Cruise JC030
Monday 5th January 2009
Day 11 (I think) at Sea:
Hahahahhaha it's warmer here than the UK... Who would have guessed!!!
JDAY 005
Lunch:
Dinner: Pork
Weather: Flat calm!! nice and smooth!!
Distance Travelled Today: 131.91 Miles
Total Distance Travelled: 1846 Miles
Activity: CTDing
Sea Temperature:0.5•C
Air Temperature:0•C
Above: the Ship's radar screen. The big green smudge is roughly where the ship is (the big smudge of green is backscatter of nearby waves). The green specks with trails behind them are icebergs! As you can see there is quite a few today!!
Above: Weather map and position
Another busy day of CTDing! However, today we started getting lots and lots of ice. Now there are dozens of icebergs in site – ranging from small “growlers” to very large tabular icebergs. Interestingly, the weather has warmed up a bit and the bitterness of the last few days has eased off – unlike back in the UK which has, by all accounts, become bitterly cold and you have got snow and ice and temperatures of – 10!!! You win! It’s about -1 here at the moment (although the wind chill factor makes it feel a lot colder).
So during the day we continued sampling. I had quite a few “maintenance” tasks to perform. This included cleaning some of our sampling systems. Luckily we are operating in a very cold environment so we do not get build-ups of algae etc in our water sampling equipment (transmissometer, conductivity etc) like would would in warmer climates.
There was some planned maintenance on the phone exchange – i.e checking everything was working ok. This was fine and the phones have been working well!
The scientist have continued sampling today and there is a collection of images below taken during the sampling process. I have asked some of the scientist to write short description of what exactly they are looking for in these water samples. Hopefully this will shed some light for you, on exactly what we are looking for! Now that you know how a CTD works – you need to know what we do with the water!! More to come!!
Fog! I’m amazed at the fog down here – it’s almost like being back in “The city of fog” in NFL. The fog rolls in really quickly! Sheldon asked me to take an image of a rather odd iceberg a few miles away – I went in and got the camera and by the time I came back a thick fog had surrounded the ship and visibility had been reduced to just a few hundred meters! About ten minutes later I noticed that I could see some icebergs pretty close out the porthole on the portside of the ship. Thinking the fog had cleared I went out on deck and was amazed to see that the ship must be right on the edge of the fog bank. Visibility was still only a few hundred meters on the starboard side – but miles on the port side. Strange!!
In the late afternoon the fog started to lift and for the first time in ages the sun came out! The temperature touched 1 degree and after dinner I decided to stretch my legs on the foc’sle and get some fresh air. For the past week, it has been impossible to stay for more than a few minutes on deck without thick clothing – the early evening was actually very nice! A number of bergs drifted by the ship and a lot of scientists made their way up on the focsle and the bridge to take advantage of the view!
As darkness cloaked the ship we deployed the CTD. I helped Sheldon with a few computing issues. Phil also had a few computing problems which we sorted out…. If it had taken any longer I think the Apple Mac would have been joining the CTD 4000m below the ship!!
Oh and I got a nice email from one of the crew’s family:
Hello Leighton
My name is Chris and my son Matthew is one of the crew members on your ship - I know not whether you have met him. Anyway, he sent the means to be able to follow your "little cruise" and I have been reading your blog on a daily basis.
I must congratulate you for making it so informative without being too technical. Anything scientific has never really been my "bag" I'm afraid. I have just been brushing up my previously non-existent knowledge of icebergs although I did know that they were far larger underwater than above.
The photography is, of course, magnificent. I have enjoyed all of it - the birds, the bergs and even the views of good old Table Mountain under which I lived for 4 years back in the 70's when I was teaching Classics in a Prep School in Constantia and Mathhew ( and his sister) were both extremely young. Indeed Mat was only about 6 weeks old when we left the UK! I have not been back in over 35 years but the good news is that I will be there later this year and am looking forward to catching up with a few people and places.
Anyway, I won't take up any more of your time - you're clearly a very busy little bee! Keep up the good work!
Chris |
If you have any questions about what we are doing here. Please do not hesitate to send them – if we are able we will answer them and post the question on the blog!! I know that over 500 people are looking at the website each day – someone’s got to have a question!!
Email:
questions@rrsjamescook.com
Above: Huge berg - the top is almost hidden in low lying cloud!
Above: odd shaped iceberg!
Above: Iceberg silouetted
Above: Another odd shaped iceberg near sunset
Above: icebergs!
Above: CTD getting moved ready for deployment
Above: Steve - "Get me a facebook profileimage"
Above: CTD deployment
Above: Splooooossssshhhhhh
Above: Patient scientists waiting for the all-clear to start sampling....
Above: And again!!
Above: And again!!
Above: what is Mario doing? (left) Whilst the rest sample
Above: Anna taking the samples temperature
Above: And again..
Above: Sampling
Above: Just for those in nice cold Britain....it's tropical here1!
Above: Loic's 1000th CTD stare
Above: Helen looking at the chart to see if we are any close to South America!!!
Above: Sheldon gets stuck into processing data
Above: Whilst John reads and email from base...Must have been a good one!!
Above: Another berg!
Above: Small berg with waves breaking over it
Above: Another shot of the same mini-berg
Above: big berg!!
Above: very tall berg!!
Above: Brett taking pictures! Don't think he liked that image....
Above: going for another shot
Above: Andy on the lookout for bergs
Above: Silouetted berg
Above: Silouetted berg
Above: Loic couldn't advertise BAS anymore!!
Above: Silouetted berg
Above: Nice berg - no penguins.
Above: Taking pictures of bergs..... I wonder who this is!
Above: Anna taking a picture of the berg!
Above: Anna and a berg!
Above: Another berg!
Above: Loic and Sinhue
Above: Paul watching the bergs
Above: I like this image! Paul taking a picture of a berg (you can actually see the berg on the camera's screen!!)
Above: The Captain (right) and Nick
Above: Karel and Aurelie on the lookout for bergs!
Above: Jon
Above: Phil getting close to killing the Apple Mac
Above: Arnaud
Above: two bergs
Above: Another berg!
Above: Another berg!!
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