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PS118 - Weekly Report No. 1 | 9. - 17. February 2019
A bumpy start
[18. February 2019]
We are still in Punta Arenas at the pier in Cabo Negro to take on fuel. Later, we need to take on kerosene for the helicopters and finish last cargo operations. If everything works according to plan, we should hopefully be on our way to Antarctica on Monday morning. However, all in good order …
For many of us, the journey started in Bremen in the early evening of the 6th of February. The group flight took us from Bremen via Amsterdam and Buenos Aires to Santiago de Chile where we stayed overnight. In Santiago, we had the chance to enjoy the South American summer for one afternoon. The next day, we continued our journey to Punta Arenas to meet the ship. On the way, people joined from contributory flights and the group grew from airport to airport. When we met the up-front teams in Punta Arenas, the science party was complete. On the next day, Saturday the 9th of February we joined the ship. With RV Polarstern on anchorage, we were shuttled out by small ships.
A nice coincidence was that at the same time as the RV Polarstern another German research vessel was in Punta Arenas. RV Maria S. Merian made a port call to take on fuel and provisions while on her way to the Falkland Plateau to conduct seismic research. Due to these circumstances, we had a nice meeting at the end of the world.
On board are now 16 teams with scientists from 18 institutions from 10 nations. Amongst the scientists are 7 students and 10 PhD students to obtain hands-on experiences and insights into scientific working. During the course of the expedition, in the coming weekly reports, different teams will present their activities. In this way, they will provide a good overview of the activities of this truly interdisciplinary expedition. Further in-depth information on the planned activity can be obtained from the expedition program (https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/48988/).
With all scientists on board, we would now be ready to leave the harbour. But unfortunately, it is not that simple. To understand why we are still in Punta Arenas, it is necessary know some of the peculiarities of this harbour. One is that, for relatively large vessels (cargo ships, cruise liners and Polarstern), there is only a relatively small pier deep enough in Punta Arenas. The other is that there is a limitation on bunkering and operation of cranes depending on wind speed. During the past week, these two factors have not worked in our favour. Repeatedly, due to cruise liners, we had to stop working and to leave the pier to wait on anchorage. In addition, gale-force winds, which are quite typical for Punta Arenas during this season, forced us to stop all cargo work and bunkering at times. Despite these adversities, preparations for the expedition continue and the morale on board has not been affected. Therefore, I would really like to thank everybody on board for keeping up his or her good spirits. We use the delay to finish all preparation for the expedition as for example setting up laboratories and defining workflows.
All bunkering and cargo operations will be finished soon and the pilot is booked for Monday morning. We are confident to start our journey to the Weddell Sea soon.
Best regards from Punta Arenas,
Boris Dorschel on behalf of all PS118 expedition participants
Contact
Scientific Coordination
Rainer Knust
+49(471)4831-1709
Rainer Knust
Assistant
Sanne Bochert
+49(471)4831-1859
Sanne Bochert
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