Before I was even officially hired I had researched so many
aspects of Antarctica. One piece of that included a special research vessel
that the National Science Foundation owns and runs around Antarctica. I read
about it and thought how neat it would be to work on it, but I wasn’t qualified
for the jobs I could find. I did read a blog about someone at McMurdo that got
to tour the vessel when it pulled up to the ice pier.
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| R/V Nathaniel B Palmer |
I got this chance last
week! I was so excited when
Chef Bill told me that the recreation office was
offering tours that night for one night only. I happened that the sign up time
was during our serving period for lunch so I went and signed up on my break.
We arrived at the ice pier at about 8:15 for our 8:30pm tour
and crossed the ice following the flagged route and walked up the gangway onto
the boat.
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| Walking to the Ice Pier |
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| Crossing the Pier! |
While we waited for the others in our tour to arrive we marveled at
the boat and took a few pictures.
Once the tour started I was like a kid in a
candy shop. I had googly eyes and wanted to see it all! We got to see a room they use to launch equipment out the
starboard side of the vessel, then a lab room with several deep freezers.
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| Galley |
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| Looking off the stern |
Other
rooms we saw were chemical labs, wet labs, the galley, some cabins, and my
favorite part… the bridge!!
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| The Bridge |
And I got to meet the captain!! It was a great time
and I am so grateful to have been able to tour it.
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| Post Tour! |
2 comments:
Super cool Megs! When will you get to work on it? :)
It looks like the boat is in open water but accessible by walking across the ice? Isn't that a bit dangerous? Maybe you will get to work on it some day.
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