Now that we've been out here for a bit, it seems like we have
adjusted to ship life. Seasickness hit a few people rather hard the first
day, but everyone is in much better shape now. We've had time to test our
scientific sampling procedures and make the necessary adjustments so everything
goes smoothly.
It's also a bit of an adjustment to sleep on a ship. The
rocking motion can help put you to sleep, but then when it changes, it feels
like someone is shaking you back awake! Any issues with comfort we may
have are more than made up for with the food. Filling, home-style meals
with excellent desserts and lots of snacking options helps keep everyone happy.
And that's on top of the chest freezer dedicated to nothing but ice
cream.
So, without further mention of food, here's some highlights from
our first two days at sea.
Day 1
Our first day at sea was dedicated to testing our sampling
procedures. We decided to do a test once we reached open ocean, where the
depth was greater than 1 km. On our way there, as we were crossing the
continental shelf break, we spotted some pilot whales. Whale watching is
the best activity to cure seasickness. Actually, seeing the horizon line
is what really helps, and the fresh air certainly doesn't hurt.
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| Whale watchers hard at work |
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| It was such a good idea that the group expanded in size |
Once we reached our test station, we began ironing out the kinks
in our procedures. Pretty much every test we did had something that
needed fixed. When we deployed the CTD, we had to bring it right back up
again so the marine technicians could attach a sensor we forgot. The
drifters turned out to be numbered wrong - the data from drifter 4 registered
as drifter 5, and vice versa. And the salinity values seemed a bit off.
The PAR sensor had a very tangled cord and the on board measurement
correction didn't record. The pump for the towfish didn't work at first
and it took a lot of messing around before it did. Basically, most of the
day was spent running around getting everything in proper working order.
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| First CTD cast about to enter the water. |
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| Getting the towfish set up for deployment |
That's why we had set aside the first day as a test run.
Because things will go wrong and there will be problems. Better to
fix it at the beginning, before it matters, than try and get it working as you
go.
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| Deploying the towfish off the port side |
After a day spent getting ready, we packed everything back up and
headed to the middle of that eddy due east to start sampling the next day.
Day 2
The second day at sea was closer to what we expect a normal
sampling day to be. Weather updates indicated that there would be scattered
rain in our current study area starting later this night and possible going on
for two days. This was excellent news, as we could sample the
"dry" conditions now, when it hadn't rained for the past 7 days.
Then, we could sample during the rain the next day, and finish up
sampling after the rain passed.
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| Retrieving samples from the first CTD cast |
We started out sampling with a sunrise CTD cast. The surface
mixed layer was only 10m deep, and we made sure to sample the deep chlorophyll
maximum, which was around 80m. This first CTD cast gave us information on
the water column. We use the information from lowering the CTD to
determine when to collect water samples on the way back up. Then, we
deployed the trace metal clean CTD off the other side of the ship, which also
used this information to determine where to collect samples.
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| Getting the trace metal CTD ready for deployment |
Once the CTDs were back on board, we deployed the drifters.
We used three of them, to make sure the data was reasonable. And, if
one drifted off in a crazy pattern, we would still have the other two to
compare. They were deployed in a triangular formation, where each side
was about 1km long.
We returned to our original sampling position to do the PAR cast
around noon. There were some strong currents in the area today! The
80m PAR cable went off the ship at an angle, and we could only measure down to
55m. We decided to do one more CTD cast, only this time down to 2km to
get the full water column profile.
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| Getting samples from the deep CTD cast |
After that, we deployed the towfish and started steaming around
the area, collecting data. We spotted some jumping fish off the side of
the ship as we went. So we tried to collect some fish as well, but no
luck yet.
The day finished with a weather update, including an update on
what is now Tropical Storm Bertha. We'll be keeping an eye on that one
and staying out of the way. Based on current tracks, it looks like we
will decide on Monday if we need to head back into port or if we can weather it
out.
To read the rest of the posts in this series, click on the Research Cruise label at the bottom of the post.
More posts in this series:
Upcoming Cruise
Cruise Delays
Upcoming Cruise, Part II
Update #1
Update #3
Update #4
Update #5
Update #6
Update #7
Update #8
Update #9
More posts in this series:
Upcoming Cruise
Cruise Delays
Upcoming Cruise, Part II
Update #1
Update #3
Update #4
Update #5
Update #6
Update #7
Update #8
Update #9
