Today was quite a day for visits. Santa Claus took a few days from his vacationing in Patagonia to some visit the good boys and girls on the N.B. Palmer. With all the wintery weather we have been having, a little Christmas in July celebration was certainly in order (belated though... we had work to do, so it got put off till August. Whoops!)
It was really great. We decorated the tree with ornaments maritime, gifts were swapped, and we even busted out the liquid nitrogen for a little homemade ice cream. The evening was full of cheer and yuletide glee as we transited north towards home. All is well aboard the Palmer tonight...
Again, the weather broke for close to 12 hours and allowed us to get a small amount of sampling done at Station N. The sediment was a slightly sandy mud underlain by a rather dense clay layer that prevented much our cores from getting great penetration. Still, we were able to get a few megacores, and a blake trawl to study the benthos in this northern locale.
With such a successful cruise, it is no surprise that King Neptune, the legendary ruler of the seas, graced us with a brief visit. Very little is known of the rituals and customs of his royal court, but some tales are whispered among sailors and scientists alike in hushed tones. I can share only this tattered and blurred photo...
We have found a suitable site for station N, but the weather and seas are proving to be far too rough for sediment sampling. Add to that the falling temperatures (-11*C and wind chill down to -32*C) and we have an icy situation on deck. Seawater doesn't freeze until it reaches -1.85*C or so. The back deck of the N.B. Palmer is heated, so no ice tends to form there. Our sampling gear sitting on the deck - not heated. So after taking a lot of water and sea spray, all of our equipment has approx. 2-3 inches of ice covering every crevice and cranny.
Weather has been fairly poor, and the hunt for Station N, our new-fangled northern station has been unsuccessful. A nice flat area near Elephant Island looked promising, but a survey with the Mud SCUD benthic video camera showed the site to be quite rocky and unsuitable for sampling.
With weather flaky and the crew in need of a bit of rest, today we made a morale stop at Maxwell Cove on King George Island. Any chance to get off the boat for a little time on land is likely to be the most memorable and exciting part of a cruise. This was no exception, with a flock(?) of penguins near our landing site to entertain with their curious cuteness. (Actually, what is a group of penguins called? Not having Google on the boat is painful!)
We had a rather close encounter with a leopard seal. These guys are one of the major predators of these waters. The zodiac offers relative safety, but leopard seals are known to attack humans. This particular seal was very curious and swam under the zodiac a few times before deeming us a little to hard to eat.
And of course, what trip on land would be complete without a little winter sport. Our landing location had a great hill that might have been great for skiing if we had skis.
However, we make due with what we have, and we all have butts. Most of us tired ourselves out sliding down the hill on our fannies as many times as we could.
With a brief break in the weather, we were able to complete all operations at station B. This marked the completion of all of our planned stations and samples, with a whopping 48 hours of science time left in our cruise. This is actually pretty remarkable, as weather delays and equipment failure are commonplace. The early finish is a testament to the skill and professionalism of the science and technical staff here on the N.B.Palmer. We rock! Oh, and the spell of great weather helped out too.
With the usual stations complete, we get to go home early, right? Wrong! Dave and Craig have ideas for a new station to sample along the northern end of the peninsula near the South Shetland Islands. We are transiting there now to survey sites near King George Is. The weather is marginal at best, with 30 knot winds and fairly heavy seas. We may be able to expect some protection on the lee side of an island, but we won't know till we get there...
The days of sunny skies, gorgeous sunsets, scenic sea ice, and no sea or
swell are long gone and only a distant memory. Currently, science
operations have ceased because the winds are 35-45 knots (40-50 mph) with waves and swell on the order of 12-16 feet. 
When the weather gets this bad, some of the scientists retreat to the Foosball table
in the helo hanger for consolation.
There are still a few operations that we can do under heavy seas. Almy is
taking a rest on the kasten corer prior to deployment. We use about 900
pounds of lead on the top of this corer to push it into the seabed, such
that it returns with a core that is 3-8 feet long. The sediments at the
bottom of these cores are thousands of years old, and they tell us what
oceanographic conditions were like in these frigid waters over centuries to
millennia
To collect bottom-dwelling animals we use either a Blake Trawl (shown here
with Almy riding the sled) or an Otter Trawl. 
The animals come up, usually in a ball of mud, which needs to be rinsed down, and
then the various species of animals are sorted into buckets prior to dissection. 
We are trying to understand the feeding strategies of these creatures living at the
bottom of the ocean in a pretty hostile environment. For example, do some
of the animals hibernate during the winter, when there is little or no
fresh plankton falling from the surface ocean (because of the low light and
ice conditions)? The bottom dwelling animals feed year-round at our
northern stations, but we don't know, what is happening at the southern
stations -- YET!.
We are hoping for better weather so that we can collect megacores. Due to
the need for undisturbed sediment, the ship needs to be pretty stable. We
are in between fronts, and the winds (we hope) should start calming. If
all goes well, we will get our window and complete station B.
With the sea ice keeping the ship so stable, we have had a very good
success rate with our sampling. Aside from the occasional rock in the
boxcore and an issue with the Tucker trawl, we have had textbook perfect
samples. We've been super busy getting all of the sediment seived and
jarred, the animals dissected and sorted, and the flux chambers fluxing.
We finished station F in a mere 40 hours and should be done with station E
by early tomorrow morning.
Right now at station E (-65* 56.686' ; -067* 18.706') We are at the edge of
the sea ice extent. We still have patches of pancake ice, but we are in
mostly open water. Still, we are surrounded by ice on 3 sides, and the
wind is low, so the seas are dead calm. It's a balmy -2*C outside, and
everything is going fine.
There really isn't a whole lot new to report, but there are some great
pretty photos, so we'll end this post with a few. Be sure to write us,
either by leaving comments on the blog or using our @nbp.usap.gov
addresses. We'd love to hear from you!
Megacorer being deployed into a hole in the sea ice. 
Shadows of the boxcorer. Dr. Dave gives the thumbs up. 
Spectacular sunset at Station F. The sunsets last almost an
hour at these high latitudes. Every 10 minutes renews the thought, "That's
the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen!"
Same sunset, 15 minutes later. The colors are no trick of the
camera.
Station F blake trawl got us a whole lot of Protelpedia sp.,
endearingly known to this group as Sea Pigs. 
Dr. Paulo Sumida meets a rogue sea spider. Both parties were
stunned by the event, but seem to be getting better.
The ladies in the lab are usually running samples at a dizzying
pace, but you just gotta take a break for ice cream cake!