Sometimes It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know Who Knows Who They Know, Ya Know?

This truly is the point in the blog where stuff is all out of order.  Before we did the zodiac boats at night, we visited Palmer Station, which is one of three US research stations on Antarctica (McMurdo being the largest and the South Pole being simply equipment).

I was up on the bridge as we were coming into Palmer – and there was a huge iceberg right where the best place to steer the ship.  The captain was holding a conversation with me at the same time he was giving orders, checking computer screens, and basically making hard the decisions calmly and cooly.  The bridge has always been open any time I’ve checked – it’s very cool to watch them deal with the icebergs, bits of ice, and other seafaring challenges.

On the approach, Palmer looks, like everything else here, a bit otherworldly.  There is the satellite – one of those sci fi white round balls, and then numerous buildings.  Zodiacs ready for scientists to take out.  Rocks and snow surrounding it.

Anyhow, Carol had posted on Facebook that we were in Antarctica, and a neighbor, Mary Amico asked if we were going to Palmer Station, because her brother runs it.  She even called her brother, Bob Farrell, that night before we got there to let him know we were coming.

He and a scientist first came out to the ship and did a briefing in the ship’s lounge on Palmer – what it does, how it works.  So, right afterwards, we popped up and introduced ourselves.  He promised to take us on an additional tour of Palmer after the overall tour was finished.

So, we took the zodiacs into Palmer.  Another easy landing, and met up with our tour guide, a research scientist who was a bit quirky.  Very, very nice guy, but you could see why he spends half of his year doing research by himself in Antarctica on a 42 person base.  We were in groups of twelve.

The highlight was seeing the glider (a picture is on the blog) – it looks like something out of James Bond – and it goes underwater to capture information.  It’s run by Rutgers University – they can satellite in when it pops up to the surface.  Even in these harsh conditions, it’s gone as far as 200 miles to gather data.

There was also the traditional visit to the gift shop, where Carol got a hat, and I got a spiffy shirt – both proclaiming that we’ve been to Palmer Station in Antarctica.  As I noted, the point of wearing the station gear is to tell other people that “I’ve been to Antarctica, and, btw, you have not!”

Then we repaired to the lounge by the kitchen, where Bob was there to greet us.  He pulled Carol and I out and showed us numerous additional buildings and places on the base, including the workshop (which smelled appropriately workshoppy), the generators & desalinization room (we did not go in that room), and the parts room, which was completely well-organized.

All the time, Bob did a great job of explaining what they do there, how they keep the place running, and what life is like.  It’s actually his 16th summer working there.  He is actually a Lockheed Martin employee, and the US government has a contract with the company to run the logistics of the station.  Bob is very personable, and did at all seem to mind taking time out of his day to show us around.  Carol remembers meeting him at a neighborhood Christmas party several years ago – small world.

Then we went into the dorms, followed by a visit to the bar and rec area.  The piece de resistance is the movie theater room – lots of comfy leather chairs set up movie-viewing style, with a HD projector.  They had recently watched The Martian (the starkness of the movie must mean extra to them) after downloading it all night.  Their DVD collection is quite impressive, and when Bob is in the States, he always downloads a whole bunch of movies to show.

The view of the harbor and surrounding islands was beautiful up on the second-floor deck outside the rec center – I could envision myself having a post-work beer out on it, chatting with colleagues and looking at the natural surroundings.  However, I can’t envision myself being a scientist or otherwise helping run the base, so don’t worry – I’m not quitting my day job to move there!

We gave Bob our appreciation and said our good-byes – and here’s another shout-out to Mary for kindly arranging our Palmer Station bonus tour.  After the tour, we headed back to the zodiac landing area, where our faithful expedition leader, Shaun, awaited to get us off to our next adventure of the day.