Tuesday, January 5, 2010

On board the Joides Resolution

After a 29 hour plane travel, I have arrived in Wellington New Zealand. The ship, the Joides Resolution, came into port the day before yesterday and yesterday (January 5th) we were able to move on board. In a few minutes we will have our first meeting with the entire science party (> 30 people), now that everyone has arrived. We are still scheduled to leave Wellington on the 9th, so we will spend a few more days in port. It is nice for us to get over jet lag before heading into the ocean swells. You will notice that the ship has a tower on it called the "derrick". This is where the drill rig is located. If all goes well we are going to drill 5 holes up to more than a kilometer deep on the Antarctic continental margin. We are all getting excited, but it is still a bit unreal: it is Summer here with temperatures in the 70s (20 degrees C), and we are heading for the coldest place on Earth. More later!

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