I wake to an increasingly violent rocking motion. There is a point at which sleep becomes impossible.

My bunk is in room 101, the nearest room to the bow on the starboard side. Being this far forward, I feel each and every wave. In less than calm seas, my entire body roles from right to left.

I join the realm of the sleep-walking wakeful. We zombies roam the boat, restlessly seeking the least uncomfortable location for our bodies and a diversion for our brains. This is my first storm in the Drake Passage.

I am not scared, just faintly nauseous. At first, it’s novel. Walking four steps is a challenge. Climbing stairs, an art. It’s interesting to observe different peoples’ reactions to the motion. The veteran seamen and women seem to be in their element, sharing stories and jokes. They are not in the least bit perturbed, which I find a great comfort.

But after several hours of being tossed around, having eaten so many anti-sea sickness pills I can barely keep my eyes open, I am wondering when this will end.

It is a waiting game. We need the storm to wain in order to winch the Conductivity Temperature and Depth Profiler (CTD) back onboard the ship. Submerged several hours ago, it has traveled to the bottom of the Southern Ocean, some 4000 meters below the surface to sample seawater from each of the ocean’s layers.

Niskin bottles attached to the CTD now hold some of the most expensive water on the planet. The ship burns tens of thousands dollars of fuel per day and the storm has delayed us several hours…

At some point, the Marine Technicians are able to rescue the CTD, returning it to its home at the ships’ stern. The Gould resumes forward motion and a small but earnest group of scientists and volunteers begin the task of sample-taking.

The challenge of staying upright makes it a particularly exciting session. Containers of sample bottles and pickling juices are locked down, but some escape. Boxes of bottles and liquids and scientists fly from wall to wall. The storm is not over.

Sample-takers tumble about the the back deck as the ship heaves and pitches, displaying various levels of control. Armed with tubes and bottles, they hunker down and set about milking the Niskin bottles. Seawater sampled will be analyzed for O2, CO2, C-13, nutrients and salinity.

The boat gets underway and the waves calm. I collapse in bed, exhausted and grateful.

THE LMG casts off from the port of Punta Arenas, Chile. We sail through the Strait of Magellan, spend 10 days crossing the Drake Passage and dock at Palmer Station located on Anvers Island in the Antarctic Peninsula region. The Drake is a notoriously rough patch of ocean.

The harsh conditions and remoteness of these locations make logistical support for fieldwork extremely complex. Antarctic exploration involves international partnerships, public-private sector alliances and the co-operation of the U.S. military.

THE National Science Foundation has three year-round Antarctic research bases:

McMurdo Station on the Ross Island in McMurdo Sound; Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station at the geographic South Pole and Palmer Station on the Antarctic Peninsula. Additional temporary field stations are set up during the austral summer.

Palmer’s climate is milder than that of the other stations, primarily because of the influence of a polar-maritime air mass. Average temperatures range between 2°C (36°F) in the summer to a cool minus 10°C (14°F) in the winter when we will be there.

The station is built on Anvers Island’s solid rock and sits at 64°46’South, 64°03’West. It is relatively isolated and relies heavily on the LMG to transport passengers and supplies.

It is not regularly served by airplane and does not maintain a landing field. Our ship will deliver a highly anticipated cargo, ranging from fresh vegetables to fuel.

The base is made up of several buildings, fuel tanks and a dock. With a population of about 44 in the summer and 20 in the winter, housing is college dorm-style, so most people have a roommate.

When scientists are not conducting lab or field-based research, two of the highlights are chartering a boat for wildlife watching and relaxing in the open air hot tub. A long-standing Palmer tradition is to warm up in the hot tub, then jump into the freezing ocean for a refreshing blast!

Our crew spends just 5 days days at Palmer Station. In addition to providing science support, I will use this opportunity to soak in the hot tub, shoot penguin video and try to understand the Antarctic addiction.

WE will examine how the storms that roar through the region mix the ocean, allowing carbon transfer from the deep sea to the atmosphere.

Scientists hypothesize that the Southern Ocean acts like a sponge, absorbing human emitted CO2 into its surface layers and that as humans emit an increasing quantity of CO2, this sponge is becoming saturated.

At the same time, scientists expect that increasingly strong winds tearing through the region churn up the ocean, bringing natural CO2 up from the sea bed and transferring it to the atmosphere.

By measuring the amount of CO2 in the water, scientists onboard the Gould will gather valuable data to help test these hypotheses. If these phenomena are observed, scientists believe this will provide further evidence of human induced climate change.

I will write more on the science from the ship using our low-bandwith twice-daily satellite-based email system.

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