Sunday, November 17, 2002

Sunday, our one day off of the week. What luxury to sleep in, going to Sunday brunch at 10, then looking forward to a lazy day. Our Sundays have been anything but lazy, often being just another day of work diving, but at least this Sunday we took the day off. Well, most of us. John was the only one of our group not out partying the night before. Raring for a last dive before flying out Tuesday, he dragged Aaron and Andrew out at 8 am, both suffering from handsome hangovers. I've learnt from similar treatment earlier in the month to avoid John Saturday nights when he's making plans for Sunday. He doesn't believe in days off, at least not in Antarctica.

After brunch, we piled into the Pisten Bully and grabbed the two ski-doos and headed 40 km north to Cape Royds. It was an exquisitely beautiful day with not a cloud, even high over Erebus, as we wound around Cape Evans and on past the Barne Glacier, Cape Barne, and into Backdoor Bay behind the southernmost Adelie penguin colony in Antarctica at Cape Royds. The huge B-15 iceberg grounded to the north has had a catastrophic impact on several of the Adelie and Emperor penguin colonies on Ross Island.

Last year, the Adelies made it in to nest at Cape Royds but the iceberg changed the water current pattern, resulting in open water never reaching Cape Royds. Thus, it was too great a distance for the adults to walk over the ice to reach open water to forage for the chicks. Not one of the chicks survived. The adults are back sitting on eggs again but the ice edge is still far away, about 50 km, so we need to hope for a big storm with strong winds out of the south.

On our way to the rookery from Backdoor Bay, we walked around Shackleton's hut, but we did not have the key to get inside. However, it was interesting to see the small pony corral with wooden water troughs next to the hut, very small dog houses (maybe for puppies?), and large stacks of rusting cans, some revealing their contents of black eyed beans.

On the way home, we passed the last stragglers of cross country skiers that we had passed on our way out. They had been bussed to Cape Evans and then they had a 30 km journey back to McMurdo, some feat in the Antarctic dryness and nearly never ending wind.

Tonight I gave the Sunday Science Lecture to a crowd of about 400. I think it went well. I enjoyed giving it, anyways. I began by musing about the various effects that sea ice has on marine life in the Arctic and Antarctic, from providing a transportation route for polar bears to producing the huge Mackenzie Lake in the Beaufort Sea, to filtering UV, to protecting the marine life from waves and temperature extremes. Then I moved on to the ice scour research in the Arctic and the sewage impact studies in the Antarctic, wrapping up with the highlights video set to music, which always ends a talk on a climax. I also ran a powerpoint show full of excerpts from my book, and had about 20 people come up afterwards asking if they could buy one. It was nice to direct them to the museum web site and tell them that the royalties go to education and research about the natural environment.

-Kathy