southern ocean (part1)

Hi All,

I hope your winter is much better than my summer at this very low
latitudes in the southern hemisphere. This is officially my day number
18 after I left New York. I flew first to Buenos Aires, I had by far the
best "bife de chorizo" I have ever had, great meat, the only problem it
was crazy late for me, I wanted to eat around 7:00 p.m. or so after 21
hr of airport stuff but I couldn't make it untill 10:00 p.m. It was
definitely great, I got the chance to rent an ancient bike and bike
around Buenos Aires towards the River Plate stadium, at least I got to
see it, there were no games at the time I was there so no "hinchas" in
the itinerary this times. I meant to go to "boca" the other stadium but
they told me it was to dangerous to bike there, so I omitted that part.

I left Buenos Aires towards Santiago de Chile and finally Punta Arenas
(the very end of Chile). I got there and tried to get ready the
instruments that I would be using during the cruise (expedition), after
sorting everything out I managed to get them ready; we left Punta Arenas
on the 15th of January, after a day of steaming we finally got to the
first station we tested the instruments and all went well, but soon the
Ocean got worse and worse, the waves reached 10 [m] and it was
impossible to keep any food in the stomach longer than 5 [min]. Anyways,
on the 3rd day, after my 12 [hrs] shift, I went to bed expecting one
more experiment to happen, I woke up and saw the log sheet empty so I
was pretty confused. I then was told that the Capitan had passed away
over the night and that we were going back to land to drop his body to
the corresponding authorities, he was rather old and apparently he had a
heart attack and there was not more to do for him. They kept his body in
the fridge next to the computer lab where I am working, which was a
little creepy at the beginning. We were at least 3 days away from land
and the waves were not really helping, on Friday morning the 22th we
were just outside Punta Arenas, but the winds were ridiculous, ~ 60
[knots] which is about 100 [km/h], and they kept that strong all day
until 8:00 p.m. We couldn't really go to the port until the winds were ~
20 [knots]. Finally we got there and a priest came on board to pray for
the Capitan, he told me if I could translate some parts and I have to
admit, I don't really knew the Capitan, I saw him 2 times, but somehow
during the ceremony my throat just got smaller and smaller and it was
really hard to talk. I am not really good managing death, after the
ceremony the priest was all smiley and joking, I don't really know how
he does that, maybe it is a result of doing it over and over.

On land, a new first mate was waiting for us, the previous first mate is
now the Capitan. After some paperwork, we managed to get out of the ship
and since it is a dry vessel, i.e. no alcohol allowed, everyone ran to
the first bar. I had some biking plans for the next day since we were
not going to leave until Sunday morning. I got some biking fix and then
some good food siting at a table where the plates remain in the same
place (on board you have to hold your plate at all times). Ahh, yeah, I
also got my beer fix :)

Since we left land again we have gotten a couple of days with terrible
weather, for a couple of days all I could see were long green faces
(including the one in the mirror) I was not able to eat almost anything
and I was super tired all the time, I think one day I slept more than 15
hrs. But now I am even able to sort of write something coherent to share
with you :)

I am sure I forgot to add people to this list, but all this will be
posted on my old blog: www. rocangel.blogspot.com. You could send the
link to them.

I hope you all are good, at least most of you are in a Newtonian frame
of reference I will be on this vessel for ~ 40 more days. Looking
forward to see my family :).

Best,

Angel