Sophie Webb - My Season With Penguins: An Antarctic Journal

My Season with Penguins
An Antarctic Journal

Sophie Webb

Houghton Mifflin Company
Boston 2000

To my parents, Nancy and Bill Webb, and to the Antarctic with the hope that it remains unexploited and unclaimed by any country and a haven for wildlife in perpetuity.

Copyright 2000 by Sophie Webb

All rights reserved. For information about
permission to reproduce selections from
this book, write to Permissions, Houghton
Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South,
New York, New York 10003.

www.hmco.com/trade

The text of this book is set in Stone Serif.
The illustrations are watercolor, gouache, and graphite.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Webb, Sophie.

My season with penguins : an Antarctic journal /
Sophie Webb,
p. cm.
Summary: Describes the author's two-month stay
in Antarctica to study and draw penguins.
ISBN 0-395-92291-7
1. Adlie PenguinAntarcticaJuvenile litera
ture. [1. Adlie Penguin. 2. Penguins. 3.
Antarctica.] 1. Title.
QL696.S473 W42 2000
598.47dc21
99-054781

Design by Lynne Yeamans

Printed in Singapore
TWP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acknowledgments

There are innumerable people who contributed to the making
of this book, and I regret anyone that I may leave out. First
I must thank David Ainleywithout his invitation to work on
his project, this book would not have been possible. I thank
all whom I shared the penguins with during three seasons at
Cape Royds: Connie Adams, David Ainley, Grant Ballard, Mike
Beigel, Ian Gaffney, Denise Hardesty, Sacha Heath, Nat Polish,
Chris Ribic, Sue Townsend, and Stephani Zador. I also thank
Kerry Barton, Peter Wilson, and B.J. Karl, all from Land Care
Research New Zealand, our New Zealander colleagues in the
Adlie project; and the folks from the New Zealand Heritage
Trust: David, Peter, Lawrence, Sara, and Sheridan. I thank
everyone at McMurdo for support, in particular, at McMurdo
Operations, Mary, Shelly, Annie, Lesia, and Clay; at the
BFC (Berg Field Center), Mimi and Cathy; at Helo Operations,
Robin and all her staff. I am also grateful to H. T. Harvey
and Associates and PRBO (Point Reyes Bird Observatory) for
their support. The National Science Foundation funded
Dr. David Ainley's portion of the Adlie project. Any mistakes
in information are solely my responsibility. I also thank
Ann Rider, my editor, for many helpful comments on the text.
And last I must thank Steve Howell for editorial comments,
encouragement, and patience.

I've traveled in many countries painting, drawing, and studying birds. For years I dreamed of going to Antarctica to see penguins. Never did I think this would become a reality, but in 1996 I was invited by David Ainley to join his project studying Adlie Penguins in the Antarctic. It was an opportunity to live with penguins for two months during the Antarctic summer. I jumped at the chance.

An Adlie Penguin, P YGOSCELIS A DELIAE

01 December

This is the beginning of my long journey south, and halfway around the globe. I start by taking a bus from my home to the airport in San Francisco, where I meet the rest of the U.S. contingent of our research group: David, Grant, Ian, Sacha, and Sue. We board the plane and make the eleven-hour flight to New Zealand, the last stop in civilization before the Antarctic.

03 December

It's 07:30 (we use a twenty-four-hour clock) and there's land below, the North Island of New Zealand. We land in Auckland, where it is cloudy and warmsummer weather. We're in the Southern Hemisphere now, where the seasons are reversed from back home in California.

We get our baggage: six large boxes filled with computers and other scientific equipment and several bags with our personal gear. We are a spectacle in the airport, where we sit and wait for our flight to Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand. Finally, after a half-hour delay, we're on our way.

Sue follows me through oustoms with our huge boxes of equipment.

Upon our arrival in Christchurch we are met at the airport by the National Science Foundation (NSF)/Antarctic Support Associates (ASA) representative. She tells us that we must go directly to the Clothing Distribution Center to try on all our "Extreme Cold Weather" clothing because tomorrow morning we are scheduled to fly to McMurdo, one of the United States Antarctic Program's bases.

The Clothing Distribution Center is a blocky building, part of a complex of offices and a museum devoted to Antarctic research and exploration. Basically, it's a warehouse full of clothing and stored equipment, and an office. When I walk in I am confronted with a wall covered with all the possible

Dressing for the Antarctic

clothing types: red jackets for NSF grantees and employees, brown ones for ASA staff, and a myriad of different gloves, mittens, hats, long underwear, and boots. On each side of the entrance there is a changing room, one for men, one for women. Sacha, Sue, and I enter the latter and each find two large orange bags filled with clothing to try on. The fluorescent lights whine and flicker as we fling long underwear, down jackets, and wind pants about the room. It's utter chaos. Half-dressed women run back and forth exchanging items for ones in different sizes. Sweat begins to run down my arms, my back. It's summer in New Zealand and these clothes we're trying on are designed for the Antarctic cold. At McMurdo in August, the Antarctic winter, the temperature averages 72F (28C); however, in January, the summer, the temperature averages 30F (3C). Finally I find clothing that fits reasonably well. Next I attempt to stuff books, paints, paper, and cameras into the two orange bags provided. For me this is a struggle. The last items I pick up are my dog tags. These are two metal tags with my name and project number on them. We are supposed to wear these whenever we fly, in case we crash. Our bodies would then be readily identified. A gruesome thought.

04 December

Our flight to McMurdo, Antarctica, is delayed for a day due to poor weather.

05 December

We get to the Clothing Distribution Center by 06:00 and change into our warm clothing, put on our dog tags, check in, have breakfast, and wait. Finally, we're loaded onto a bus. We make our way to the runway, where the New Zealand Royal Air Force plane awaits us. It's a military cargo carrier, low-slung and potbellied with four turbo engines, two per side. We're ushered from the bus to one side of the pavement to wait while the plane is being loaded.

As we wait to board, a large palletcovered with boxes of fresh produce and the orange bags filled with personal gear is slowly pulled up the ramp at the tail of the plane.