Thursday, July 3, 2008

Home for Now....

ok....so the blog by email thing sort of worked....besides the funny fonts and all caps lettering (i honestly had no way of checking that and no way of knowing the comments....) it seems to work ok.  response to a comment from a post awhile ago about the loss of the rov.....it was enough for NSF to ask if we wanted to come back early.  that was how big the wound was.

anyway, the end of the cruise back into Punta Arenas was relatively uneventful.  off-loading was tough and labor intensive and slow...every thing was craned off the boat.  sample shipping was a pain....the post cruise dinner on land with libations were a blast (us gov boats are dry....gasp!).  i did make great friends this cruise and will definitely see a bunch of them again in the next cruise.  flying home tired and a little hungover...not so fun.  getting almost 100 degree (F) heat when i got home was a bit of a shock.  given that i was just in a place where it got down to -300C with wind chill.

i can see why the sailors in the us navy get in trouble when they get shore leave....being on a dry boat, you can almost taste the adult beverages as you get closer to the docks.  after a hard day of off loading, the reward was vino at the Shackleton bar, a very delicious meal at la tasca (in PA) with vino and finishing the evening off at Santinos bar.  making my way back to the boat for the final night was a bit tricky.  my group had no problems getting to the boat, but getting up the gangway....was a little tricky.  we now know why they put nets out under the gangway.  it bounces as you walk up and if somebody behind you isn't so stable (ie a little tipsy), it makes the whole thing bounce and thus you not so stable...

in the end, i really had a very positive and great experience with this cruise.  i'm working on getting the photos on my flickr site.  hope Palmer Station will be good as well!

i'll keep posting on this thing.....hope everybody is enjoying their summer!  send me news of home!

next trip....heading to Palmer station....july 10th, 2008..

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