Palmer is a unique station in that sometimes cruise ships or sailing yachts come into port and stick around for a couple of days. These ships come from all over the world and if the group on them is small enough, they will be allowed to visit our station and sometimes even have lunch with us. Today we had a French yacht parked off station and the French people got to share our meal. I got a chance to meet with them and practice my French (which is sadly underused). They were all older people, about 9 of them, from all over France who had never met before their 3 week trip into the Southern Ocean. I can't imagine sharing such a tiny space with people I don't know! Hmm... wait a sec, Palmer and the Gould are a bit like that actually. Heh, it's been fun :)
A couple of days ago we had an Australian yacht about the same size also here. It was fun to give them a tour of the labs and explain our work. We also had an Italian cruise ship, an American one and a private American yacht earlier last week.
It's great that NSF allows this on station because it gives people from America, and all over the world, most importantly American tax payers to see what they are paying for down here. They get to see the underwater remote operated vehicles, our bacterial work, the virus work, and the people who study the only bugs in Antarctica. When scientists apply for funding to NSF, there is a whole section about "broader impacts and outreach" and how the proposed research will affect the American public. The fact that we can share our research in Antarctica is a great thing to put into outreach sections of grants.
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