December 17, 1999

A successful connection to Cologne! (Photo by Steve Dunbar).

After a restless night and my worries over satellite connectivity, the morning went very well. I logged on to check my e-mail and had messages from Rolf Taylor at Telos Systems and from Kevin Caccamise at Commercial Satellite Systems. They had updated and detailed notes on some of my concerns--talk about customer support! Steve and I are getting pretty adept at setting the system up and, by mid-morning, we managed to conduct a series of successful tests with Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), West German Radio. Our main challenge is to send a high quality radio feed of not only my voice, but the voices of the Antarctic soundscape, via satellite, in realtime from Palmer Station. Klaus Schöning, Director of the Studio Akustische Kunst, was on hand in Cologne and his colleague, Horst Haas, helped establish the necessary connections.

After lunch, we stood by waiting to hear from Kate Mayne, Curator/Coordinator of the "Occasions de Travail" exhibition at the New International Cultural Centre (NICC) in Antwerp, Belgium. We will be part of a round table discussion on artistic methods and processes, via satellite telephone connection, on Saturday. This connection is working fine, as well. Two for two on the day!

The Bahia Paraiso, which sank off DeLacca Island in January, 1989.

Having spent the last three days on Station testing equipment and technical logistics, Steve, Chip and I were looking forward to heading back out into the field to do some recording. The weather has been nearly perfect these past few days. There has been no wind and the sea state has been as near to glass as one might get in this part of the world. Much of the pack ice and brash ice ebbs and drifts offshore, running with the tides. Penguin chicks are hatching, elephant seals are hauled out on nearby islands, molting. Blue-eyed shags, kelp gulls and Wilson's storm petrels carry out feeding sortees across Arthur Harbor. Calving from the Marr Ice Piedmont echoes across the water like distant thunderstorms. Tracy Shaw and Andrew Altieri continue their quest for krill as part of their Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) and, on their rounds, spot more humpback whales.

We load up the Zodiac and head out to listen at the 2-mile perimeter--Station E. Thankfully, the sea swell is almost non-existent today. We lower two International Transducer Corporation 6050C hydrophones into the water: one to about 30 metres and the other to about 15 metres. These instruments are wonderfully rugged underwater listening devices. They can withstand prolonged exposure to water that is below freezing (-1 degree Celsius) and have a very sensitive and broad frequency response: gathering the most intimate sonic details of this remote world. By using two transducers, at different depths, we can make a two-channel recording--one which gives an enhanced sense of space in listening. Sound travels faster at colder temperatures and under greater pressure. So the arrival times of a particular sound at each hyrdophone are slightly different and the effect, while not true stereo, intimates a wider field. We listen to leopard seals and a surprising amount of iceberg activity including explosive cracks and groaning, grinding friction. In the distance, we can hear whales--very far off.

Iceberg showing the layers of accumulation and deposition.

We drift in the swell for an hour, past Spume Island--aptly named for the pounding surf that washes over the rocks and throws jets of water in the air--and the Outcast Islands: bleak skerries trailing into the Bismarck Straight. We then collect water samples for Lauri Burke, another LTER researcher, and head for DeLacca Island and the scene of the wreck of the Bahia Paraiso. The smell of leaking bunker fuel on the surface mixes with the rank waft of penguin guano. The ship rests, hull up just at the surface.

Chip suggests we swing by Loudwater Cove to have a listen. It is a sheltered spot and good for hearing glacier calving. We wend our way past Lipps Island, Litchfield Island and Humble Island and encounter a fairly stable iceberg enroute. It is usually a dangerous prospect to approach an iceberg in a small boat (and indeed a large boat), as they may "turtle"--or flip over. In addition to the danger of the ice itself, there is the potential of a sizeable wave: one which, in turn, could flip the boat. Steve assesses the situation and, given how flat and low-lying it is, we approach to within about 20 metres. The layers of ice and the textures of pieces and blocks seized, transported and deformed are a morphic resonance of sedimentary strata in rock--monochromatic in various bluish hues.

We pull in to the lee of Loudwater Cove and drop the hydrophones in for another listen. The stillness of the water at the surface is in sharp contrast to the percussive knocking, popping and slamming of brash ice and terminus debris from the Marr Ice Piedmont. Fantastic sounds!

"The Sound Guys..."

(Our Radio Handle)

Doug Quin

Chip Dunn

Steve Dunbar

In rereading Sir Ernest Shackleton's memoir of the Endurance voyage, South, I encountered a passage from the Book of Job, which I found in a copy of the Bible on Station...