Back at Palmer – A New Season Begins

I don’t recall it being this cold here last year.

I have been continually thinking these words since our arrival at Palmer Station, Antarctica in October to begin another field season. Yesterday I finally had a chance to look through our log book from last season and indeed our coldest day of sampling last year was -2 C. Over the past week and a half, we haven’t really had temps much warmer than that. In fact it has been pretty stable around -4 C since we arrived. With the cold we have also seen much more stable conditions compared to last season. We’ve had some amazingly calm evenings and days out on the boat. Overall, an excellent introduction for Brian Gaas and Tina Haskins,  the other B-019 field crew, to the Antarctic.

Brian Gaas and Tina Haskins, getting a feel for our boat, Bruiser.

Brian and I on a clear, crisp evening on our boat, Bruiser, with Mt. William behind us.

One of the other zodiacs from station, with Mt. William in the background.