The Pacific margin of the Antarctic Peninsula is among the most accessible parts of the continent. Icebergs in this region are rare, and sea ice melts back southward through the season. Most of the northern sites should be accessible from the beginning of January to early May, and the southern sites from mid-January to late April. The sea ice distribution for the period from 1978 to 1987 derived from satellite information is published by Gloersen and Campbell (1992). The ice window for the leg was January to mid-April. The better weather is in January and February, and the weather begins to deteriorate in March, toward the equinox. In view of the operational danger from icebergs, an ice-picket boat (Polar Duke) was chartered for the leg and an ice observer employed. The ice-picket boat was able to detect and report iceberg movement beyond the range of drillship radar and was available to tow the drillship, or take drillship personnel on board, in an emergency.

Drilling on the rise sites involved APC and XCB (generally double or triple) coring. These sites are in fine-grained alternating biosiliceous and barren muds and mudstones. The prime ultrahigh-resolution site in Palmer Deep, assumed to be essentially a diatom ooze, was also sampled by triple APC. The other shelf sites posed problems, in that the unsorted diamictons were unsuitable for APC/XCB sampling. All such sites were therefore planned to be rotary-drilled from the seabed down. Recovery was expected to be reduced because of the expected lithology. The targets, however, essentially dating the main changes in geometry of deposition, were considered attainable with low recovery, with understanding of the depositional environment to be enhanced by downhole logging.