Weather: Nice and calm and its sunny! Location: Just south of the Flannan Islands Food: Chicken Kiev Emergancy Drills, Dolphins and Surveying Some information about safety drills - my mates keep asking me about this so heres some info: One of the things that are central to working at sea is safety and today we undertook an emergency drill. Working at sea is totally different to working on land - if you have a fire at home you call the fire brigade. If you have an accident that requires medical assistance you phone for an ambulance. At sea these services aren't readily available and the crew of RRS James Cook is trained to deal with these situations in the unlikely event that they arise. These safety precautions start long before you even get on the ship - all those sailing onboard RRS James Cook must be in possession of an ENG1 and certification in Personal Survival Techniques at sea. An ENG1 is a medical certificate that proves that you’re physically fit and able to work at sea. The Sea Survival certificate is gained by undertaking a course (usually a day) that involves learning a diverse range of skills that would be necessary in an emergency at sea- launching life rafts, righting life rafts and the correct methods for jumping from a stricken vessel whilst wearing a lifejacket are to name but a few of the skills that are learnt. Without these certificates you would not be permitted to sail onboard RRS James Cook. On arrival onboard RRS James Cook both crew and scientists are giving a detailed talk on safety and emergency procedures onboard as well as checking that they have all the necessary documentation to sail. Every week we practice an emergency drill (you also have to practice a boat drill within 24hrs of leaving port). These drills usually involve everyone assembling at a designate point on the ship (muster station) when the general alarm is sounded (Seven short blasts and one long blast on the ships horn)- this is known as mustering. Once assembled there is a roll call. After roll call we wait for further instructions from the bridge - this usually involves everyone making their way to their lifeboat stations where lifejackets are donned. A talk is then given on the methods for entering the lifeboat and strapping yourself in and the roles of each crew member when launching the lifeboats. In addition to mustering a demonstration is given on donning immersion suits. Usually a member of the scientific party is selected with a crew member guiding them through putting on an immersion suit. This can be quiet funny to watch - although everyone understands that this equipment can drastically improve your chances of surviving if you end up in the water An immersion suit is a type of dry suit designed to keep water away from the skin, and prevent hypothermia, if its wearer falls into cold water. They usually have built-on feet (boots), and a hood, and either built-on gloves or watertight wrist seals. In addition to practicing abandon ship procedures a wide variety of different scenarios are also practiced during these drills - these include fighting mock fires (simulated using a smoke generator), missing persons, pirates (they still operate in some parts of the world and have done away with swords and now carry rocket launchers and machine guns) and casualty evacuation are to name but a few. The RRS James Cook has also been used in an exercise with Hampshire Fire & Rescue who spent a morning practicing a variety of different scenarios onboard and gaining valuable skills in ship-based fire fighting.     RRS James Cook was used during a combined exercise with Hampsire Fire & Rescue RRS James Cook's Hospital . the dummy on the left is used to simulate casualties during emergancy drills Scientists during JC010 get shown inside one of the ships two lifeboats Inside one of RRS Discovery's lifeboats The RRS James Cook is equipped with two lifeboats capable of carrying 54 persons. Each of these lifeboats is capable of carrying the entire compliment of the ship - two are carried so that if something happens to one we still have another lifeboat capable of evacuating everyone. In addition to lifeboats RRS James Cook also carries a large number of life rafts.

THE LAST 24HRS

Last night was quite strange - there was a weird pinging noise going though the ship. I asked Bob if he could hear it and he said that it had been going on for sometime. I turned off all our surveying equipment and the sound could still be heard. I phoned the bridge and asked if any naval ships were operating nearby - there were several ships pretty close. It is likely that we were hearing something from them or maybe even a submarine - according to the published details they are taking part in this NATO exercise - anyway after sometime it went away…. Strange….

I went up to the bridge and spent sometime seeing what it's like for those on night shift. It’s strange when you walk on the bridge during the night as all the lights are off (to preserve night vision of those working) and it takes some time to become accustomed to the darkness – it strange standing there as all you can see are the muted glow of the computer screens and hear voices of those on watch.

Darcy explained the computer systems on the bridge and kindly showed me the night vision equipment they use during night operations - Ever since I saw Jurassic Park as a kid I wanted to see what night vision equipment is really like - unfortunately there were only waves - no rampaging T-rex. The navy ships were steaming up and down passed us - most had no navigation lights and were really dark silhouettes in the gloom.

Got up early today and was amazed to see the moon still high in the sky even as the sun was rising. The sea was very calm - it was bitterly cold but very picturesque. Our wave radar was baffled by the lack of waves and was throwing a series of error messages. The cold air woke me up better than the shower!!!

During the night the BGS team had been working to get their drill up and running and by morning they were winning the battle. Just after breakfast the ship began steaming away from Mingulay – strange to leave the islands that had become so familiar over the passed few days!!!

At 10:00 we had our emergency drill. Bob from BGS volunteered to try on the immersion suit. We were also guided through some emergency equipment before assembling at our lifeboat stations.

My main task for today was looking at the ship's multibeam and surveying equipment. In the event that we have to stop using the drill due to a critical fault it will be necessary to choose an alternative activity. This will most likely be vibro coring during daylight hours and swathing (seabed mapping) during the night time. Today gave Eamonn and I a chance to practice these skills - it's been nearly a year since we did the course and we needed to refresh ourselves!! The area that we will be drilling contains a wreck and the navigation charts aren't exact - it was therefore necessary to make sure the seabed was clear of wrecks before we put the drill in.

During lunch Eamonn told me that there were dolphins swimming off the bow - I rushed to get a picture but as I got there they swam off. Dolphins are camera shy. Luckily the came back just before supper and spent some time swimming around the ship and jumping out of the water. Then as quickly as they were arrived they vanished. Dolphins are a nightmare to photograph - they’re very fast and totally unpredictable. 9/10 dolphin shots are just tails sticking out of the water or very big splashes.

As I was finishing lunch the engineers suggested that I take some pictures of in the engine room as they were undertaking some planned maintenance on the engine - Both Chris's were enthusiastically working on the engine.

During our transit we passed St. Kilda - a world heritage site and home to some of the highest cliffs in the UK - with some over 1000ft high - very very impressive. Unfortunately it was quite misty and the island was more a silhouette making it hard to see any features. More about St Kilda tommorow

The rock drill was deployed just after supper and is currently happily drilling away on the seabed.

Anyway I’ve got to go and track the rig and monitor the survey gear tonight – sweet dreams!!

Dolphins!!!

Engineers at Work

Engineers ("Little Chris" and "Big Chris" ) undertaking planned maintenance on one of RRS James Cook's engines.

Some pictures for Tootums Family - I like the Yak herder hat!!
Boat Drill
Jim practicing his 1000 yard stare.....	Julia and Heather both turned up to the party sporting this years must have dirty waterproofs and designer orange handbags
Bob fighting to get into his immersion suit
Bob donning immersion suit
Bob with immursion suit and lifejacket. Whilst not exactly stylish this will greatly increase your chances of survival if you end up having to go into the water.
Left: Titus and Phil ensure everyone is present at the Starboard lifeboat station Right: Our ETO - I promised I would post a picture of him as he has not featured in the blog so far...
Left: Jim made it clear no-one was pushing infront of him to the lifeboat..... Right: Assembled at the lifeboat stations