Day three at sea and they seem to be getting used to their new schedules. The girls are working the morning shift and Giovanni is working the night shift. After leaving the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico, they were able to hit the first station at 5pm. Then they have been working nonstop deploying instruments and sampling – mooring, CTD’s, C10 nets and Bongo nets. After collecting samples, 24 hours later they have the duty to change the first alcohol in the water drains from the planktons. This water can harbor drains bacteria and spoil sample, therefore Tatiana has been pouring it all out and pouring new alcohol. And as for Jess, she seems to be enjoying deploying the CTD’s, pictured above.
Despite their hard work at the labs, the researchers are able to enjoy themselves and the beautiful view that comes from working on this vessel. They have described their time out in the ocean to be peaceful and also amazed of how beautiful the ocean looks and sunsets. They have also enjoyed some time at the gym and despite the rocking of the vessel, Tatiana mentions that yoga there is very fun to do. Not only do they collect sample and data, they were also able to enjoy in a game of Easter egg hunt! Not only was that pretty cool today but Giovanni states that were able to deploy CTD’s to a depth of 2,110 meters. And now after a few stations they were finally able to have the first XBT deployment, expandable bathythermographs. They are not meant to be collected they just fall to the bottom of the ocean. What an exciting day!
