Life on the Lawrence M. Gould
With the current Covid requirements mandated by the NSF (National Science Foundation), we have to have a minimum of 7 days from the time the harbor pilot in Chile leaves our vessel till we dock at Palmer Station. The journey usually takes about 4.5 days but we have to kill some time. This was done in part by going out to the west side of the country when normally we would cross into Argentine waters and come out on the East Atlantic. This trip out the west into the South Pacific ocean forced us to go a bit North West whereas the Eastern route is more directly East. The scenery to the West was more mountainous though much of the good views escaped us as it was night when we went by them. We were blessed by very little storm activity in the area as we went south toward the Drake Passage. The first three days were nice and smooth by Drake standards. Only on the last day did we hit what has become the norm for me on these trips through the Drake. About 8 hours of bad swells and chop an
