Wednesday, November 01, 2006

What was: Day 70 cont. because blogspot is being extremely difficult

ARGHHH

Moving on. When we get to each station, we measure the visibility through the water with a secchi disk. Here's the highly amusing Michel (one of my multiple bosses) watching the secchi disk go down:



The water around here is ridiculous. If I wouldn't immediately freeze to death, it would be amazing to swim in - we're talking about 20m visibility (about 60 ft down from the surface).

Although there is almost no ice at all in this part of the north at this time, we are having some crazy weather. I really wish I could give you a better impression of what it's like to be on the ship when the seas are like this. The photos do it no justice at all. I can only remind you that the edge of the boat is about 25 ft off the water.



That was perhaps not one of my wisest shots, as that wave is coming straight at me and I'm leaning over the edge of the railing on a dramatically tilted ship.

Again, try to keep in mind how big the ship is...being there and watching these waves go by is incredible.



About to get wet:



Despite the ocean not having ice here, it is wicked cold (to my internal gauge). And I love this photo:



Sometimes it's pretty out even without ice.



But a lot of the time lately it looks like this out front. I fall down regularly.



I don't know if you can tell from this photo, but it's extremely windy out - I'm at the top of the bridge again where its the worst, and I'm both struggling to stay upright and move my frozen fingers:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don't complain about frozen fingers. My photographer cousin shoots with a Linhof Technorama, which takes 120 mm film so he gets four shots to a roll. On his countless Antarctic trips, he's changing his film every four shots. That's the makings of cold fingers...