A Celebration
We’ve finished the outbound leg of our cruise; we’ve turned around and we’ll be doing additional sampling, especially in areas that piqued our curiosity on the leg out.
We have some real-world experience under our belts, now. The first leg of our cruise was a gas; it’s taught us we can do, and have now already done, things we didn’t dream we could do.
Challenges
Some of us have had to cope with and adapt to seasickness. We’ve gotten used to a 12-hour shift, called a “watch.” We’ve had to deal with a pitching deck, at times encrusted with ice. We’ve had to sample when our hands had gone numb with cold.
Experiences
We’ve let this enchanted world first challenge us, then take hold of us, and finally seize us, mesmerizing our souls with its majesty. We’ve watched pods of whales eyeing us up; we’ve stared back in amazement, wondering what life’s like from their perspective.
We’ve witnessed the elusive green flash as the sun climbs slowly out of an ocean seeming reluctant to let it go. We’ve watched the sun appear to hesitate, clinging momentarily to the ocean before continuing lazily skyward. And we’ve seen the calm ocean coming aglitter, like a million dancing diamonds, as breaking dawn yields to full-blown morning.
Finally we “arrived” in the depths of our target area, beyond the Antarctic Circle, this quiet place, punctuated by the calls of wheeling seabirds, where there’s sleet, snow, and a blue-white parade of bergs floating languidly by — ice sculptures in an ice ballet so slow it’s almost in freeze-frames.
When we began this cruise, most of us had not thought, of a day when we might have grandchildren. But we now know, without any shadow of a doubt, that we already have a wealth of experiences to share with any grand-children we might have.
Celebration, anticipation, and appreciation
At the conclusion of the first leg of our cruise, we feel on a “high” and quite satisfied with our progress. We may have even set a record for the shallowest sampling ever in this part of the ocean. Jury’s still out on that, but if not, we came close.
Stay tuned for the second half of our adventure. We’re doing more extensive sampling of fronts as we cross the Southern Ocean again on our return leg.
Thanks, FSU Department of Oceanography, NSF, NOAA, Captain and crew of the R/V Roger Revell. and IPY. Thanks for one of the coolest experiences of our lives.
One of Juliana D’Andrilli’s lovely sunrises follows, with a special St. Paddy’s Day greeting:
Juliana is silhouetted against a daybreak backdrop of the Southern Ocean, clothed in its own silhouettes — tabular bergs riding the horizon — all under a deck of low clouds. This is her favorite time of day — we needn’t wonder why. Juliana waves a cheery “Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!” to her lovely sunrise — poetry in pastels — and to us, as well. We can’t see Juliana’s face, but we’re absolutely certain she’s wearing a smile.