Another Winter Boating Expedition

Another two trips out to Outcast to help the rigger service the weather tower out there. 

Another day of magical lighting on the mountains. 

Adelie penguin standing on a tiny piece of ice!

Fun frost on a limpet shell. Winter is definitely here. 

Lots of work completed, successful trip the this island. 

Pancake ice is forming!
 

NBP Docking

The old pier was too small for the NBP to tie up at Palmer, but the new pier is big enough to accommodate the larger vessel. The Gould is 230 feet long. The NBP is 308 feet long. 

This is the ship that will take me home this year. I've never sailed on the NBP, so I'm pretty excited. 

Very good light for some glamour shots of the NBP in port. 

Very large boat! It have to go down south for a science cruise for a few weeks, but then it will be coming back to Palmer to pick me and the rest of the summer crew up!
 

Swell Morning

We have had some really clear skies in the last week and have been able to see some planets and stars. 

Jupiter, Mars, and the Moon!

I've been helping with boating operations and got to go on longer trip to fix a weather station on an island about eight miles away that I've never been to. 

The sunrise on the mountains was amazing!

There is the tower objective but the swells were too big to allow for a landing. 

The swells were hitting this shallow spot just right to create this gigantic wave between us and the island landing site.

Really pretty from a good distance away.

 

Cool Clouds

The sun came out for the first time in a while!

And we had some very interesting clouds all afternoon. 

What a pretty day to work down on the pier!
 

Seals and sun on a quick walk

 

A misty morning

Pretty day for a walk to point 8. 

Some Gentoos came out of the water and walked right up the hill, straight for us. 

We stood still and they walked right up, I think they wanted to stand in the sun too. 

Juvenile elephant seals play fighting, looking like cartoon characters. 

Here is a tern foot print compared to my hand. We came across a field of snow covered in little feet marks, from where a flock of terns landed for the night. They are grouping up and getting ready to head north together. 

Winter seems to be here and with the pier crew gone things have quieted down. Only about another month or so until I migrate north as well.