TIGER in Antarctica, November 17, 2003

The Seals Come Close

TIGER is still in a sort of holding pattern. Anita isn't ready yet, and Paul Dowkontt, the Washington University Electrical Engineer, hasn't arrived yet. There are a few things that he wants to check before we close up the electrostatic and thermal shells around TIGER. Otherwise, we'd be sealed up by now.

After supper,several of us went walking down towards the ice runway to look for penguins. A group of them have been seen off and on over the last couple of days. No penguins for us, but a big seal was resting right next to one of the paths. The Antarctic Treaty is the only thing that keeps us from walking right up to her. We don't bother her, but we do get some good pictures.

Getting close (but not too close) to a seal

Here you can see just how close to town this seal was. The tan building behind the green one is Crary Lab, where all the balloon groups have a small office and where the aquarium is. To the right of Crary is the Chalet (the building with all the flags), which is a NSF administration building. To the right of that is the Mammoth Mountain Inn, a dormitory which supposedly has even worse rooms than mine.

a Weddell Seal right next to town