Well, having never written a blog before and I don’t really know what to say in this, so I shall try and give a few more personal ‘clips’ about life onboard.
Coast of the Azores
I was awoken this morning, albeit after sneaking a little ‘cat nap’ after the pre-dawn CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) sample, to my mobile phone bleeping telling me that I had a text. Rather blearily I found that quite odd as we haven’t had reception for days. A quick glance out of my port hole told me that we were nearing the Azores.
Dolphins escorting the RRS James Cook along the coast
We were escorted down the coast towards Punta Delgada by a ‘fleet’ of small dolphins, which caused much excitement, particularly among the young (that’s not me anymore!) PhD students, many of which had not seen them so close before. It was a welcome relief for me to see green fields (I miss my horses when at sea) and signs of life beyond the ship! Everyone onboard has pretty much settled down now into a routine which is punctuated by meals which have been fabulous, thanks to the expertise of the catering team (Peter, Tulip, Jackie and the Pursor Anthony). Although I hasten to add not good for the waistline!
Scientists in one of the onboard labs
I spend most of my time in a containerised laboratory with Claire and Stephanie trying to work out how quickly the microbial community in the surface sunlit ocean turn over compounds like methanol and acetone. In practice means lots of pipetting micro volumes of seawater and spinning small tubes in a centrifuge, which by the end of the cruise turns you mad! I unfortunately know this from experience some xx cruises later! However I still love coming to sea, so I guess seawater must be in my blood!!
Water column depth: 380m