April 14, 2005

Funded by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs

Location: 64 16. 111 S, 61 55.755W

Temperature: 0 C
Wind Chill: N/A
Port Wind: 12 knots

Bransfield to Gerlache Strait

Unfavorable weather and sea conditions continue to frustrate the efforts of our geologists to resume coring. The seas in the Bransfield Strait last night were choppy and winds were picking up. The Palmer's dynamic positioning system kept us on site, but the heave of over 2 meters made the drilling operation unsafe. We had to retreat again and seek calmer waters.

It was decided to sail south on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula and find an alternate site in the protection of Gerlache Strait. We have been sailing all day through fog and snow (a relatively rare occurrence on the driest continent). The plan is to stay here for the next six days.

The strait was named after a Belgian explorer, Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery. He sailed form Punta Arenas in December of 1898 and it took him two months aboard Belgica to reach the strait that now bears his name. He named the surrounding islands after towns and regions in his homeland: Anvers (Antwerp), Liege, and Brabant. His expedition was the first one to winter south of the Antarctic Circle. De Gerlache's crew was also the first to use photography in Antarctica. Fredrick Cook, an American physician who sailed aboard Belgica wrote: "as the ship steamed rapidly along, spreading out one panorama after another of a new world, the noise of the camera was as regular and successive as the tap of a stock ticker." Not much has changed in the past one hundred years.

Alex Injac

Tyler Smith enjoying the snow today

Donovan Dums taking a break from geology

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