Friday, December 31, 2010

Station Training after Arrival includes Boating lessons

Once we arrive on station, we get training throughout the station on where to muster in case of fire, where we do our laundry, where we can hike around station, how to do our dishes, where to find cleaning supplies, understanding the White board for daily information pass down and then getting qualified to be a boat operator, which is by far is the funnest of all the other trainings.  
This is our Boating Coordinator - Lily Glass, she's an adventurer from past lives and we are blessed with her presence her.   She's funny, sometime serious, but mostly fun to be with.  The picture below she's showing Bill the finer points in holding his throttle.


PQ is driving this boat.  You can tell that the area is a bit foggy and possibly some moisture on my camera lens.
We called "Man overboard" drill and Lily jumps effortlessly into the brink.  We all are on the outlook for any leopard seals that might wander by.   
Our training is to give us the skills to pull in boater that has fallen off the boat without running them over.  If you're not used to a boat it can be challenging.  But we get Lily in and we're zooming back to station so Lily doesn't get too cold after we pull her out of the brink.
Here's some of our rules & Regs.  It isn't classified, but just informative.
http://www.usap.gov/travelAndDeployment/documents/FieldManual-Chapt8PenAreaBoatingOps.pdf


While we were traveling checking out the islands, we found some shallow areas where to could go up to mini icebergs that were grounded in the shallows.  I had my underwater camera with me and took some shots...The water was very clear as it was still cold and not many smaller creatures have started growing yet.

 Here's the underwater version of the min berg and below the water line.
 This shows the bottom of the bergs stronghold and a little bit on his personality. 

Down below are just rockformations under the 2-3' depth of the shallow area where the berg bit is stuck.

 That is all for now....

2 comments:

  1. This is amazing!
    Thanks, and HAPPY NEW YEAR down there where it's summer!
    Best from Minneapolis, Francesca

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  2. Zee! This is fabulous! I love it. The underwater berg pix are very unusual. I'm so glad you're posting. I'll pass this along. Makes me really miss Palmer Station.

    All the best to you,

    DAVID RUTH

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