Fire Drill and Octopus Rescue Team

Today we had our monthly fire drill. Each month our station doctor, Shawn, comes up with a different scenario for the drill, and usually takes us by surprise. I'm a first responder, so I basically run to the alarm panel when the alarm sounds, see where the fire is located, grab an extinguisher, and run to the fire. I report to the Fire Marshall, Rob, once I get to the fire, and let him know the status. If I can safely put out the fire, I do so, but if not, I call back to Rob and let him know that the SCBA Team needs to be called in, and then I assist with whatever else needs to be done, like getting the portable fire extinguishers ready, assisting with the fire hoses, etc. At 1300 today the alarm sounded and I rushed to the panel, which indicated that the sauna building was on fire. I ran to the sauna, and Shawn informed me that the building was engulfed in flames. I radioed Rob to let him know that I was backing off, and that the SCBA team was needed. The SCBA Team arrived (Karen and Red are pictured above), and Rob and Shawn decided that since our hot tub was in need of draining and cleaning, we would use a portable pump to drain it through our fire hose. The drill went well, although if the sauna had been on fire it would have been completely destroyed, and our only real mission would have been to protect the other nearby buildings.

After the drill, Shawn and I cleaned out the jacuzzi, and when we went back into the aquarium later to put all of the cleaning stuff away, Phil, our electrician, mentioned to me that one of the four octopi was missing from one of the tourist tanks. After looking around for it, I came to the conclusion that it must've crawled out and went down the floor drain (octopi are very smart, and have been known to climb from tank to tank looking for food). Then I noticed that one of the anemones in the tank looked much fatter than it did in the early morning. The Trauma Team (myself and Shawn) went to work, and retrieved the largest octopus from the Belly of the Anemone using a pair of forceps and a bit of traction. The little fella had a very unlucky Friday the 13th, and I don't know if it will survive, but it's respirating and doesn't look much different than normal.









Oh. Did I mention that I shaved my head yesterday?

Training: GSAR

It was nice this morning to go for a walk on the glacier and practice a bit of search and rescue. First we had a refresher where we practiced some knot tying in the lounge (figure eights, rewound eights, and prussic knots,) and then we all walked up to the glacier to practice together. I wore snowshoes for the very first time, instead of boots and crampons. The snowshoes are much more comfortable, if a bit awkward, but I think I may have to switch to them from now on. The glacier is pretty torn up lately, and the ice is very brittle, so it can get slippery without some good foot wear. We went up the glacier to practice a 3:1 Z-Pulley system which is used to pull victims out of crevasses. Pictured below (l-r) are Phil, Lana, Red, Karen, and Dan traipsing along with a consummate 3:1 Z-Pulley system which we practiced a couple of times before we achieved perfection in Ground Search and Rescue.

Nacreous Clouds at Dawn

I was sitting at my desk this morning doing some routine report writing when I looked out my window and saw this: Nacreous clouds forming in the sky over the Marrs glacier. The colors can be as vivid as the underside of an abalone shell, and are constantly shifting with the wind. It's 0900 here right now, and the sun is still below the horizon. However, a little before 1300 this afternoon, the sun peeked out over the glacier for the first time in quite awhile. In the foreground is Arthur Harbor and our sea water intake building, which house all of the pumps which provide sea water for our reverse osmosis unit. We gain about 4-6 minutes of sunlight everyday, but this is the first time we've actually been able to see the sun since May.

4th of July

"Happy Birthday America!"
--message just received here at Palmer via radio from Base Commander Victor at Vernadsky Station.

We're celebrating our country's birth today with a BBQ in the garage. We don't have any fireworks here, but who needs them when we've got a fire in the sky this morning. Maybe I'll try to force Eric, our Station Manager, to give a speech. Hope everyone is enjoying the day. I'll post some pictures later of our festivities. Oh, and I've added our newly fixed Palmer Station webcam to the links list. Check it out.

Close calls with glaciers

Hi All,
The videos below were shot near Palmer Station by a friend back on April 23rd. The research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer was approximately a kilometer from the glacier edge when it began to calve...and then it didn't stop calving. It actually washed large junks of ice onto the deck and caved in the side of a large metal shipping container. Fortunately everyone made it off the aft deck in time, and no one was injured.

Winter Solstice

Mid-Winter has come and gone, as has the LMG, which left Palmer on 18 June, taking with it a lot of really good folks who are going to be missed here. The mid-winter greetings which get sent from every station are filling up my email Inbox, and I want to collect them all and post them on to Picasa soon. The photo at left is the one we sent out to all the other Antarctic winter-over folks, and I believe it's one of the best I've seen so far, though I may be a bit biased. Tonight we had our Mid-winter Dinner, and celebrated in style.

It's Been a Hard Days Night...

...and I've been workin' on my blog. Long days/nights with little time for updating the blog, and lots has happened since the Vernadsky trip. The science season is winding down as the days get shorter, and my last science group, B-022, leaves station on Monday, 18 June. Last Saturday I helped dive tend for them on their last dive of the season. We went out to the wreck of the Bahia Paraiso, an Argentinian resupply vessel which sank near Palmer Station in 1989, releasing approximately 170,000 gallons of fuel into Arthur Harbor. The port side of its hull actually sticks out of the water a bit during sea surges (see above), and the divers wanted to make a last dive to collect one species of finger sponge which, amazingly, grows on the Bahia and creates a natural product which has shown great promise in treating certain forms of cancer. This is a little strange when you consider that the picture directly above is of a sheen of fuel on the water (with snowflakes falling) which still leaches out of the Bahia. Members of B-022 (a link to their website is at right) are from the University of Alabama and the University of Southern Florida. They specialize in natural product chemistry and chemical ecology, and some members have been doing research at Palmer for over 25 years. They've been a great bunch to work with and going dive tending is one of my favorite things to do here. I'll miss them when they leave.
Yesterday the Laurence M. Gould arrived for a week long visit. It brought down the last three of our winter-over staff, and will take everyone else back to Puenta Arenas when it leaves. Our station population will be going down to sixteen until September, when the next boat arrives. Between now and then I've got plenty to do in preparation for the next summer science season. Meantime, I've got a couple of old friends here on station who I haven't seen in years, so it's been great catching up with them before they leave next week.
Lastly, on 6 June I had a teleconference with a 2nd grade class at the school where my partner, Gwen, teaches. Clifford School is a Marine Science magnet school in Redwood City, and coincidentally, I supervise the Mary Alice McWhinnie Marine Science Laboratory here at Palmer, so one of the science teachers, Ms. Cleeves, was very interested in having me talk to the students about Antarctica. They asked very good questions about pinnipeds, global climate change, the number of penguins I've seen, and of course, "how cold is it there?" Here they are pictured at left, with a picture board in the background that Gwen made for the class depicting some of the sights that I've seen since I've been here.