Antarctic Journal

Click HERE for a look at an Emperor penguin.

Today I saw my first Emperor penguins. About 60 of them walked from the ice edge at Cape Royds all the way to McMurdo. When the word was out that there were penguins on the ice people stopped work, jumped in their trucks and came down. We all sat or stood far away from the penguins, but they walked toward us.

Today I also took a GPS (Global Positioning System) course from Buck Tilley, who works at McMurdo in the Field Safety Training Program. A GPS is a handheld device that will let you know exactly where you are, in terms of latitude and longitude and altitude, in the universe. You turn it on and it marks you with the aid of satellites.

Today was also the first "main body" flight--the first of the nearly 1,000 new people to come to McMurdo since the end of August. The whole town was exicted and some people were aggitated. They had become used to the slow pace of the town.

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