Last night, after many delays, we finally left Punta Arenas on the ship.  We spent our time there setting up and testing our equipment for the cruise.  It is rare that we get so much time to do this.  Usually, we only have about 3 days.  We discovered a few problems and fixed them.  This should mean smoother sailing and more data.

We also took a little time in Punta Arenas to look around the town and sightsee a bit.  A group went to see the Magellan penguins one afternoon.  We also had a group of Tall Ships (tall sailing vessels) dock right next to us.  They were quite impressive.

The underway measurement systems are all working.  Our first cast will be at noon (local time) today.  A cast is where we stop the ship and collect samples of water from different depth for analysis.