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This is the third posting of my trip to the icy continent. The first two can be
found in my blog at Link: http://goantoantarctica.blogspot.com/2005/11/imagine-running-out-of-toothpaste-in.htmlWe ride the storm with aching calves and shattered glassware until five dayslater when we wake up battered and bruised to observe from the now safedecks, the largest of icebergs gleaming blue in the blinding sunlight. It'sa huge square chunk of ice with the sharpest of edges and the smoothest ofsides. I could imagine it accommodating an entire housing colony. Soon wefind ourselves in thin ice and with it marine mammals. Our young interns whoare determined to save every mammal in the world, sight a mother seal andher pup. From then on the bridge from where the captain and his cohortsnavigate and keep vigil, phone us periodically with alerts on animalsightings. Oh the scramble that follows - jackets, cameras and the dilemmaof whether to go on the deck and see them from close but at freezingtemperatures or to run up three fights of stairs to the heated bridge andsee them through the glass an! d from afar. I often choose the latter. But thebiggest sighting still eludes us - Penguins! Some consider sighting theirfirst penguin even more memorable than their first date. Determined to notleave it to chance, our interns spend their post dinner hours bundled in allof their issued clothing at the bow of the ship until one confessed she thatshe had almost fallen asleep there. They are hounded by email from anAntarctic veteran, Dean Paluski who posts his sightings everyday. Inaddition to Albatross, Petrels and seals there is always a penguin on hislist. He claims he sees them in the wee hours when all are asleep, so theinterns counter by claiming to have seen a Minke whale. No one believes themexcept their mothers and their room mates far away at the University of NewEngland who religiously read their blogs.
