OLIVE OIL IN ANTARCTICA

"When I went to cook lunch today, I realized I'd forgotten to pull a
bottle of olive oil out of the bilge. As anyone who cooks on a boat
down here or in Tierra del Fuego will know, this is a big mistake.
Olive oil should be frozen solid in the bilge, and it normally takes a
day or so at cabin temperature to thaw out. I pulled out the oil and it
was completely liquid despite being stored in our uninsulated,
unpainted aluminum bilge. The temperature there should be about
33F/0.5C, but when we hauled up a bucket of sea water and took its
temperature, it was 40F/4.5C. This is a huge change from last year.
The water here in the Grandidier Channel is warmer than the water 400
miles farther north at Cape Horn. No wonder the ice is disappearing
before our eyes."

Kate Laird
From the June '08 issue of Sail magazine, p18, "Cruising Grounds".