Sleep is difficult, as I don't want to miss the 24-hour light. I'm also aware that we have only a few more days left before we head north to the sub- Antarctic islands. The urgency is amplified, because I know we're in the heart of Antarctica and yet the weather is uncommonly clear and tolerable for working. E-mail updates to this blog are difficult, as the radio room is often closed when our full day landings are over.

Painting in the Dry Valleys, Antarctica, with the Canada Glacier in the background. (photo by  Daisy Gilardini)

It is 5:30 a.m. and our expedition leader demonstrated the F word. It is called flexibility. We were all set to go to McMurdo Station and Scott base, but due to the high winds and immense sea ice we switched to plan B, in which we are to head to the remote and rarely visited Dry Valleys. (Since the expedition leader and I are from Canada, a visit to the Canada Glacier put a lump in our throats!) The captain parked the ship in the ice and while waiting for our 21 mile helicopter ride about 50 emperor penguins appeared on the ice edge, diving in and out of the water, feeding on the up swell of food from the ship.

The Dry Valleys, Antarctica, #1 (watercolor, 10x15)

Mt. Erebus, Antarctica, #2 (watercolor, 10 x 15)

The Dry Valleys are some of the driest in the world. There are seals literally freeze-dried after making a wrong turn ages ago. The rock is welcome to stand on after so long at sea and on ice.

Today I as a painter realized the "flexible" word.  I needed a different mark-making for this place that is much more vast and not as picturesque as the Antarctic Peninsula. Instead of trying to fight the freezing of the water, or using it for frosting effects, I just let the washes freeze, then scraped the colored ice back out.

I'm sending a picture with this entry that shows me working on the ice with the scraper tool. Tomorrow I will send an entry showing the work my students and I did of the historic huts of Scott and Shackleton, emblems of the Age of the Explorers.

--David

More information
Mt. Erebus on Ross Island is the most active volcano in Antarctica. To see stunning photos and to learn more, visit www.ees.nmt.edu/Geop/mevo/mevo.html.

McMurdo Station, built on bare volcanic rock, is Antarctica's largest community. To take a virtual tour, visit http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/vtour/mcmurdo.

Located 838 miles (1353 kilometers) from the South Pole, Scott Base is a research station run by New Zealand. Click here to learn more.
.

To read about the Dry Valleys and the mystery of the mummified Weddell seals whose carcasses are between 2,500 and 3,500 years old, visit 
http://quest.nasa.gov/antarctica/background/NSF/valleys.html.

Especially for students: To read about the geology, glaciology, and wildlife of the region, visit http://www.rosssea.info and click on whatever topic interests you. There are photographs of penguins, explanations of the various types of ice, descriptions of glaciers and landforms, and more.