I find myself mumbling when I start explaining this trip.

“You’re going back to the ship? Antarctica again?”

“No, _Tahiti.”

“Where?”

“_Tahiti.”

“Sorry – I missed that.”

“Tahiti! But it’s for work!”

I always feel compelled to emphasize that last bit: It’s for work.” Because why else would anyone skip out of the soggy Pacific Northwest during its darkest hours for one of the world’s most legendary tropical paradises?

Yes, I will confess that I’m going out a few days earlier than strictly necessary – acclimatization is what I’m claiming – but this is a work trip. Let me explain.

The US Antarctic Program has been more than decimated by budget cuts at the federal level. Those two Antarctic icebreakers I used to work on? They’re gone. Irretrievably gone. This has impacted not only the program’s ability to, oh, say, do marine science in Antarctica, it’s caused a bit of a…challenge for Palmer Station, which depends entirely on ships for support. You know, food, people, supplies.

The short term solution is to swap in the only ice-capable vessel that the US research fleet has available: Sikuliaq, operated by the University of Alaska. I’ve worked Sikuliaq a few times, and written a song or two about her – she’s a good ship.

The problem is that, as you might have guessed from the “University of Alaska” bit, Sikuliaq is an arctic research vessel. The “pode” to Antarctica’s “antipodes.” I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t understand the big picture, but my understanding is that for the time being, the plan is to have Sikuliaq serve the arctic during our summer months and the antarctic during the Austral summer. And to drive halfway around the world twice each year to get between the two.

There is an upside to all that otherwise unproductive drive time (other than, for example, giving me an excuse to go to Tahiti). During the actual deployments, all those scientific computer systems that I work on are being used. For science. By scientists. They don’t want you turning stuff off and throwing new code in to see if it works. The transits are an opportunity to pop the hood and try stuff.

Sikuliaq is southbound out of Hawaii right now. I’ll hop on board once she makes port in Papeete in a couple of days (yes, yes, go ahead – and thank you, Stephen Stills). We’ve got a little over two weeks enroute humming “Southern Cross,” hoping for weather good enough to let us thread into the western entrance of the Magellan Strait and tie up in Punta Arenas.

Y’all know how much I love Punta Arenas, but there’ll be time to get into that later. In the meantime, we’re landing – Aroha mai ia Tahiti!