Hi Everyone,
Today we truly got into the rhythm of the A23 section, with two CTDs and a full set of salinometry during my shift. It was nice to get into a bit of a rhythm, the salinometry took me about three and a half hours for 48 bottles, and by the end it was really pushing up against dinner and I definitely adopted an “I’ve got time” mindset as I desperately tried to finish just one bottle before someone came and tagged in for me so I could run and grab dinner just as they were closing up. It was a good run, for each bottle we take three measurements. The holy grail is to get all three results to be exactly the same within the precision of the measurement while if the standard deviation is too great you are forced to retake one, an absolute nightmare. I succeeded in getting 3 perfect runs and only a couple of significantly bad ones. Good times!
The rest of the day was mostly taken up with work, CTDs and VMADCP calibration. We did get some time for some cards, with some more Kaboom and my first hands of poker on the cruise. The poker was good fun, though I can’t say I did very well, I was certainly very glad that we weren’t playing for real stakes! Looking forward to some more rounds in future.
One aspect of ship life that I think I have neglected to mention (or certainly not focused on enough) has been the crossword. The ship is supplied with a daily newspaper by a maritime media company called KVH media. It is designed to be of broad appeal and relatively low internet requirement so that a few copies can be printed and distributed to the crew. The daily crossword has been a source of much entertainment for a good number of us, and most afternoons we all end up clustered somewhere, on deck, in the bar, or even around a desk in the lab. This has led to some great discussions and some serious brainwork, especially on some of the stranger clues. I think the most famous clue so far has been “Dreamer’s fruit (5)”. Maybe I’ll tell you the answer tomorrow!
08/01/23
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