14 December, 2000

Greetings,

Today was sampling day. We took our package out to station E and B and collected data. We invited Cara Sucher to join us. She will be the new Lab Manager when Rob Edwards leaves next week. While we were out at station E one of the strangest things happened. There were chinstrap penguins swimming near the zodiac when one swam up to the boat, jumped in and stood next to Ray. They were just inches apart. While I tried to grab my camera the penguin looked around and promptly left just as we were getting ready to take the picture. It was incredible, but sorry no picture to show you.

We completed our work at station E and moved on to station B. While we were moving the package out of the zodiac Cara said, "Look!" Not far >from our zodiac, less than 50 meters away a whale was passing by. Again, everyone was too busy to get a picture. Our brief glimpse didn't allow us to identify the type. It was either a Minke or a Humpback whale.

We completed our data collection without anymore surprises and headed in to station. Mondays and Thursdays are always busy. I took the ice pictures, filtered water and helped run calibrations on the ac9. In the last few days I have learned how to preform a couple of new filtering techniques. Since I'm caught up with my chlorophyll samples they have taught me how to filter for other tests. This saves Kirk, Sarah and Ray time to concentrate on other efforts. I enjoy it because it teaches me something new and learning new skills is fun.

I have received more votes on my jump into the icy water. Sorry Mom, it's not looking good. A class in California, Mrs. Smith's class voted 29 to 2 to jump. My own Librarian, Patti Jackson voted to toss me in. Unless there are some votes between now and Friday night it looks like I will have to make the plunge this weekend. Only Lisa, Mrs. Perez and my mom are trying to save me from the icy waters. So please send your vote. I promise there will be no manual recount of any votes. As it stands today 3 to keep me high and dry and 35 cold and wet.

C-Ya,

n Bill

Stop by tomorrow to see if I have to make the plunge. If so read all about it on Monday.

Bill, Sarah and Ray.

Does this Adelie look cross eyed??