3 May, 2003

The ship was supposed to leave this morning at 10AM. A storm blew in and we were unable to leave on time. As a matter of fact, we were not sure exactly when we were going to get to leave. We ended up leaving not too late about and hour later. The storm was raging on, but we were able to pull out of the dock and begin our 4 day journey to Punta Arenas for my return home and civilization as I usually know it. The winds were howling at 40-60 miles an hour with a driving snow that felt like rocks hitting me in the face when it did hit my face. The wind chill was well below zero Celsius. I was glad to be able to get underway, but with mixed feelings about leaving my new family and friends at Palmer

1. Before I left for Antarctica, I was presented the key to the City of Birmingham. I accepted the key as the key to the city, but also as the key to learning. I took the key with me to Antarctica. Here I am with the glacier in the background. It was a typical day in the Fall in Antarctica. Winds were blowing 40-60 knots with a driving snow.

2. I'm holding the key to the city with the ship in the background.

3. "The Group"

4. This is a picture of me standing by the reverse-osmosis water filtration system. At Palmer, we use sea water converted to fresh water as our drinkng water. Fresh water is lighter than sea water so the sea water pulls it into the sea to mix with it. We need fresh water, so we use a pump to reverse the pulling process.

5. When the divers were collecting sea stars one day, they gathered a sea star with 6 legs. Sea stars only have 5 legs so we have enjoyed observing this sea star.