Monthly Archives: July 2011

  Now that we are heading home (whew) as co-chiefs we’d like to add a few words to express our gratitude and appreciation to all the PIs. The cruise and the training course have both been a success thanks to … Continue reading →

It’s only Wednesday, and we’ve just finished our second-to-last station (remember, we’re counting down from 14). It’s a testament to the skill of captain and crew that all our work goes so smoothly: the RHIB goes in and out of … Continue reading →

As we steam ahead and power through our stations collecting as many samples as possible, the long days and interrupted sleep start to take a toll. You might find a scientist taking a catnap waiting for the CTD or corer.

We’re speeding through stations at breakneck speed (successfully, of course), exceeding all initial expectations. It’s only Tuesday, and we’re already at station 4 (counting down from 14). This is a deep station, and it takes ages to send the CTD … Continue reading →

Today started early with another exciting CTD cast.  In keeping with our mission to learn about troubleshooting research cruises as chief scientists, we had a few trivial problems with our early cast this morning. Thanks to our supertechs, we were … Continue reading →

We are minutes away from the innermost station on our second transect and are back in sight of the coast. The winds have relaxed and the water has been glassy over the last few days. They tell us the Oregon … Continue reading →

After successful efforts by the unstoppable Daryl, our CTD is back online. It’s a good thing, as hydrocasts are the backbone of our sampling efforts. We’re dropping a 12-Niskin-bottle rosette to the seafloor, collecting various ancillary data (temperature, salinity, dissolved … Continue reading →

Breaking news: we have lost communication with our CTD.  The CTD is an instrument package that measures Conductivity [similar to salinity], Temperature, and Depth.  It is usually associated with a series of special water sampling bottles that can be triggered … Continue reading →

Sea conditions are ideal today and the work proceeds ahead of schedule. Not bad for first-time chief scientists! Fun are RHIB operations to collect the sea-surface microlayer with glass plates. It takes about 200 dips of the plates per sample. … Continue reading →

Well, it’s 22:30 on Saturday and we are up in the lab! The CTD is in the water and we are recording data and getting ready for a long night of sampling and filtering. The mood is jovial – for … Continue reading →