Hi Everyone,
Today was a strange day. The headline of the day would have to be that we are no longer going to KEP (King Edward Point), this was a shame but was always just a possibility, though very disappointing. This has some upsides though as it gains us a day on the schedule and allows us to start the A23 section early tomorrow. The A23 section goes from east of South Georgia down almost directly south into the Weddell sea to about 63S. This is the main physical oceanographic section of the cruise so we will be doing many CTDs each day (4-6 each day) as well as processing the water and turning around moorings at the southern end of the section. For today, we are turning around a mooring, fishing and doing some of the transects on the Eastern Core Box (ECB). This is similar to the Western Core Box which we have spent the last week doing but we are only doing a small portion and leaving the rest for another ship.
Another benefit to starting A23 early is that we are able to deal with the inclement weather. The weather today is quite mild, with only 3-3.5m waves. Unfortunately, having got used to the South Georgian weather and stopped taking the medication, I was feeling quite nauseous today, but by the evening I had recovered and am feeling back to my normal self. However, there is worse to come. The next few days are fine, so it is good that we can take advantage of them. But on Tuesday and Wednesday there is a major storm coming through and we are expecting waves of 9-10m. We are hoping to avoid these waves (which will disrupt our research) but there is a good chance we will not manage this. Fortunately, the crew are very confident that the ship will be fine as it has weathered such conditions before. They are less optimistic about the people and anything not strapped down. It promises to be a very intense time, though hopefully not too much and hopefully just for a few days. For people wanting to investigate the incoming weather, I can highly recommend windy.com, that is what I am using!
We also got to enjoy some great views on our last day around South Georgia. Early on our first transect, an iceberg was sighted off one side of the ship and this was then sighted a number of times throughout the day as we passed up and down our transects. Due to my nausea, I also spent a good amount of time on deck or looking out of a window and in one of these events I saw a small group of what I think may have been hourglass dolphins, but unfortunately they disappeared quite quickly and my phone was two floors below. Finally, there was a stunning sunset with some incredibly illuminated clouds, which led to a fun photoshoot for future profile pictures against the beautiful backdrop.
Tomorrow, we start the A23 section, and I will be much busier, I will try to keep this blog as up to date as possible, but I may fall behind or combine some days into one blog post. I hope you are well, looking forward to seeing you back in the UK soon!
06/01/23
Comments