AMT Blog

6 days of packing equipment, a sea survival course and 7 weeks at sea, what a hectic and fantastic way to start my PhD at Plymouth Marine Laboratory!

Now its day 12 on the James Cook and AMT19 is well under way. I have found my sea legs and am having the best time. I have very recently started my PhD with Jo Dixon as my main supervisor and we are locked in, together with Claire in our radio-chemical container (which now has working air conditioning – a must!).

Making great friends

I have been kindly asked to give an account of life at sea from the perspective of a PhD student and first time cruiser and was more than happy to accept. The reality of living and working in remote regions of the open ocean is just unbelievable and an experience I will never forget.

We are now about two weeks into the voyage and during this time I have developed a daily work routine I am comfortable with. My day starts at 3:45 am, unless I decide to lay in which means the alarm sounds at 4 am. Over the next two or so hours my science includes the initiation and maintenance of on deck incubations to determine the rate of nitrogen fixation at different depths.

Nitrogen fixation incubations

Right, where are we and what day is it? We had fish for dinner last night, so that was Friday. Therefore, I guess today is Saturday. Difficult to tell when you get into a routine and you are doing pretty much the same things every day of the week, starting in the dark and often finishing as it’s getting dark.