6 June 2011 A Farewell Plunge

Today is the last day on Palmer Station. The Gould sails north tomorrow morning. It was beautiful with very little wind. But it was still in the 20s and felt cold. Devin and I had had plans for a few weeks to do another plunge before we left. Particularly since we didn't get any good action shots from our first plunge. However, it was cold outside and when I thought of jumping, I wasn't really feeling it. Devin wasn't feeling groove much either but he was determined to obtain proof that he swam in Antarctica - proof as in a photo. That was not an issue today. The paparazzi were out. We had three. And, as you will see, we got some nice action shots of all of us. Particularly of Ruth riding the iceberg. You met Ruth in an earlier blog. She is studying those endophytes in the seaweed.

Okay, so I was squawking a little about my hesitation to leap - but deep down I really wanted to and once I got my suit on it all came together. In fact, I was the first one in. You must believe me that it is incredibly refreshing. Especially when you run and jump into the hot tub afterward and look out over the glacier. Pretty amazing.