Friday, March 14, 2008

An unexpected encounter...

This is a short video I was able to take with my little point and shoot camera. It's rough, to say the least, but you'll get the idea. We came upon a pod of four humpback whales, three adults and a baby. We were just drifting, with motors off about 100 ft from them when they decided to come up and see us. They were extremely curious, or angry. It was a bit hard to tell, but I can say that they were really cool and humongous.

Life here at Palmer continues to evolve. We are down to a population of 31 now, as the Gould left with the krillers, riggers and some of the divers. It was sad to see them go, though it feels good to stretch out a bit more. Today I went out with our communications technician to Outcast Island, an island outside of the boating limits, to work on an old Argentine tower. It's abandoned now and a grant is being written to install another wind detector to more accurately make boating decisions. The ocean is much more wild out there than in our protected harbor, with 12 foot swells and curling breaks.

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