LETTER FROM ANTARCTICA LEE ANN PIPKIN
There were penguins and whales here this month. The first I saw were on a trip a bunch of us got to take on the Coast Guard Cutter. A huge crowd in red parkas boarded the Polar Sea one Sunday and went for a cruise. We traveled out to the open water near Cape Royds through a channel the Polar Sea had cut to let the cargo and fuel vessels into McMurdo.
We saw a lot of Orcas traveling in pods along the ice edge. They looked smaller, and not as distinctly black and white as the ones you see at Sea World.
They sold Starbucks coffee on board, so we stood in line to get a cup of cappuccino and then strolled the decks, all bundled up, looking for wildlife and sipping our coffee. It was very nice.
The best part was breaking ice. The cutter broke some new ice and it was fascinating to watch it crack and break off in huge chunks. It looked to me to be about six feet thick, but it was hard to tell. The color was amazing - a beautiful aqua blue. Definitely the highlight of the trip.
We saw a couple of Adelie penguins running over the ice in that comical penguin way, and we saw a few seals lounging at the ice edge. There were a couple of Adelie penguins here in town this week camped out under the eves of Scott's hut.
I would have thought they would pick a spot away from people, but they don't seem to mind us all tramping out there to gawk at them. And I don't quite know why they aren't hanging out in the colony with all the other penguins - they need a little time alone I guess.
There were also a dozen or so Emperor penguins out on the sea ice. They were too far out to see without a telescope, but we've got one here in the office, and a big picture window to peer through. It's funny how interesting it is to watch them do nothing.
I think that's what's so interesting. They don't do anything. They just stand there all day on this vast flat expanse of ice flapping their wings and craning their necks.
And they never get bored. Or I assume they don't - what do I know about what a penguin thinks?
It just seems like a funny place to hang out. I suppose all the action happens under water. I'm glad to have gotten the chance to see them.
So, tomorrow I get on an LC-141 and fly to Christchurch. I don't know whether my time has gone by quickly or slowly. A friend just told me a joke: A guy goes to the doctor and is told that he has one week to live. The doctor's advice - "Go to McMurdo. A week there will seem like a year."
Guess you had to be there. I think there may be something about the constant sunlight that confuses your sense of time. I'm not sure whether my time down here has seemed like one long day or a few short months.
You could break up the four and a half months I've been here into three periods, based on conversation.
For the first six weeks everyone was arriving and getting settled. Conversations consisted mostly of "Where are you from? Where do you work? How many seasons have you been coming down?"
In the middle six weeks people were through making small talk and settled into gossiping and complaining (I, of course, would never participate in this kind of talk!).
In these last six weeks the conversation has been "What's your re-deployment date? Where are you traveling? Are you coming back next year?"
It has been suggested that people just wear the answers to these questions on name tags to save time. My tag at the beginning of the season would have read:
Lee Ann/Boston/Help Desk/Second Season.
Right now it would read: Lee Ann/Feb. 18th/South Island, NZ/Probably Not.
It's been fun, and I'll miss the friends I've made, but I'm ready for New Zealand, and eventually New England.
Christine Gamble has decided to continue the adventure and become a hard-core Antarctican. She signed up to winter-over at the last minute, so she'll be staying here until next October as the administrative assistant to the station manager.
She's going to keep writing for the Log Cabin Chronicles and let you all know what 24 hours of darkness is like. Maybe she'll get some good pictures of auroras. I hear they're beautiful.
This has been a great experience. Thanks for letting me share it with you.
Happy reading.
Lee Ann
Lee Ann Pipkin supported computers in McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and walked on glaciers. She is now in New Zealand.
Fourth Antarctica Report
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