Weather: Nice and calm - I SAW THE SUN TODAY!!! No Rain!!!

Location: Bara/Mingulay

Food: Gammon

Birthday Celebrations

Hi guys, sorry for not updating my blog yesterday - took a day off as it was my birthday.

Seems my blog may have got out to some people who want to know how I got those pictures of navy maneuvers and identified the ships. Easy - the internet. Firstly I used a big lens to take the pictures and get the ship's pennant numbers - then I searched them on the internet. P.s if you paint a big number on the side of a ship it's easy to find out what ship it is. Please don’t arrest me – I’m not a spy!!!!!

Also the cptain tels me my speling is atrochious – I wil spel-chek this 1 be4 I post it.

Right, got that out of the way. My birthday was great - although it was probably one of the busier days during this cruise and I found myself getting frustrated and slightly annoyed at various points throughout the day. I think it was the fact that I didn't sleep well during the night

The rock drill was deployed but was recovered almost instantly. It appears that there may have been water ingress into one of its system. The BGS team spent the whole day working hard to get their baby up and running and back in the water.

The internet kept cutting off during Monday night- the ship was rolling a bit at times and this can cause communication problems. Eamonn and I took a good look at the modem and restored the internet and phone communications. Just to make sure everything was okay we also went up to look at the Internet dome with Jim yesterday. The Internet dome in on a platform above the bridge known in nautical terms as the "Monkey Island".

After Eamonn had filled out all the necessary forms and pre-requisites for working "aloft", Jim, Eamon, Darcy and myself climbed the ladders up to the monkey island. Windy is not the word - it was brutal - probably nothing more than a light breeze but my dislike of heights made it feel as if we were operating in a tornado. The view was outstanding – the back of my eyelids are very black. We did a visual inspection of the dome and quickly returned to the warmth of the bridge!

The rest of the day was spent looking at computing issues and trying to figure out a number of IT problems.

Had a party in the evening and bought everyone their three units!! It was a real good laugh and we all had a great time and managed to drag out our beer rations to quite late!! Got to thank everyone for a great day!!! Bar bill wasn't all that bad neither!!

Woke up a bit late this morning - thought that i had plugged my phone into charge but hadn't actually turned the plug on :-s Not much was happening the rock dill was still on deck and the BGS team were still working like Trojans to get it ready for its next dive. Today was relatively uneventful up until midday when it was decided that whilst the drill was receiving attention we would conduct a swath survey of the area (map the seabed) and also use our SBP (Sub-bottom profiler)

Our Sub-bottom profiling system is used to identify and characterize layers of sediment or rock under the seafloor. The technique used is similar to a simple echo sounder. A transducer emits a sound pulse vertically downwards towards the seafloor, and a receiver records the return of the pulse once it has been reflected off the seafloor. Parts of the sound pulse will penetrate the seafloor and be reflected off of the different sub-bottom layers. The data that is obtained using this system provides information on these sub-floor sediment layers. During this cruise we are using it to identify areas of bedrock under the (muddy) seabed - the BGS team can then drill this rock which can then be sent for analysis.

The survey got off to a slow start - the co-ordinates that had been supplied did not match the pattern that hey were meant to - it was only after careful examination that the BGS team realised they had two different types of Long/Lat co-ordinates. There are many different ways of expressing GPS positions and it can all get very confusing!!

After the initial hiccup the survey was underway and we started getting some really interesting data about what lies under the seabed. it is amazing looking at the screen because you can see faults in the rocks which are many meters under the seabed. Bob from BGS was very happy with the first run so we did another swath line. Then all of a sudden the NATO battle fleet appeared and started undertaking maneuvers in close proximity to our swath lines. Not wishing to get in the way of a fleet of heavily armed ships we decided to just hold position and let them get on with their war games.

Whilst our NATO buddies were operating in the area the BGS team began analysing the data and came up with some potential drill sites that would yield the best results. Shortly afterwards the NATO fleet moved away and we were able to deploy the rock drill. The drill landed almost right on-top of where we needed it. Unfortunately it developed a fault and it was necessary to recover the drill. However, the deployment was not a total failure - when it was recovered a number of samples/geology was found stuck in the frame and will be used for analysis.

I think an early night if possible - the rock drill is being deployed but I don't know when. Might get some shut-eye and wait for my wake-up call.....

Eamonn, Jim and myself examining the Internet Dome.

Sunset over Bara Head

Eamonn talks to the BGS team about the results of our swath survey

Dan in deep sea mud camo

Bob bagging up some mud!!!

Bob and Gav working hard to resolve the long/lat issue.

NAVAL STUFF

Latouche-Tréville D646

The Latouche-Tréville is a F70 type anti-submarine frigate of the French Marine Nationale. She is the third French vessel named after the 19th century politician and admiral Louis-René Levassor de Latouche Tréville

Lynx Helicopter (French)

Latouche-Tréville's helicopter for Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) near RRS James Cook

Latouche-Tréville's and HMS Westminster

Latouche-Tréville's and USS Cole

Latouche-Tréville's and HDMS Absalon

Latouche-Tréville's and unidentified Tanker

Grainy shot of unidentified tanker and a US Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate