Once you meet the ship you are faced with the task of craning it all on to the ship and then unpacking everything to set up the laboratories that will be become our ‘homes’ for the next 5 weeks. This involves securing bench tops and then all of the instruments and equipment to the lab benches so that even in the roughest of seas it is stays on the bench and doesn’t end up in pieces on the floor!! After two days in port, 30 or so crane loads of equipment later, a flurry of activity around half emptied boxes, tying everything down and the inevitable safety briefing, we set sail. Leaving port can be quite a relief. Steaming to the first sampling station gives some rest bite to the weeks and months of preparation that you have undergone so far a momentary rest before the work kicks in – 11 hrs a day, 7 days a week. A voyage of over 8000 miles from Grimsby to the Falkland Islands; 38 days of physical and mental endurance.
Going to sea on a scientific research cruise is a test of endurance and stamina. Firstly, you have the build up of buying, building and testing equipment to make sure that all of your instruments work properly before you get to sea. This can take months of preparation. Then you have to carefully pack it to prevent it from being damaged in transport. We then load it into a container which is transported to where ever / which ever port the ship is in; in the case of AMT18 – Immingham (near Grimsby), UK.
A scientific cruise can be a journey of discovery into the unknown. We pulled out of Immingham at 9:00am on 3 October through the port gates to the Humber into the choppy brown waters of the North Sea. The wind was gusting up to 50mph. There were white caps as far as the eye could see. The ship lurched from port to starboard battling into the wind taking us through the Southern Bight into the English Channel. These first few days certainly separate the experienced sea goers from the novices. The restaurant reduces in numbers and balancing the soup bowl, a drink and cutlery becomes a veritable art.
As we passed through the channel, on the morning of 4th October, there was a lull in the weather and momentary sense of calm and all seemed well. The dirty brown North sea had given way to a turquoise green, indicative of a phytoplankton bloom in the Channel. Then as we sailed south through the Western English Channel and over the Celtic Sea shelf the weather worsened and we were battered by a front from the south. Normally we would sample in this area to link in with measurements being made off Plymouth at a time series station by Plymouth Marine Laboratory (www.westernchannnelobservatory.org.uk) and deploy profiling instruments to get an idea of the temperature, salinity and fluorescence of the water column and collect water samples to conduct our myriad of analyses and experiments. In these conditions, however, we were not allowed out on deck let alone to put instruments over the side. The sea was washing over the afterdeck and waves crashing onto the bow of the ship. At meal times in the restaurant it was literally like being in a car wash. We were almost hove to on 4th and 5th October; the ship steaming head to wind to maintain a near static position. The sea is a chameleon of many colours!!!