It seems that the scope of the project is very large. From listening to this discussion, it almost seems to me to be too large. I didn't get the impression that there are well-defined basic research questions that are being addressed by the project as a whole. However, there are people working on individual parts of the project that probably do have well-defined questions that they are investigating.
It sounds like Dr. Stonehouse has created a research institute, which is funded separately from the individual projects. The individual projects are often funded by specific agencies interested in the results of the projects, and the institute is funded by a trust or two, and picks up a lot of the infrastructure costs. If this is really what's going on, then I guess it's a very good thing. He also mentioned that there is a great deal of cooperation with the tourism industry, the Antarctic Treaty members, and the scientific community, as well as a large degree of internationalism in his students.
There was a considerable amount of discussion about the idea of management plans for tourist-intensive areas, giving detailed guidelines for how to visit areas depending on the types of lifeforms there, and when to stop visiting a particular area because of the accumulated impact on it. They are trying to gather data about all of the places that are visited, since no one really has a good master picture of the situation.
Also mentioned (and debated between Stonehouse and Lady Philipa Scott) was the idea of turning Antarctica into an International Park. Stonehouse was concerned that there was no formal proposal available describing th eidea in practical terms, and Scott felt that it should be done under the auspices of the Antarctic Treaty, but didn't have anything concrete to talk about.
We're currently out in open water, with perfect weather (very sunny, few clouds, a little warmer). We've been cruising toward Cape Hallett all night and this morning. The happiness of having good weather is tainted by the wish that it could have been this nice at Ross Island, where there were things to look at, instead of here, where it's just open water...
There was only one lecture given today, and nothing to see outside the ship. I've spent the day eating (the standard meals), sleeping, and trying to find things to do on my own. I actually did some work for SILS today, planning one of my lectures for ILS 526. I'm definitely getting desperate...
I finished The Name of the Rose at McMurdo Station the day before yesterday, so I don't have a good fiction book to keep me occupied. I'll have to go back to The Crystal Desert and my magazines, which I've already read most of. I'll have to pick up some magazines at Christchurch so that I'll have something to read on the plane trip home. Otherwise, I'll go crazy for sure.
Grandma and I received a FAX today from mom, wishing each of us a happy Valentine's Day from all of the family. It was really cute: my half of the page had a group of ten penguins huddled together, saying, "There's whole rookery here wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day," and Grandma's had a globe with a Cupid's arrow pointing into the South Pole and the message, "We'd go half-way around the world to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day." Mom has a gift for cute messages...
I realized that I could call them and get the FAX number for Lapeer Community Schools and send them a FAX telling them how things are going, so I did that. Dad was absolutely shocked when I called: he must've thought we came back early when he first heard me. I told them over the phone that we were having a great time, which relieved them I'm sure. They probably thought something awful had happened to make me call from the ship.
Tonight we were priviledged to hear Lady Philippa Scott, David Lawton (the Marco Polo's cruise director), Nigel Sitwell, and one other person read portions of the diaries of Scott and his expedition members, and Scott's wife, from the period of Scott's death returning from the South Pole. The entries by Scott's party during the weeks and days before their deaths were very moving. Their rough letters to their loved ones, expounding on the triumph and valor of their companions... Their obviously crushing disappointment at finding that Amundsen had beaten them to the Pole, and their reports of the bad fortune that led to the events that caused their death. They knew that they were dying, and they witnessed their companion's deaths. It must have been truly horrible for them. I can't imagine how they could have found the strength to resist killing themselves with the opium they had with them.
The journal selections were made by Pamela Davis and Kimberly Crosbie, two of Stonehouse's students. They titled their work These Rough Notes, after a line in Scott's journal.
After the performance, we went out on deck and looked out at Cape Hallett and the Transantarctic Mountains. The sun is just barely visible over a low cloud bank, and the mountains and clouds are lavender and cobalt blue, all powdery and blending together. As Connie said on deck, who would have thought that there could be so many shades of color?
The captain announced that the helicopter had returned with the news that the pack ice is impenetrable in our time schedule. All of the satellite pictures show that the same is true at Cape Adare. We will be heading east, then north for New Zealand.
This is probably the last sight of Antarctica that I will have for a long time, if not forever. It's a good one. This trip has been worth every penny.
Grandma seems disappointed (though she won't admit it, of course). Personally, I don't feel much disappointment. After McMurdo Station and that brief glimpse of Mt. Terror on the way into McMurdo Sound, Adare and Hallett would have been anticlimactic. I am a little disappointed that we weren't able to see Scott or Shackleton's huts at Cape Evans and Cape Royds, but I'm not surprised. I knew all along that this later part of the trip would be tricky, being so late in the season and so far south.
I'm looking forward very much to Christchurch and the sights of New Zealand.
I'm sure that during the next few days, my disappointment will grow. After all, we had rotten weather all through the Ross Sea preventing us from seeing anything whenever there was anything to see. We missed all but one of the five potential landing sites there. I never saw the Ross Ice Shelf or Mt. Erebus. There's a lot to be disappointed about.
But, there's a lot to be satisfied with also. I did get to see McMurdo Station, inside and out. We saw many fascinating things along the peninsula. I set foot on the Antarctic continent at Paradise Bay. I saw the Transantarctic Mountains. We experienced pack ice and the Drake Passage. We went farther south than most Antarctic tourists ever get.
I guess it just seems somewhat open ended -- unfinished. And it's ended so abruptly, much sooner than expected.