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We are still experiencing head winds but the sea conditions are much more favourable this morning. Quite a few large ice bergs are visible but we are still northwards of any substantial pack ice.
Yesterday was spent in planning meetings while our equipment was prepared for deployment on the trawl deck. The substantial work on the MIDOC trawl system was completed and a start was made on the RMT (Rectangular Midwater Trawl) which we hope to use later tonight.
Last night another trivia/games night was organised by Jess and Dani to keep the masses entertained.
Today marks the beginning of formal 24 hour science operations on board the vessel with the science expeditioners being divided into 12 hour shifts to keep things ticking over. However there was an unusually large crowd in the instrument room to observe the first CTD deployment this morning.
In addition to sending back continuous oceanographic data, the CTD rosette contains 24 bottles which can be fired at selected depths to obtain water samples. This morning’s effort was a “bottle wash” deployment to make sure that the sampling gear is clean and calibrated before we commence full observations. Consequently we only took the instrument to 300m depth before retrieving it.
This afternoon, we will do a trace metals CTD bottle wash which is a little trickier as, among other things, we are trying to measure very small amounts of iron in the water and great care has to be taken to avoid contamination from the ship.
We’ll head south tonight and attempt to do some target trawling where the ice permits.
Clocks went back by hour again last night taking us to UTC+6.
Lloyd and Brett
Map
A map showing Australia and Antarctica. The map shows the journey of one voyage that has occured in the season, with each route highlighted in a distinct colour.