Above: Are we there yet?
Firstly a hello to some of the people I know who are looking at the blog – Helen’s mum for correctly noticing that I got the entry numbers wrong – it’s only day 5…… Imagine what it’s going to be like in a few weeks! Also hello to TMK, Brenda and Rachel!
I had a lot of people commenting that it would be hard to make today interesting. Well, they may just be right! The day started off really badly and ended quite good! Our system used for communicating with satellites and acquiring weather maps decided to die. Curse the day I ever told you about equipment breaking at sea! A bit of a pain really as we need this system to see what weather is like ahead of us.
Firstly, I must thank Dave from Dartcom (who manufacture the system), who helped me get the weather system back online and is a true support legend! I owe him a beer. Together we managed to reconstruct the system and get it back online and working properly – after many phone calls back and forth to Dartcom in Devon the system was up and running. There was a lot of choice words uttered at the system that have no place on this blog – but it all ended on a high with a working system in the early hours of the morning.
Above: A image of our work area with weather satalite data overlaid in our current work area.
Well, what else has been happening whilst we have been transiting? Not much really. The scientists are looking forward to the start of science tomorrow. Our arrival “on station” will be tomorrow night. No time to stop for a New Year’s eve party! Then it’s almost constant CTD’s from there to the Antarctic Peninsula. Most of the scientists are now getting ready for their watches (shifts) by going to sleep early or staying up late so that their bodies have chance to adjust to the watch patterns. We have three watches. 4-12am, 12-8pm, 8pm – 4am.
John opened the sensor which failed on the CTD during the test deployment two days ago. It was full of water! Not good! It seems that the bonding which holds parts of the instrument together had failed during the deployment and allowed the water to enter the sensor….. Luckily we have another two sensors!
Sheldon had another meeting, this time for the crew to discuss the objectives of the cruise. Unfortunately I missed this as I was working on the satellite system and had already attended his previous meeting yesterday.
We have been joined by a new species of bird today. Diminutive little prions. See Below for more details,.
The weather. Well it’s cold to say the least. Actually it’s bitter and it started snowing earlier. John went out on deck and started singing “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas”….. No comment. I hear the weather back in the UK is possibly colder than it is here!! How ironic!! I’ll send you a postcard ;-)
Above: One of Mark's many cartoons he's been putting up this cruise..... more to follow
Above: The EA500 singlebeam Echosounder revealed some interesting underwater features
Above: John taking some snaps of the failed ADCP
Above: whooops. The ADCP was full of water due to failling of the bonding that holds it together under the immense pressure encountered at depth
Above: But John still manages to find something funny
Above: Our new visitors - A Prion
About Prions
The prions are small petrels in the genus Pachyptila. Together with the Blue Petrel, they form one of the four groups within the Procellariidae (also referred to as the prions), along with the gadfly petrels, shearwaters and fulmarine petrels.
They are found in the Southern Ocean and breed on a number of subantarctic islands. Prions grow 20-27 cm long, and have blue-grey upperparts and white underparts. Three species of prion have flattened bills with a fringe of lamellae that act as strainers. All prions are marine and feed on small crustacea such as copepods, ostracods, decapods, and krill, as well as some fish such as myctophids and nototheniids.
Species of Prions Fairy Prion
Slender-billed Prion
Fulmar Prion
Broad-billed Prion
Antarctic Prion
Salvin's Prion
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Above: John gets excited at the prospect of snow. I hear the weather back in the UK is getting cold to.....
Above: I spent the entire day in the Bridge Electonics Space working on the Dartcom system (above)..... No windows |
