BSAI and Somebody Else?

One of the first things I did when I got back to Horta was check the door with the BSAI sign. Still nobody home. But I caught a glimpse of the guy I thought was following me last week. He didn't see me -- I guess he didn't know I was back -- and I played spy for a while and followed him. I got a huge surprise. I was thinking maybe he was with BSAI, but he's staking them out! I used Google Maps to make this picture. I wonder what the heck is going on.

Whatever's going on probably doesn't have anything to do with me, and it won't as soon as I leave. I'm heading southwest, for Recife. It's on the Atlantic coast of Brazil. It's not the destination I originally planned -- that was Cayenne, in French Guiana -- but I'm going to meet somebody on Foundation work. They haven't told me much about the meeting yet, but it's probably about setting up an archeological site on Sao Jorge. I think it's because they speak Portugese in Brazil.

I'm stoked to be heading out to sea again. I'll be crossing the Atlantic and the Equator. I leave tomorrow, early.

Back to Horta

I'm back in Port Horta on Faial after a few days exploring Sao Jorge. I eventually got to the coordinates they sent me, but it was a pretty tough hike. And climb, for that matter. There were some volcanic caves in both locations, and one of them was big enough to explore.

In the historical library before I left Horta, I found some of the oldest records they have, showing that people were here as early as the 1500s. But I guess there was somebody here long before that, because there were some prehistoric paintings in the cave on Sao Jorge. They asked me not to post my photos of the cave paintings, but I can tell you about them. Usually cave paintings show animals, but these only showed people. I found three separate paintings that showed people facing each other -- either two people two groups of people. It looked to me like they were in two different tribes or something.

In each picture the tribe shown on the left was taller, and one of the taller figures was always reaching out to the figures on the right. I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a fight or a bargain or what, but the taller figure was holding something shown as a kind of stylized "x". I thought it might be a weapon or something; couldn't really tell. In one there might the painter might have been trying to show that the "x" thing was important with dabs of lighter color pigment around it. Like we would use lines to show a light bulb when it's lit up.

It was cool to be the first person in probably centuries to see the paintings. I guess my parents are going to send a real research team here soon to find out more, but I'm still the one who found them! I know, they told me exactly where to look, but at least I was the one doing the looking. I'll have to ask how they knew there were caves there.

Definitely

There's definitely somebody trying to get aboard the Argo II. I got access to the historical library today and spent most of the day there. When I left I turned the in-port alarm system back on. It beeps me on a little key-fob receiver if there's an alarm. It went off twice.

I'm not that worried about the vessel; it locks up pretty tightly, and the harbormaster (who speaks English, thankfully) promised to keep an eye on it. I called him after each alarm and he said he'd check it out.

I didn't see anybody following me today, at least. Probably because they were trying to get aboard my boat. I'm feeling pretty alone here right now. And there's still nobody answering the door at BSAI.

On the bright side, I found some old documents that I think might be important. I can't read a word of them, but the librarian said they were from the 1500s and talked about the earliest settlers recorded here, and what they experienced. I don't know exactly what's significant about this -- probably not that much, because my parents just said "if I had a chance" I should see what I could find. Anyway, I took some hi-res photos of the pages that I emailed back to Greenland. I hope somebody can read archaic Portugese.

This is the end of my stay in Horta; tomorrow I'm taking the Argo II on a short hop to Sao Jorge. It's a long, narrow island about 30 km away, and it's supposed to have a very mysterious early history. My dad sent me two sets of coordinates I'm supposed to check out.

Is somebody following me?

This is...I dunno what it is. I spent another day looking around Port Horta and some of Faial. I tried the BSAI door again; still nobody home. I found the historical library, and submitted my credentials (you can't get in if you're just anybody).

About the middle of the day I started having the feeling that somebody was watching me. I didn't see anything for sure, but there was this guy I think I saw about three or four times. He was never very close, but I kept seeing him just for a moment at a time. At the end of a street or across a square. He was never looking right at me, as far as I could tell.

It's probably nothing, Port Horta doesn't have that many people and you're going to see the same ones, right? It's just this feeling I kept having.

I turned on the Argo II's in-port alarm system just to make myself feel better. It's a pretty powerful system with some custom features I'm not supposed to talk about. When it's turned on, though, you're not going to get near the vessel without being noticed. Even underwater.

I'm probably just having a case of nerves because it's my first real solo voyage.

Tourist for a Day

I played tourist for the day today in Horta. It's a pretty small town, but a good size for me. I'm not much used to towns or cities.

I had a fun day exploring streets and alleys and things. I don't speak any Portugese, which is a problem here, but with a combination of Spanish, English, and sign language I found everything I needed to. The people are really friendly.

I had a huge surprise when I found this sign on an out-of-the-way door. These are the folks I wrote to about getting a job. They're Antarctic explorers, but look at this!

I haven't heard from them yet about the job, so I knocked on the door for about five minutes. I guess they were closed, though. Anyway it was locked and nobody was there.

I can't figure out why they'd have an office in Horta on Faial island. Nothing at all to do with Antarctica. There must be some other projects they're working on, even though "Antarctica" is right in their name. Or something.

Anyway, I'm going to stop by again tomorrow to see if there's somebody around. I'd be stoked to get a job on an Antarctic expedition.

But what are they doing here?

Port Horta

I've arrived in the Azores, at Port Horta. I'm going to take a few days to explore the island of Faial, and I'm even considering visiting some of the other islands in the archipelago, especially Sao Miguel. Horta has a beautiful, old-fashioned look as you arrive from the sea.

I don't know what these buildings are, at least not yet. One of the things I plan to do here is some research.

One of the things the Macker Foundation does is historical research, and the history here goes

back as far as the 1400's, at least as far as anybody knows. We tend to focus on history much older than that, like the preglacial civilization we're studying in Greenland, and some of the other things we've found around the world. The last five hundred years of the Azores is pretty interesting, though.

And the Azores are volcanic, which is always something we seem to hang around. So I'm going to be doing some historical research, some geological stuff, and maybe even some

archeology. Not a lot; those are really not my specialties so I'm just helping out my parents and the other Macker Foundation researchers who have some things they wanted me to check out while I'm here. Now that I think of it, I don't really have any specialties!

Speaking of checking things out, I still need to locate an airfreight office. I've been emailing my Mom about her screwy gravimeter; I think she needs to ship me one that works. The readings I got on my voyage here look like they're buggy.

There's a correlation if you look at a scatterplot, but it's not a correlation of anything real. There's no undersea mountain range in that location, and I don't know of anything else that would produce readings like that.

It probably has something to do with interference of some kind; the readings point straight toward the Azores, which makes me think they're probably produced by my voyage itself. Whichever way I was going, the fake readings would probably point that way.

Of course, they did have me zigzag back and forth across my course as I sailed southeast, but there's probably something that explains that, too. Anyway, I think the thing is broken.

Nearly There

I'm just a day out of Horta, the port I'm making for in the Azores. It's on the island of Faial, the westernmost island. There's a bigger port on Sao Miguel, but it's at the opposite end of the island chain.

It's been a busy voyage, but just routine business. I've been practicing my celestial navigation and keeping the Argo II shipshape. Everything is running great, except I've been getting weird readings from Mom's gravimeter. I think it's just buggy; I told her I think it needs a major software upgrade. The problem is it keeps reading different gravity levels.

I even sailed a zigzag course for 18 hours, back and forth while still making headway forward. The stupid thing keeps reading higher gravity along a straight line heading northwest-southeast. Mom says it can register the gravity of a seamount, but for these readings to make any sense there would have to be a neutronium pipe five hundred klicks long sitting on the ocean floor. I'm going to see if I can airfreight it back to her for repairs when I get to Horta.

My other pastime at sea has been the puzzle posted here. Something to do with Antarctica, where I'm going. Haven't figured it out yet.

At Sea

My expedition's first full day at sea. I've been busy; I do a regular check of all the shipboard systems every four hours, and I've been working on my celestial navigation. I think I'm beginning to get it. I've managed to calculate my position several times, and when I check it with the electronics I'm usually pretty close. One of my calculated positions put me somewhere in Kenya, but I think I found my mistake. This is a good site about celestial navigation if you're curious.

The only anomaly is with the new piece of equipment aboard; it's some kind of gravimeter my Mom wanted to get data from. It's supposed to check gravity, if that makes any sense. Something to do with the GOCE satellite and a project she's working on. I think it's screwed up; when I checked its data log it wasn't giving a constant reading. I emailed my Mom about it but she hasn't replied.

I have a pretty good internet connection aboard; it's a two-way satellite link. I get about 50mbps both up and down. That lets me keep in touch, do some studying when I need to, and even watch TV and movies. Really heavy weather can bring it down because the boat bounces around too much, but the seas have been gentle so far.

I saw some walruses earlier; the ancient lore of ...well, me... says that's good luck!

Departure Day

Super exciting day; I left Greenland on the first leg of my voyage! I'm headed to the Azores, mostly because I just wanted to visit the islands again. It's about 1700 nautical miles, which is about 3200 kilometers. The weather over the north Atlantic looks pretty good for the passage, and I expect it to take a little more than a week. Maybe a week and a half, depending on weather and currents, and of course if nothing breaks. :-)

Here are some photos leaving Nuuk.

Ice probably wouldn't hurt the Argo II, but I stay safely away from it. Bergs can sometimes flip without warning, and some of them are big enough to damage or even capsize a vessel this size.

This vessel has been at the wharf for a few days. I don't really know much about it, but it's a nice-looking ship. It's a working ship of some sort, as you can see by the derrick on the back. Its lines are a little like the Deception's, although of course the Deception isn't painted red. Or white, for that matter.

Entering or leaving a harbor area is always the most dangerous and difficult piloting there is. There's often a lot of traffic, even in a place as out-of-the-way as Greenland. There have been rules for who has the right of way on the sea, and most captains know them and follow them, but there's always the chance that somebody doesn't know them, or interprets them differently, or even that their ship might be partially damaged and unable to steer. I didn't have any problems at all. Red hulls are pretty attractive, I think.

Shipboard Systems

When you live on board ship, you need to know how your ship works. Not quite so much when you're just one of the crew, but on a solo voyage I have to know everything about my ship.

There's something interesting about almost all of the Macker Foundation vessels; they all have incredible range. The Scopritore IV can make it around the world without refueling, and I think the Deception could probably do that two or three times. The Argo II has a little shorter range, but I won't have to refuel just to get from Greenland to Antarctica. Also none of our ships are very noisy, and they hardly pollute.

You're probably thinking they must have nuclear power or something. No way! That would be too expensive even for us (I guess) and it's super-complicated. And nuclear reactors are really big; there's no way one would fit in anything smaller than the Deception.

Most of our ships use Stirling engines. These aren't new at all; they were invented almost 200

years ago, and they're really clever. They're also simple; all you need is something that produces heat and something else that stays cold. Stirling engines are just piston engines, where you heat up a gas, and that expands and moves a piston, then you cool off the gas, and it contracts and moves another piston. We use alpha-type engines, which means the pistons are in separate cylinders. This illustration from Wikipedia shows it really well.

On board ship we have something that stays cool all the time: ocean water. There are a bunch of ways to produce heat; solar power, an alcohol flame, and more.

The biggest problem with Stirling engines is the material they're made from; it has to get both hot and cold without changing too much, and has to be able to keep a gas (we use helium) under pressure. The more pressure there is, the more powerful the engine. In one of my older posts I mentioned our submersible, and how it can go deeper than anything? That's because of what it's made of; a material that's stronger than anything else (at least as far as I know). And that's what we make our Stirling engines out of, too. It can get incredibly hot -- you have no idea -- and it doesn't really expand. And it doesn't corrode in sea water, either. It's perfect.

When I first found out about this stuff I asked my Dad why we didn't just make Stirling engines for everybody, since it would solve a lot of problems in the world. He said there just wasn't enough of the stuff and they don't know how to make more. At least not yet. We didn't make what we have; my Mom found it. Ever since, she's been trying to find out who did make it, and if there's more (she has found some more, but not a huge lot). That's why it seems like we're near volcanoes so often; she says she first found the stuff in a volcano (I told you it can get really hot!) and every time she's found some more, it's around a volcano.

I tried to tell her I thought it was probably because whoever made the stuff probably needed to use it around volcanoes because they needed something that wouldn't melt. But I was just a kid at the time and I don't think she thought much about my idea. I still think I was right though!

My own sextant!

This is so cool; Mom and Dad just gave me a sextant! It's made by Cassens & Plath, and what I thought right off was that it looks pretty complicated. I'm good at math and at handling equipment though, so I think I'll be able to figure it out.

I already tried some sightings. The reason it's called a sextant is that it's one-sixth of a circle, and you line it up with the horizon, to make sure it's level, then you take a sighting of a star. That gives you enough information to imagine a huge triangle, and if you know two angles you can calculate the third. The key is that you know exactly what time it is and what star you're looking at, and then you can triangulate your position. It might not be so easy when I'm standing on a moving deck instead of land. :-)

Preparations

I'm really getting into the preparations for my voyage. This part is all just planning, of course, since the Argo II hasn't even arrived in Greenland yet. Joe Slocum is sailing her here from our home port in Portsmouth. Joe is a good guy; he worked on the Scopritore IV sometimes, and was kind of like an uncle. He always said he was named after Joshua Slocum, who was the first person to sail around the world by himself (he wrote a book about it, Sailing Alone Around the World).

It's going to be a lot easier for me, of course, because the Argo isn't a sailboat. I've been sailing, but just for fun, and not that often. My favorite kind of sailing is windsurfing, which I first tried in Madagascar. I got pretty good at it when were were in the Mediterranean for a year. It's not much fun when you have to avoid icebergs, though.

I sent Joe some lists of what I'd like the Argo stocked with in the way of favorite foods and books. He said he would take care of that before he left Portsmouth. I'll have an internet connection the whole way, so I'll be able to update this blog and keep up on things.

I wish I could go diving on this trip, but it's too risky to do that alone. I thought maybe I'd study astronomy and see if I could learn celestial navigation. I'll probably never need it, with all the GPS, LORAN, and inertial systems installed on all our vessels, but it would be fun. The original Joshua Slocum didn't really do that much of it, according to his book, but the real sea captains from the old days sure did. I love reading about them; those are some of the books I asked Joe to stock the Argo's library with. I should dig up my list and post it here.

My first cut at charting my voyage

A Solo Voyage

I've started planning for my solo voyage to Sturge Island. My Dad says I can take the Argo II, one of the small vessels our foundation owns. It's perfect for a solo voyage; small enough for one person to handle, but big and rugged enough to make the trip. It's also pretty fast, so it won't take me forever. This isn't actually the Argo II (no pictures allowed of Macker Foundation vessels) but it's a trawler yacht by Mirage that's pretty close. Actually I think the Mirage yacht is probably a little nicer. But the Argo II is proven; it's been around the world twice already.

For such a long voyage -- Greenland to Antarctica and probably back -- I'm going to have to plan on some resupply and refitting stops. That's what I'm working on now. Sometimes on the Scopritore IV we get resupplied by the Deception, but I'd rather plan on visiting some interesting places along the way. The Azores, for example. And I have to decide whether to head for the east coast of South America and go through the Strait of Magellan, or for west Africa and Cape Horn.

This is pretty fun. It makes me wonder how much I really want that job. Which I still haven't heard about, by the way. I just thought, though; maybe they're worried that I'm so far away in Greenland that I wouldn't be able to join them. If I don't hear back, I'll just contact them when I'm closer. They said their expedition is scheduled for 2010, so the timing seems like it might work.

Job, and another idea

I haven't heard anything about that job I applied for. I'm not really sure how long it takes; I've never applied for a job before. Do you always have to just sit and wait? I hate waiting. Maybe job-hunting isn't for me. Anyway, I talked to my Dad about it and he gave me another idea to think about: my own expedition!

It would be a small one, and really pretty much just practice for me, but I could use one of the other vessels my family's foundation owns, set up a goal, do all the planning, then really go, and I'd be in charge of it.

This sounds pretty good too. It wouldn't be as completely new as having a job, but I've never been in charge of an expedition. My first idea was maybe it would be a solo expedition. Maybe I could go back to the southern hemisphere and be the first person to climb Brown Peak on Sturge Island. I could even contact Rand and get him to stash my knife where I could find it!

Cool

I got in contact with Rand, the guy who found my pocketknife. I can't believe somebody found it after all these years. I also can't believe anybody is on Sturge Island. He wouldn't say what he's doing there, but he's probably doing some kind of research. There's nothing else to do there that I know of.

He said he'd keep the knife for me, and if we ever meet -- or if we both have permanent addresses -- he'll give it to me. That would be cool; it was a nice knife! Of course, I was just 14 at the time.

I wonder if Rand finds Sturge Island as spooky as I thought it was. Probably not; must have been a phase I was going through.

One more spooky thing though. I told my parents the news, and my Mom thinks she might have heard of this Rand guy. She can't place where, though. (That almost proves he's doing research; I don't think my parents know any other kinds of people :-)

Coincidence?

This is weird. I checked back on the blog I mentioned before, about Norene Byrnes, and there's a new comment addressed to me! I think this guy found my pocketknife on Sturge Island! What are the chances.

The other thing is that I read his blog, and w00t! Something weird indeed. And I thought the stuff my family does was strange.

Possible Job

I've had a pretty unusual life; grew up on a boat, home schooled by PhD researchers, and I've been to some remote places. But what's making me really nervous is that I hope to find out soon about my first real job! I found the Smyth Institute online, and they have an email for job applicants. They seem to be all about Antarctica, and I practically grew up there, so I emailed them. And I heard back! I don't even really know what kind of job I might get, but I'm pretty good at diving and working in super-cold environments, so probably something along those lines.

I've never heard of the Smyth Institute before, but I figured hardly anybody knows about my family's research foundation either, so I don't see any problem there.

They say one of their teams is building a telescope at the South Pole! That's where the Amundsen-Scott station is, so the telescope must be going to be there. I've circumnavigated Antarctica but I've never been very far into the interior. It would be the coolest thing to visit the pole!

My Dad thinks it's a great idea for me to branch out on my own. My Mom isn't so happy about the idea, and she said she's not sure about the Institute, but I figure that's the way moms are supposed to act, right? Anyway, I hope I hear soon.

Antarctica to Greenland 2004-2008

I've posted some more Google Earth placemarks about voyaging from Antarctica to Greenland. We took a long time to do that; from 2004 to 2008. Along the way we visited Madagascar, Egypt, and even my family's habitat at seamount Alix. And I got qualified in piloting our submersible, I lived in the habitat for a few months, and helped find some artifacts from totally ancient civilizations -- way older than you've ever heard of.

My parents also made a couple of finds that were really important, I think. At least they were important enough that I wasn't even supposed to know about them (but I did :-). I knew they were important when one of the other research ships owned by my family's foundation showed up: the Deception. I don't know that much about it, but it's way bigger than the Scopritore IV. It always shows up out of nowhere; I usually wake up in the morning and there it is, off the starboard side.

Anyway, I hope you like my new placemarks. I think I might have mixed up some of them between the two sets. My new idea is to make a tour so I can even say more about the places I've been; I'll post about it here if I can figure it out.

Weird Comments

I found a blog -- well, not really a blog so much as a single page -- about somebody I think my mother knew before I was born. At least she mentioned this name, or I think she did. The name is Norene Byrnes. The blog page doesn't really say very much about her.

The weird thing, though, is the comments. Not sure what's going on there, but I noticed that a couple of them are coordinates. The coordinates are to a place I've actually visited! They're to a set of islands near Antarctica, the Balleny Islands. Really remote, and pretty icy and rugged. They're volcanic, and because of my mom and dad's research I've been around lots of volcanoes, both active and dormant. Anyway, I remember the biggest of the Balleny's, Sturge Island, because when I was a kid I was on the island. It was probably because I was just a kid, but that island gave me the spookiest feeling I ever had. And even worse I lost my best pocketknife when I was hiking there. There probably haven't been 50 people there ever, so my pocketknife is probably lost forever, even though it had my name on it.

I don't know what the comments are about; maybe somebody can figure it out.

Ben's Antarctic Years

I kind of grew up in Antarctica. Or around Antarctica. From 1999, when I was 13, until I was 18, we were on a research cruise all around Antarctica. And I really mean all around it; we circumnavigated the whole continent. It was an amazing way to grow up, and I learned a huge amount. On the other hand, I didn't very often get to be around anybody my own age.

Take a look at these Google Earth placemarks that show some of the places that were the most memorable for me. To open them you'll need Google Earth. It's just a folder full of placemarkers with my notes; it's not a real tour or anything like that.

When you see some of the places, Google Earth will show you photos and other info that people have posted. No photos from me; everybody on the Scopritore IV is always very careful about photos because there's so much secret stuff around.

Hope you enjoy it.

Hello World

Hi folks, I'm Ben Macker, and I've just started this blog. I'm 23, and I've lived most of my life on my family's marine research vessel the ScopritoreIV. I'm going to post about some of the adventures I've had, some of the people I've met, and I hope about a new adventure coming up. I've just applied for my first real job, and it could be the coolest thing I've done yet.

Right now we're in Greenland studying the glaciers and finding artifacts from pre-glacial civilizations. I'm probably not supposed to say that.

I'll post more after I finish setting up all the other details for the blog.

Seeya!