian who was doing his act in drag. At first I wasn't sure this character was male. He was dressed in blue jeans with a yellow tutu type get up and had his shoulder length hair partially dyed blonde with the rest black. He bellowed out something in Spanish like a love song type ballad and clutched his hands to his face. Then his song drew him across the crowd to a guy sitting in a chair. He quickly wisked this guy off his feet. Dancing and singing lovingly with him in his arms. This poor sod couldn't do anything more at this point than blush a deep red and dance.

This affair continued with others in the audience and the crowd really seemed to enjoy him. I laughed also, not at the lyrics, but at the way the guy did his act. He was sincerely entertaining. Not to mention that he was the highlight of my day
thus far. I desperatly needed some sleep if I was to meet Jay in the lobby at six that evening.

I met Jay in the lobby at six, and we ended up eating at the hotel. By the time we finished, it was close to ten and he was tired again. I was too, but wanted a nightcap before bed. I had a Royal Guard, which reminded me of the type of beers I had drank in Germany. A nice change from the American stuff back home. I tried speaking with the bartender, but he only understood Spanish no ingles, no aleman. I now knew how some of my Ami friends in Germany felt. I never realized how much I took my speaking German for granted until I couldn't communicate in Spanish.

Eight thirty came too early. In a whirlwind, Jimmy got us out of the hotel and out to the airport in his usual manner honking at the pedestrians and bikes, always left of the center line!!

We smoothly cut a path to the Lan Chile counter and made sure that we got the seats we wanted. Soon we bade our goodbyes and walked out to the 737 enroute to Punta Arenas. Jay and I sat across from one another, but neither one of us were too
energetic. I had fresh oysters with lemon. Nothing at all like I remember oysters I had had in Chicago. Of course, these were fresh. Jay then tells me later, "Oh, you probably shouldn't have eaten the oysters. You don't know what kind of parasites you may pick up." Well, too late now. If I don't got it now, I will
have it soon!

We had an interesting little stopover in Puerto Montt that made me somewhat embarrassed to be an American. One naiive American tourist pulls out his camera and starts taking pictures of the military planes on the runway. The guards quickly confiscated the camera and pulled him into the terminal. Someone should forewarn people that this type of activity is a no no in most countries outside of the United States. Americans tend to think that our freedom is something that we can take with us around the world like a plastic credit card. I'm sure that he got his camera back, sans film and after a major wrist slapping.

Punta Arenas. A kind of dingy little port town on the Straits of Magellan. The day was overcast and rain followed in the early evening. An agent or driver took us to our hotel and didn't say but two words to us. At least we were getting closer to our destination.

Los Navigantes wasn't quite as plush as the Galeria in Santiago, but it was alright. I was ready for a couple of hour nap prior to venturing out to conquer the far southern hemisphere. It was a Monday evening and rainy and drizzling. Picked up a few postcards and wrote those out that night. For a small town, they certainly had a number of small shops.

The highlight of this day was walking into a store to buy a couple of chocolate bars. The owner came from the back and I asked, "Habla ingles?"
"No."
"Habla allemen?"
"No, Habla Greek?"
I could only smile and reply ,"no." That's ok, we made do with pointing. But he made me feel welcome inspite of our language barrier.

Tuesday, October 18th. Outta bed around eight thirty to have breakfast with Jay, then up to the agents at COMAPA. Saw the Polar Duke for the first time last night. She was on the far side of a docked Korean fishing boat, Whew!!!

We walked across the decks of the fishing vessel to see the Duke today and I ran into the ship comms guy today. Haven't seen him since we were picked up at Newark last month. Mike left the next day for Valpariso to meet the Duke in dry dock at that time.

Nothing going on that evening, so had more chances to bum around. Went to the post office to mail out postcards. Two Englishmen in front of me offered to translate, but I declined. It is better to struggle through and learn what I can of Spanish. I did get the proper postage too. Don't know how much more free time I will have now. We are to move into our rooms on the Duke tomorrow.

October 19, 1988: Moved onto the Duke and met scientists Maggie and Dave. They will be on the ship most of time, but will making a stopover in Palmer during their tour. Went out to dinner that night and experienced fresh Centolla, king crab. Very inexpensive and very good. I could live on this kind of diet.

October 20: Received my issue today. Carhart winter work coat, three pair of gloves; one rubberized and two insulated, flannel shirts, work type pants, wool socks, long underwear, hats, insulated boots, you name it, it is there. Packed it up in an old military dufflebag and tossed it in the truck. Today, I'll help Vince and Carlos distribute issue for the others who will arrive later.

Around 14:30, they all arrive. We gave out issue until six. We are supposed to meet the others at the restaurant we ate at last night, but never made it. Two of the guys who arrived, Jamie and Jose, along with Carlos and I went out for a few beers. They hailed a cab and we went over to change money for them at some legal black market cambios, then headed up to Los Navigantes for a beer. We had a few and then Carlos' wife and little one came over.

Carlos' wife was a beautiful Argentine with medium brown hair and captivating hazel eyes and very fair skin. She was definitely not Chilean, since most of the Chilenos I have seen have jet black or brown hair and brown eyes and darker skin. His little
boy looked just like his wife. The little guy had quite a colorful English vocabulary of four letter words, for a four year old!

We migrated over to another hotel bar at the Cristobal. Brian Wilson showed up there with his Chilena girlfriend and her sister Jackie. She was supposed to be a set up for Jose, but they instantly hated one another. By the end of the meal, Jose and Jackie were not on friendly terms and Jackie asked Brian to invite me down to their end of the table to squeeze Jose out.

I didn't understand much, but Brian ended up being my translator for the night as it turned out. I was then asked to go with Brian and the two sisters and graciously accepted. I felt obligated to go, and what the hell, I was only here for the night.

First we went to a cafe in the city. It had a very European atmosphere with a DJ playing current music, cafe curtains in the windows and a carpeted floor like the Newcastle in Kalkar, the bar we used to frequent in Germany. The girls frequently waved to aquaintences across the room and one of Jackie's male friends came up and talked with us for awhile. Brian acted as translator and we all chatted a very
casual conversation. I really was surprised how many of the younger people here smoke. That was another similarity to Germany.

Soon we were leaving with Jackie's friend driving to points unknown. Brian said we were going to a friend of Jackie's on the other side of Punta Arenas. So the five of us piled into a Chevy pick up with no muffler. This clown was doing California stops through the center of Punta Arenas. Next thing we know, we're there: Dorthea's (an entertainment center primarily for the gentleman persuasion). Ok, so far I'm taking things in stride, but in mixed company?!!

Jackie rings the bell and her friend answers the door. One kiss on the cheek for all and soon we are sitting in the "party room" with some Chilean guy passed out on the couch across from us and a few Korean or Japanese visitors (probably from the fish ships on the docks that have been unloading groups of frozen packed fish for three days) balancing out the bunch.

One might say that the majority of the entertainers were not too appealing if not alittle scary. If I was ever tempted to leave before the entertainment began, now was the time. But I would endure somehow. I am struggling to keep on a polite face at this point.

Jackie and Brian insisted that I have a beer. I say insisted because I was made to feel guilty for declining. Besides, do you think I wanted to end up passed out due to unknown causes with $150 American in my wallet? Maybe I was just alittle paranoid, but who can blame me after Mike told me the story about the poor drugged American sailor whose CO barely saved him from being kidnapped and dumped with no money in some gutter in Valpariso. Supposedly his beer was drugged when he got up to dance. But this is Punta Arenas, not Valpariso and I was with other Americans. At any rate, I'm a stranger in a strange land and I wasn't about to take chances.

I know that Jackie wanted me to make moves on her, but she was a bit too snooty for me (with not too much to be snooty about). Besides, her friend, as much as she pushed him away, was hitting hard on her and she loved it. I was ready to go to sleep anyway and we all soon left. Mario Andretti of the southern hemisphere almost got us killed by nearly sideswiping a parked car, but I got out at the Mobile sttion when he filled up. I thanked them all for an interesting evening and made my way to the docks around the corner. The Polar Duke looked beautiful all lighted up in the cool austral spring air and the water was calm and quiet.

Friday, October 21 1988: Well, I guess we leave today sometime around three. Got up at eight thirty as we had our safety brief and emergency practices. Rode out in the emergency life boats. Looks like a big orange plastic bubble in the water. Bobbed around in that for half hour or so. Then we were released around 10:30 to be back at 13:30. We pulled out of the dock at 15:00 on schedule. It was kind of sad to leave. I just started feeling familiar with the town.

The waters were calm, the sun had come out by afternoon and everyone was kind of geared up and ready to leave. Carlos and his wife saw us off. His son got into the car on the dock and was honking the horn and waving. Truly a scene out of Loveboat, only thing missing was confetti and streamers.

We hit some rough waters as we came out of the Strait of Magellan and then ducked into the safety of the Beagle Channel. At the moment, we are going through the Beagle Channel. It really is a beautiful sight. The tall mountains on both sides
are covered with pines and snow. Some of the niches inbetween the peaks harbor glaciers which glide gently down to the waters edge as if to sip the water.

As we cruised passed Ushuaia, Argentina (the world's southern most city), two Argentine military jets rush overhead to check us out. The border dispute still seems as active as ever in spite of the papal decision of how many years past? We should be entering the Drake Passage around five this evening.

Introduction

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Introduction

In September of 1988, I was given the opportunity to embark upon an important career and personal journey. I took a contract position working with and supporting scientists conducting studies in Antarctica with ITT Federal Electric, Antarctic Services.

Within the pages of this blog are my experiences which took place during a total of twenty months in Antarctica. During this time, the Argentine vessel, Bahia Paraiso ran aground and sank 1-1/2 miles off Palmer Station. I have documented my stay in
Antarctica through letters to my family and diary type notes written to myself which describe my winter-over on the Ice; my trip north for three weeks and the storm we encountered while crossing the Drake Passage with sixty foot swells and the ship
taking forty-five degree rolls; and my returning back down to the Ice again to complete another austral summer season.

I have had so many questions about my stay in Antarctica since my return in 1990. Are there many/any women on station? Are there any trees? What is the weather like down there? Is it difficult to be away from your family and friends for so long? Were you ever lonely down on the Ice? What did you eat? Where did you
sleep? What did you do when you were working? What did you do for recreation?

This blog is an insight into my experiences in Antarctica and an expression of my feelings of being away from my family and friends during this period. My notes written to myself and my letters written to my family and friends over this two year
period, relate my experiences and feelings during my stint down in the Antarctic. I'm happy to have the opportunity to share these experiences in these pages.

Finally, I’d like to dedicate this blog to my good friend Rich Skane who passed away in February of 2003. Word of his passing quickly rippled through our Antarctic network of friends as the news of his passing bounced around the world from Boston to Antarctica to New Zeeland and to Alaska, in a matter of hours. Richie was the kind of guy that would have given you the shirt off his back and will always be held in the highest thoughts and regards of all those who have ever had the opportunity to cross paths with him. His common phrase, “Good on ya!” will forever be etched in my memory.

So here’s to you, Richie. Thanks for the inspiration, the friendship and just being you.

Dave Gallas

List of Common Antarctic Terms:

Antarctic Services - A division of Federal Electric and ITT, headquartered in Paramus, NJ. The first contract company I worked for during a majority of my stay in Antarctica.

Antarctic Support Associates - A division of EG&G/Holmes Narver headquartered in Englewood, CO. The second contract company who was awarded the Antarctic contract by the National Science Foundation beginning the austral summer of 1990 (Fall 1989).

ATS-3 - The ATS-3 satellite was the science communities main contact with the outside world. This was a military satellite which was to have been retired after it wore out its batteries. The problem was that the batteries were lasting too long and the military wanted to take it down (Star Wars practice) to make room for a newer, more powerful satellite. The outcry from the science community was such that the ATS-3's life was extended. Our allotted time on the satellite allowed us to transmit and receive data while the other sideband would be used for our voice transmissions to the home office on a daily schedule. On weekends, this timeslot could be used to put collect calls back to the States from the earth station in Florida.

Austral Summer/Winter - The southern hemisphere summer or winter which occurs opposite to the northern seasons. Thus, Austral Summer is the North American Winter.

Bahia Paraiso - The Argentine vessel that ran aground and sank 1-1/2 miles off Palmer Station in 1989. The Bahia Paraiso performed the duty of a hospital ship for the Argentines during the infamous Falklands War against the British.

Bar Ice - Bar Ice is harvested from the harbor on an as-needed basis. Bar ice are the clear chunks of ice that have calved off of the glacier and have no dirt or striations. Packed under incredible pressure for thousands of years, this ice has
effervescent qualities and stays frozen in mixed drinks for a good, long time. It will on occasion, pop in your glass with such enthusiasm as to splash you in the eyes with your drink while your glass is still sitting on the bar.

Beaker - Scientist

Biolab - one of two main buildings at Palmer Station. Biolab houses all the laboratories, the Communications center, the Galley and immediate food storage and approximately half of the station berthing consisting of two person rooms.

Brash Ice - Brash ice is ice that has broken down into small chunks and collected in one spot to look like a big slushy. This kind of ice is bad on the propellers of the outboard boat motors. It eats up the blades since boat props are not like the blades of a blender.

Desalinization - a means of producing water by boiling the impurities out and catching the condensation as fresh water.

Faraday Station - The British Antarctic Survey Base located about twenty-five miles as the crow flies from Palmer.

Freshies - any and all fresh fruits and vegetables.

Grease Ice - Grease ice was a thin coating of ice that would float on the surface of the water. Its appearance gave it its name since it would look like grease on the water.

Greenpeace - A radical ecology-minded group that mind everyone else’s business in their effort to maintain a pollution-free world. Greenpeace has taken extreme efforts to maintain the Antarctic continent as a "World Park". This stresses among other things; no mining, managed tourism, no krill harvesting and cleanup of unused sites that have left pollutants of any sort behind in the Antarctic.

GWR - (Generator, Welfare and Recreation Building) one of two main buildings at Palmer Station. GWR houses the generators for the station, the reverse osmosis machines, the HAM shack, the gym, the bar, the lounge, the garage, the deep freeze, long term food storage, parts storage and the second half of the station berthing consisting of mostly 2-5 person rooms.

Inmarsat - (aka Inmar$at) An attempt at full-duplex communications by means of the Comsat satellite. Price ranges are at $10/minute with a three minute minimum. This
communication satellite is normally used by remote stations and ships at sea.

Marsgrams - letters that were originally sent via the military Mars system to Palmer Station, South Pole and McMurdo and later sent directly from our contact in Pennsylvania via the internet.

Marsh Base - Tenente Marsh - The Chilean Base on King George Island equipped with a runway long enough to land C-130 aircraft. This is among a few stations which house permanent residents of Chile to protect their claim on Antarctica should the treaty ever crumble.

McMurdo Station - (aka McMudhole, Mac Town) The largest American contingent located on the continent and located under New Zeeland. The Navy to civilian contingent is about one to one and total population during the summer months runs up to 2500 people.

NSF - National Science Foundation - Located in Washington D.C. this is the agency that determines what appropriations will be awarded to sponsor which science projects are to happen in the Antarctic. The NSF also sponsors many other science programs all dependent upon "soft money" or appropriations from Congress.

OAE - Old Antarctic Explorer. Someone who has been down on the Ice previously over an extended period of time, whether on contract or as scientist.

Old Palmer Station - Old Palmer looked like a double long trailer located about one mile from new Palmer Station. The new site was chosen primarily for the depth of its location. Resupply ships were unable to unload at the old site due to the shallow landing. This required ferrying supplies from a larger ship onto smaller
vessels for delivery to the site. The old site was closed down in 1967 but remained standing until its dismantlement in 1990.

Palmer Station - That little spot of sunshine on the Antarctic peninsula below the Drake Passage and South America at 64 degrees South and 42 degrees West.

Peso - (aka $) The Chilean peso was roughly worth 300 pesos to the dollar. The Chilean currency uses the same insignia to indicate pesos as we use for dollars. 1 mil = 1000 pesos

Polar Duke - Research Vessel Polar Duke (aka the Duke, Polar Puke). A contracted ship owned by Rieber Shipping of Norway which transports people and equipment from Punta Arenas, Chile to Palmer Station, Antarctica. My first two seasons this ship was contracted with a Canadian crew from New Foundland. The last season, the ship's crew was from Norway.

Punta Arenas - (aka P.A.) The city in Chile on South America's southern tip where the Peninsula Program would depart from.

Reverse osmosis - producing fresh water by means of pushing it through a membrane to separate the fresh water from the salt and other dirt.

SAAM Flights - military flights from King George Island to Punta Arenas, Chile. The New York Air Reserve pilots perform this service and fly down from New York-Santiago-Puerto Montt-Punta Arenas-King George Island. These flights are not known for maintaining a dependable schedule.

Ship shower - a term used to define a very short shower to conserve water usage. Water on, get wet, water off, get soaped up, water on, clear soap, water off, shower complete.

Siple Station - Former Antarctic station which was located at the bottom of the peninsula. Long since closed, this station was the inspiration for The Thing and Ice Station Zebra among others. Subsequent tiers were built upon one another as the snow and ice would build up, eventually crushing the lower tiers. Antarctic cooks who have in the past worked this station, discuss the best level where the previously abandoned food stores would provide what was needed if none was presently on hand. ie..The best frozen strawberries according to Connie Deady and Bob Taylor, were in level 3. This being the third station built upon the two previous sites!

South Pole Station - The American Station located at the geographic South Pole.

T-5 Science building up the hill from the main buildings which houses scientific equipment for various active projects.

Winter-over - this term varies depending on the Antarctic site. At Palmer Station, winter-over normally ran from station close in mid-April until mid to late-September. South Pole usually buttons-up around the beginning of February and reopens around early to mid-September. McMurdo keeps a similar schedule to South Pole since all flights to South Pole originate from New Zeeland via McMurdo Station.

Zodiac - an inflatable boat with a hard metal or wood bottom that would accommodate four to ten passengers. Zodiacs were our normal means of transport to larger ships in the harbor or between the station and any other landing site.

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