braggart

I saw a whale today.  It was from a long ways away, but it was definitely a whale.  Someone was telling me how they just got back from seeing a whale at Hut Point and I was like, man I can see Hut Point from my work window and as I was looking out there I clearly saw a puff of mist shoot up and shortly after saw the dorsal fin pop out of the water.  I screamed out of excitement and kept watching and saw the same thing a few more times.  That’s when I decided I’d take my camera down to the Point to get some pictures.

The whale is not in that picture, and that is the Oden, breaking more ice.  By the time I got there the whale was gone, but I saw it and I hope to see more.  I hear people say they’ve seen them all the time, so I’m sure I’ll get to see them again and maybe I’ll get a picture of one.

When I walked out to the Hut Point I noticed a bunch of people on the edge of the ice pier.  As I got closer I realized that there was someone in the water there.  It was a diver inspecting the damage to the pier.  Can you imagine being in that water!  As I climbed up the hill on Hut Point I could clearly see a huge chunk of the pier floating away very separately.  Remember how I said that the pier was a few years beyond its expected life span, well, I guess it’s showing that now.  And the timing couldn’t be worse, the first big ship is coming in tomorrow!  I think I could see it on the horizon and I took a few pictures, but you won’t believe me if I say that speck is a 600ft ship.  It is going to be a pretty big deal docking that thing but it should go pretty smoothly because I’m a line handler.  I’m looking forward to this.  Here is some more information on the tanker that is coming in tomorrow.

So tomorrow is obviously going to be busy, but get this last part…I get to drive a snowmobile up to a hut 1,400 ft up Mt. Erebus tomorrow night.  How awesome is that going to be!  All that is not meant to brag, but to just explain why I might not get around to writing anything tomorrow.  It’s either feast or famine…that’s the only reason I bring it up, really.