> Hi(gh)!
> 
> On 07.06.20 09:07, Thomas de Groot wrote:
>> Op 07/06/2020 om 08:56 schreef Thomas de Groot:
>>> In a distant past (35 years ago), I once sailed on the RV Polarstern 
>>> to the Antarctic; saw some whales but they were too far away to be 
>>> observed properly. Probably this image is linked somehow to that memory.
>>>
>>
>> For fun: I just found this old print of those days. Near Deception 
>> Island... :-)
>>
> 
> Awesome polar explorer beard! Do you still sport it?

Lol! I have sported a beard for most of my life, i.e during the last 54 
years or so.

> 
> And in what temperature this picture was taken?

[rant]
Well, it was a mild, quite, afternoon in fact, about 10-15 C, I believe, 
and very little wind. The reason why I was so dressed was that we were 
going to land on Deception Island and, as the weather is notoriously 
unreliable in those parts, we were advised to dress "properly". And no 
joke either: a couple of hours later we were hurriedly "rescued" from 
the island because of worsening weather conditions and rapidly growing 
wave heights. During the following night that hurricane struck.
I shall never forget that night! I was on night shift monitoring the 
seismic acoustic survey equipment running while the ship was completing 
transverse seismic lines across the Bransfield Strait. The wind however 
was so fierce (11-12 Beaufort) that the Polarstern was constantly blown 
away from its preset course. So, I was regularly called up to the bridge 
to decide what to do and/or how to resume the course. Imagine taking the 
stairs from the bottom of the ship till the bridge (about the highest 
point) while the whole thing plunges and rises and rolls several meters 
in each direction! And then you come into a dark place (the bridge) 
where there is.... only one officer on duty! The ship runs totally 
automatically under "normal" conditions. Following that, you are asked 
to tell what to do and where to go as the ship is drifting/blown 
dangerously towards the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and the seismic 
line is a kind of crazily weaving pattern across the strait. For a short 
while, you feel very powerful :-) Seasick? I have never been seasick.
In the end, the Polarstern had to take refuge at the lee side of an 
island and wait for the end of the hurricane, which happened suddenly in 
the morning. That day was my birthday.
[/rant]

> 
> See you in Khyberspace!
> 
> Yadgar



-- 
Thomas

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