AMT Blog

Last night I was subjected to various comments about turning into a teapot! Apparently this was my expected fate as ‘blogger’. However Principle Scientist, Andy Rees, had other plans.

‘How do you fancy helping with the science, perhaps doing some filtering?’

‘Of course I’d love too… It sounds great’ …  secretly I was just hoping that whatever he had planned didn’t involve counting plankton!

So as it happens, myself and Rob Thomas from the British Oceanographic Data Centre have been teamed up to do all of the ‘left over’ sampling… chlorophyll, salinities, pH, Alkalinity, HPLC… oh and some more chlorophyll. My tea drinking time has been significantly reduced which is probably for the best.

Just before lunch I caught up with the captain- I’ve requested to learn how to use a Sextant. This is an instrument used for finding your position before the times of satellite navigation… so watch this space! We also got into the advantages and drawbacks of having so much communication with the outside world at sea, but this can wait for another day.

But really the highlight of the day had to be the dolphins! Not just one or two, we had twelve or more playing around the bow of the ship, singing to one another. These majestic beasts can travel so fast yet remain incredibly graceful. Gavin described them as ‘the clowns of the ocean’ which is definitely true. Everyone one was out on deck, work was set aside for half an hour or so as we revelled at the sight. For some this was their first dolphin sighting, for others just a reminder of how fantastic the ocean. I really can’t complain about having an ‘office’ with such views.

Common Dolphins playing at the bow of the ship

Clowning Around!

What a fantastic day, and the chefs topped it off with Thai Green Curry for dinner. Absolutely amazing! I may need to familiarise myself with the gym very soon…