Daily Life at Palmer Station

I decided to do a more general blog about life at Palmer. I uploaded a few more pictures but they are all organized messily and out of order- just a warning. It's been interesting being at Palmer when the weather is bad. It's been raining or wildly windy (35+ knots) nearly everyday. The days are also shorter and boating hours are even shorter.




Since Palmer is on an island, scientists use Zodiac rubber boats to get around (see the pic). The big orange boat is the Gould which brings us down here, the little rubber boats are what we use for sampling. Since it's fall/winter the boating hours are only during the few hours of light we get- now that is from 10:45 am to 1:45 pm. Very short amount of time to do science and collect samples. In one of the pictures you can see the fish people catching fish they are studying from tanks.

We also had trivia night in the bar one night. It was fun! The whole station joined in. I didn't know a single answer but boy was it a good time.

We also have a ping pong table which is often used for recreation. See the above pics. Today was a windy day outside, so very loud. Inside it's nice and cozy by the wood stove which has been stoked all day by various people. I did a water color painting of a fairy with some watercolor paints and paper that I found on the station. They have a place called SKUA which has a ton of recreational and art/craft equipment. Anybody on station is allowed to use it and replace it when they are done. Glad I found those paints! I am going to leave the painting here for the winter over crew.

Palmer Update

So I admit it's really hard to update this blog on a normal basis, but it's even harder when I have had so many health issues! When I got to Palmer I had an annoying cough that refused to go away. Then a week in, I got a cold before my cough had healed. It's gotten in the way of me sampling, of 5 or 6 samplings I have only been out 3 times.

Also when I got to Palmer I was on antibiotics for a lymph node infection in my neck. Yeah, in my NECK. Well that went away but I got another infection under my arm. Not sure how, but it happened. So when I got here I asked the doc what I could do. He prescribed another round of a different antibiotic but even after 10 days of those, twice a day, the infection was bigger not smaller. He took one look at it and said we need to cut it out. So I had surgery in Antarctica!

Good thing the physician here is actually a capable surgeon unlike the physician in the summer who was a general practitioner. I am so glad he was here but it was painful. He had to keep the wound open so the infection could drain completely and it could heal from the inside out. Everyday for 3 days he had to clean the wound out with H2O2 and stuff (yes, stuff) dressing into the opening. It's been painful, bloody, and kinda gory. But it's healing :) It's amazing how quickly the human body heals.

I have a picture of the wound but it's pretty gory so I won't post it.

Although I have not been able to use my arm much for a few days (and therefore couldn't go sampling) I've still done my experiments in the lab. Right now we have a bit of a break since the third person from our team is gone on the boat for 3 days into the fjords and I am still unable to sample, which I feel guilty about. But what can I do except heal and not rip the healing flesh? I am sure in a couple of days I will be good to go.

The science has been going relatively well despite all this. We have sampled one of our sites 5 times and then other one 4 times. If we can get both one more time that would be great. I also want to do a brash ice experiment but who knows when that will happen...

In other news, I have also helped cook some Indian food at Palmer. Every Tuesday is Indian food night because people love Indian food! Curry is one of the most demanded things here. I love being in the kitchen, it's therapeutic and rewarding.

Let's get the science on

After 7 miserable unstable days lying mostly supine on the boat, we finally reached Palmer station today. Technically this boat ride should only be 4 days, but there was a massive storm in the already treacherous Drake passage, and we ended up waiting for two full days at the tip of South America for the storm to subside. Having the top bunk while the ship was rocking was a bit of an adventure, but we made it.

Time to get the science on! We got well underway setting up the lab and will be emptying 10 more boxes tomorrow. The weather here is great, people are great, food is brilliant, and even better than I can eat it again :D It's going to be a productive month!