Archive for October, 2009
Coffee and bacon
Generally speaking I’m one of those people who thinks of 4:30 as the hour before finishing work for the day or, on occasion, the time in the morning that my teenage son brings his Boeing Fiesta Zetec into land outside the house and gives the engine one torturous final kick, which rattles the windows in a 50m radius before the thing finally dies along with the Rap Band in the boot.
Posted by: Kelly-Marie Davidson on Thursday, 29th Oct, 2009
Nutrient analysis at sea
This is my second AMT, having participated on AMT-18 last year, doing essentially the same analysis with a colleague from PML but with a greater number of analysers. As I sit here, two/three weeks out of Falmouth waiting for the mid-day Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) sample, I take the opportunity to look though the port-hole of the Chemistry Laboratory at the sea with the sun reflecting off giving it a silver grey colour, PML and home seem like a different world.
Carolyn doing an early morning pre-run check on the nutrient analyser.
Posted by: Kelly-Marie Davidson on Thursday, 29th Oct, 2009
Darkness and Light
For this member of the AMT team, activity concentrates around two contrasting times of the day: in the dark hours before dawn, when the zooplankton nets are deployed; and at or around local solar noon, when optical profiles of the water column are made.
Recovering the optical profiler on a sunny Sunday
Posted by: Kelly-Marie Davidson on Monday, 26th Oct, 2009
Unlucky for some
After 13 days at sea, getting up for the pre-dawn conductivity-temperature-density (CTD) trace sampler now feels almost normal.
Sophie Richier (National Oceanographic Centre, Southampton) collecting pre-dawn water samples
Although starting so early (04:00) is a tad difficult, it’s worth it. This morning was warm (24°C) and calm and the sky was festooned with stars. The sea is warming up nicely – currently 26°C – and inviting. However, we aren’t allowed to take a dip and for good reason. Yesterday morning the ship’s Bosun, Tiny spotted a large shark. Perhaps like me it was attracted to the smell of fresh croissants and cooked bacon!
Posted by: Kelly-Marie Davidson on Sunday, 25th Oct, 2009
Life of a PhD student
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
Posted by: Kelly-Marie Davidson on Saturday, 24th Oct, 2009
Perspective of a PhD student
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
Posted by: Kelly-Marie Davidson on Saturday, 24th Oct, 2009
The “F” Word
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.
Posted by: Kelly-Marie Davidson on Saturday, 24th Oct, 2009
Eye in the sky
Dundee station satellite coverage
The Remote Sensing Group (RSG) at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) process the raw satellite data received at Dundee, as the ship is still within the area covered by the Dundee satellite receiving station, and provide it to the ship in near real time.
Posted by: Kelly-Marie Davidson on Friday, 23rd Oct, 2009
10 days down, 40 to go!
This is the 10th day of sampling on board the James Cook on the 19th Atlantic Meridional Transect cruise, on our way towards Chile, although that is still a huge distance away! Today we have sampled from the 25th, 26th and 27th CTD (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth) casts, the first two pre-dawn and the third at solar noon.
Long line becomes wrapped around fish
This is my first AMT cruise and my first where a daily routine is quickly established (usually the cruises I have experienced have much more chaotic sampling routines!). I am measuring the concentration of Oxygenated Volatile Organic Compounds (OVOCs) in both the atmosphere and sea water (methanol and acetone for example). My first sampling time is the 0530 cast and it takes me until around midday to analyse 11 water samples from various depths, just in time for the next cast! It’s not always the most pleasant experience to keep dragging yourself up at that time in the morning but being at sea does provide glimpses of some of the most stunning sun rises you’ll ever experience.
Typical sunrise at sea
This morning we were caught in heavy rain – not good for those of us expecting to soak up some sun during breaks!! Also not good for those of us working in containers that may have been prone to the odd leak! These problems are quickly sorted by the team of men (Chris, Dougal, Neil & Paul) on board from National Marine Facilities (NMF) who amazingly seem to be able to fix anything (Gas Chromatographs, air con, leaking windows, making benches, moving fume hoods and a dodgy door handle that I’ve broken on several occasions – and that’s just me!) I’ve noticed that they start to run in the other direction when they see me now!
Neil from National Marine Facilities fixing the air-con unit
Posted by: Kelly-Marie Davidson on Friday, 23rd Oct, 2009
Dolphins and the Azores
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.
Posted by: Kelly-Marie Davidson on Tuesday, 20th Oct, 2009