{"id":313,"date":"2019-05-25T15:53:11","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T19:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/?p=313"},"modified":"2019-06-04T14:46:20","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T18:46:20","slug":"the-final-installment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/the-final-installment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Final Installment"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, one last post before we get back to Punta Arenas.<\/p>\n

We wrapped up science and got all of our packing done before we arrived at Palmer Station.\u00a0 The repair of the big crane on the Gould, and the transfer of containers from the Natty B, went very smoothly.\u00a0 We were allowed to be on deck while the two ships were rafted together, but when the crane operations started, we all had to go back inside and stay out of the way.<\/p>\n

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The offload at Palmer Station also went smoothly, along with the transfer of a whole bunch of stuff from the station that needs to go back to Punta Arenas.\u00a0 Since we had finished our packing and cargo paperwork, we were able to spend a little time relaxing at the station.\u00a0 There was an open mic night, which was highly entertaining, and a science talk night.\u00a0 We did present our project and why were doing it, along with a short video tutorial on bucket casting (as a science talk, not for open mic).<\/p>\n

A highlight of our short stay was the opportunity to hike the glacier behind the station.\u00a0 We had a rare sunny day, although it was still really cold!\u00a0 The rocky area behind the station is called the \u201cbackyard\u201d, and up until about 20 years ago, it didn\u2019t exist.\u00a0 The glacier has receded over that time and left a rocky pile behind.\u00a0 It\u2019s a challenge to get through there without \u201cpost holing\u201d \u2013 where your foot goes waaaaaay down through the snow, between the rocks.\u00a0 It took us a bit more than 2 hours to make our way up, where we ate a lunch of sandwiches, chips and chocolate.\u00a0 The trip down was considerably shorter (no, we didn\u2019t slide down), and we went around the rock pile instead of over it, so we managed to find fewer holes.<\/p>\n

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We also posed infront of the huge fuel tank.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s kind of a traditional spot for photos.<\/p>\n

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Because of the clear weather, this was one of our first opportunities to see the stars in the night sky.\u00a0 Also, the ship has outside lights on at night so that they can see where they are going.\u00a0 It makes star-gazing impossible.\u00a0 I saw Uranus rise above the horizon \u2013 it was obviously a planet because it was so bright \u2013 and I saw the real Southern Cross (it looks more like an \u201cL\u201d because some of the stars are faint).\u00a0 You might<\/em> be able to see it in the picture below.<\/p>\n

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The demobilization at Cape Shirreff went quickly.\u00a0 The onshore crew was very organized and had everything ready at the beach.\u00a0 The teams loaded zodiacs quickly, and everything was transported to the ship in just a few hours.\u00a0 Then the seal crew got to take their first shower in several weeks, and do laundry!\u00a0 They had a good season and were able to tag 10 leopard seals.<\/p>\n

So now we are on our way back to Punta Arenas.\u00a0 The weather looks good for the crossing, for which all of us are again grateful.\u00a0 Even though most of us have gotten used to the ship motion, rough seas make doing even simple things difficult, and we just don\u2019t need that.\u00a0 For my final art project, my husband suggested that I try drawing a sugar skull penguin.\u00a0 Although it may not look much like a penguin at least it\u2019s colorful!<\/p>\n

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So, one last post before we get back to Punta Arenas. We wrapped up science and got all of our packing done before we arrived at Palmer Station.\u00a0 The repair of the big crane on the Gould, and the transfer of containers from the Natty B, went very smoothly.\u00a0 We were allowed to be on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}