Position: 65:36’N and 00:23’W
Time: June-9, 23:33
Temperature: 9.6 C Air and 9.8 C Water
More than 5 different groups finished moving and unpacking the content of
15 or more containers filled to the brim with gear that was packed months
ago. My gear shipped from British Columbia, Canada and its 7500 pounds of
stuff filled a little over one container. The ship is large and spacious,
but moving boxes filled with scientific instruments, supplies, and tools
into labs, work spaces, and decks creates friction. All 52 scientists
aboard waited for weeks, months, or years to do this work and we only got
the next 3 weeks to do it all. Everyone was anxious to get the stuff out
of boxes to start the experiments. It always amazes me, how quickly and
smoothly this initial “friction” is overcome by the social grease of
meals, by the excitement of science, and by the many new men and women one
meets aboard a large research ship.
Everyone was a little out of their comfort zone for the first day or two,
but now we have all settled into new routines: Dry and wet labs are filled
with reagents, equipment is connect to computers, and the first data have
been collected over night. It was funny to see this happen as if someone
had flipped a switch: Walking down a broad walkway inside the ship, I saw
Cathrine L. from Canada fix a sediment trap, Janine S. connect wires to a
water sampling device, Ulrike B. huddle over a control unit of a device to
penetrate the bottom with glass sensors, Katrin L. and Agniezka B. prepare
ARGO floats, and Jonathan P. connect metal pieces to built a mooring.
It took me almost 24 hours to finish this blog as scientific work and fun
social interactions aboard take up almost all waking hours of which there
are only about 18, so, current information:
Position: 68:50’N and 01:07’W
Time: June-10, 21:27
Temperature: 8.5 C Air and 8.5 C Water
Posted by Pat Ryan for Andreas Muenchow
Icy Seas 