Offical Forcast for Today...

From the offical forecast: "Overall pattern is for crappy weather with

short periods of less than crappy. A Deep low pressure system in the

western Bellingshausen Sea is supporting a strong frontal boundary that

will pound the area throughout the day. Expect periods of slightly

better weather than crappy later afternoon into tonight."

This is the last time that the Lawerance M. Gould was at Palmer before heading back North to Punta Areans, Chile. This is the last time we will see the the ship or any new people until mid September. Our winter population is now down to 18 people.

Click on this photo to see how small it is at Palmer Station

This is the little place that I live in Antarctica, Palmer Station.

And the beard contest.....

So we shaved clean one day and this is our daily photos up till now....

I built that tiny wood structure at the base of this "Yokohama" or what I would refer to it as a bumper. It was built to help sturdy the massive bumper while the ship headed north through the Drake Straight. I hope it was sea worthy!

A crew photo in the carpenter shop before the ship headed north for the winter.

Working on the bumper for the ship.

Just another day on the job in Antarctica. We are wearing our rain gear, although it wasn't raining at the time. It rains at Palmer more than I expected, but is a welcome site at times because it melts the snow quicker.

I believe this portion of the iceberg was under water before it flipped. That is the reasoning for all the vertical cutouts.

More icebergs seen while out boating!

Just trying to blend in with the ship. Whenever we have line handling duties we are required to wear a float coat or a full suit like this one. Looks like something I could wear to the Broncos games!

This is the day I went "dive tending" to help the scuba divers on there outing for the day. As you can imagine it takes a little more gear to go diving in Antarctic waters.

Here's a happy little fellow. Actually I'm not sure what he is all up in arms about, but they are Elephant Seals. These guys are massive and like to lay around with each other and sometimes atop one another.

These guys don't live right at Palmer Station, but only a short boat ride to the small surrounding islands. Most, if not all of the penguins have left the area for winter.

Just some more penguins.