Friday, April 12, 2019 – A suggestion from a friend…
My friend, Carol Kreppel, asked me to show the layers I needed to wear when going on zodiac cruises and landings. I had mentioned several times in my blog that it was time-consuming to get ready to go off the ship. I think I also touched on the fact I was careful how far ahead of disembarkation to got dressed, as it was really easy to get overheated, and then as soon as the zodiac starts moving, the chill sets in and then its hard to get back to a comfortable temperature.
Keep in mind, we left the ship once a day on three days, twice a day for four days, and three times one day, so I got geared up 14 times! It took between 10 and 15 minutes to get completely dressed and ready to go. Believe me when I say it was quite a process!!
I’ll start with the layers, and yes, most days I wore all of these articles of clothing at one time !
Clearly you will realize from my descriptions, my clothing wasn’t really thermally efficient, but I did stay pretty warm overall. If it was a ‘warm’ day, or we were just doing a landing after a short zodiac ride, I would eliminate some layers to avoid overheating on land. In addition, there was a water-activated PFD (personal flotation device) required whenever we left the ship.
Next come the boots. The went over the third layer of pants and under the waterproof pant legs. The two pics below show the boots alone (from a catalog) and on my feet in the boot bath we had to walk through each time we returned to the ship. The red solution is some sort of antiseptic solution that prevents spreading of microbes, penguin poo, seeds, etc., from one place to another in our best attempt to keep Antartica pristine!
The photos below show me in various stages of completely geared up
Though the temperature wasn’t THAT cold (especially considering the temp was lower in Chicago than northern Antarctica during my trip), some days were less cold than others, even when the air temp seemed similar. So, I decided to check out wind chill charts. Interesting data… at 30 degrees Fahrenheit with a 15mph wind (estimated speed of the zodiacs) the windchill is estimated at 9 degrees F. If the temperature is 25F with 25mph wind (zodiac plus 10mph wind), the wind chill factor drops to almost -10F. So a little wind and a couple degrees of temperature drop can make a huge difference in how cold its gonna be, and thus, how effective your gear is in keeping you toasty!
My hands took the brunt of the cold overall. A lot of my photos are from my iPhone, and the touchscreen friendly gloves I had weren’t very touchscreen friendly 😦 So, I had to cut a finger and thumb out of my go-to gloves in order to use my phone. Doing so, though, also helped me be more facile in getting some great shots with my DSLR, making it worth freezing my fingers for a few of the great shots I came home with!
Travels with Nance 