This Here Antarctic Journey:
    On December 12, 1998, the U.S. Coast Guard ice-breaker Polar Sea rolled into the port of Hobart, Tasmania to let aboard several teams of scientists, including the alaska climate center group consisting of Dr. Gerd Wendler, Henri Stone, myself, and our ice expert cohort, Dr. Tony Worby of the University of Tasmania. In addition to gathering the science teams, the ship's last stop before hitting Antarctica provided a wonderful excuse for the crew to run amuck in revelry throughout city streets one final time.

After several days of outfitting the deck of the ship with an array of meteorlogical instrumentation, the boat left the harbor for the tempestuous seas of the southern ocean. Along with the standard meteorlogical parameters of temperature, winds and the like, six instruments for measuring the incoming and outgoing radiation of the surface in different parts of the spectrum were mounted on the ship. By obtaining measurements of the net fluxes of the most significant forms of radiative energy, and calculating the sensible and latent heat fluxes, it will be possible to produce a description of the atmosphere-ocean-ice energy budget for this part of the world.

More photos of boat-related things are here.

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