"...a pioneering female geologist explores the topography of South America and the shifting landscape of women in the sciences...A satisfying journey through 1970's sexual politics and the lands of the southernmost part of the Earth." -- Kirkus Reviews Somewhere near the bottom edge of the earth, a young woman attempts to balance on a slippery rock ledge. With her back pressed against an overhanging cliff face, her arms too weak to climb, and the tide rising at an alarming rate, there is nowhere to go. So how did she come to be alone on a sinking knife edge in Tierra del Fuego, halfway between the Beagle Channel and Cape Horn, seven thousand miles from New York? In her fascinating travel memoir, Margaret Winslow offers a compelling glimpse into her misadventures as an inexperienced geologist as she begins pioneering field research in southern South America. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Winslow details her unforgettable experiences that include clinging to a ledge alone as the tide rises over her boot tops, facing near-death experiences with killer whales, and encountering an antediluvian creature with a cavernous mouth and yellow teeth--all while tracing her evolution from an ill-prepared beginner to a competent leader. Over My Head captures one woman's historic journeys into uncharted fjords and trackless forests as she attempts to navigate through the almost exclusively male world of field geology and discovers she must learn to rely on her own inner compass in order to survive. OVER MY HEAD Journeys in Leaky Boats from the Strait of Magellan to Cape Horn and Beyond By Margaret Winslow iUniverse, Inc. Copyright © 2012 Margaret Winslow All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4759-5431-9 Contents Illustrations............................................xiPreface..................................................xiiiAcknowledgments..........................................xviiPrologue.................................................xixPART I: VOYAGE OF THE HERO...............................11. Falling off the Edge..................................32. The Uttermost Part of the Earth.......................73. Baptism by Zodiac.....................................154. Over My Head..........................................275. Hero on the Rocks.....................................336. Swimming to Cape Horn.................................457. The End of the Road...................................53PART II: VIKINGS I.......................................598. Vikings in the Strait.................................619. Losing Claudio........................................7110. Exploring the Strait.................................8711. The Keystone.........................................9112. Storm on the Strait..................................9713. Where Is Claudio?....................................10114. The Admiral Meets the Vikings........................103PART III VIKINGS II......................................10515. Seno Almirantazgo....................................10716. Killer Glacier.......................................11917. No Refuge............................................125PART IV: VIKINGS III.....................................12918. Three Women in a Tub.................................13119. Christmas in Bahia Snug..............................15320. Tortuous Pass........................................16121. The Six Magi.........................................16522. The Lost Connection..................................169PART V: ANTARCTICA.......................................17923. South to Antarctica..................................18124. The Big Chill........................................18925. A Long Way from Home.................................201Epilogue: The Earth Is Flat..............................207About the Author.........................................211Author's Note............................................213Bibliography and Recommended Reading.....................215 Chapter One Falling off the Edge On my first flight to South America, an oft-repeated childhood nightmare seemed to come to life: I was looking at an antique map of the Western Hemisphere when suddenly I felt myself sliding southward, down the sheet toward the earth's corpulent waist. There I teetered at the brink, feet flailing in the air, before tumbling down through darker and darker latitudes, until I soared past the bleakly lit Antarctic ice cap into deepest space. To make things worse, as the jet zigzagged southward from New York to Buenos Aires, the odd jogs in the route (Miami to Panama to Rio) disoriented my inner compass, which was set for due south. Over the dark southern continent in the middle of the night, the flickering pinpoints of civilization grew dimmer and farther apart, like tiny campfires bravely holding back the rainforest. For my first tumble from the belt, so to speak, I met up with two geologists and two other geology graduate students in May