Tony demonstrating the immersion suit
Today was a big day! After breakfast, we had a meeting discussing the day’s plan. The ship departed at 9 am, and then it was time for Tony, one of the Marine Technicians aboard the Atlantic Explorer, to put all of the cruise participants through the ship’s safety drills. In case of an emergency, we all have to know where our safety gear is, where to meet, how to find and utilize the life rafts. We even had to take turns trying on the safety immersion suites.
Then it was back to business. Only a couple of hours away from Station 1, we needed to be ready to start deploying instruments and collecting samples. We only have so many days to be at sea, and we have to keep to a schedule in order for everyone to get their work done… but things do not always go according to plan. A few of the cruise
Retrieving a plankton net
Deploying a CTD
participants became sea sick, some equipment was found to be damaged, and the ocean was not as deep as we thought it was at Station 1. Some very diligent re-planning by our chief scientists and some great
Dexter holding his Mahi-Mahi
cooperation among the other participants saved the day. Our first set of plankton net tows and CTD cast were successful, and all in all, we had a ship full of happy scientists. One of the ship’s crew even found time to catch us a mahi-mahi for dinner!
Everyone’s day ended well after midnight, (except for the people on watch until 6 am… Yikes!), and the ship spent the whole night sailing so that we could be at Station 2 by 8 am in the morning.