Just another day

Hey everybody, not a whole lot of excitement going on up here, although we
did have a walrus resting on the ice really close to the ship today. It
was about 200 meters off the port side,and really didn't seem to care that
a 35,000 ton ship was going by. It just sat there and watched us go by.
Those things are really big! Other than that, I seem to have settled into
a routine. Eat, sleep, wait, read, work. In that order. Oh, and
crosswords. I haven't done this many crossword puzzles in my life. We do
them as a group, otherwise we would never get one finished.
For example, my day today. I roll out of bed at 7:30pm, shower, and go up
to the mess deck and grab a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Coffee in hand,
I check out the action in the wet lab, just so I can see what my night is
going to be like. Watch a movie, shoot the breeze, find out what I missed
during the day. At 11:00, mid-rats; more food. My shift goes from 11:30
pm to 11:30 am, and for the most part, we sit around and wait to get to
the next station, when we will be busy for 90 minutes or so, and then wait
until the next station. Sometimes it can be as much as 10 or more hours
between stations, depending on the ice conditions and how long it takes to
get the ship situated so we have a hole in the ice that we can work in.
Tonight, the day shift finished a station just before we started, and we
won't get to the next one until 6 am or so. It makes for a long night.
Breakfast at 7 am, coffee break at 10, and lunch at 11. Finish the shift
and go to bed. It could be worse, at least the people I work with are
really great and I'm learning a lot about the Coast Guard and Arctic
research. I would definitely do this again. It's just kind of tedious
right now.
More later,
Steve