Saturday 8 January 2011

Antarctic Voyage - 07/08 Jan 11[Sec=Unclassified]

Hey everyone,

The past few days have been pretty boring. Yesterday there was a
problem with the CTD and rosette (the sample collecting machine
basically), in which it was nearly lost and was left hanging only by
the safetly line. After further problems with the winch that controls
the CTDs descent/ascent, it was decided that we would skip that
station, and move onto the next in order to not waste anymore time,
and allow time to fix the problems. This station went fine so I
thought all the problems were sorted...

I awoke this morning hopeful that everything remained A-OK following
my shift. This was not to be the case. Apparently there were further
problems with the CTD/rosette; this time the niskin bottles failed to
fire, and thus collect the water samples, due to a communication
error. This has now been solved (I believe) and we have just arrived
at the next station as I write this (in bed). Hopefully everything
would have run smoothly and I will actually have something to do
tomorrow (I couldn't be bothered to do any of my own work). I
shouldn't really complain I guess - a nice relaxing day was
definitely needed, althought it probably would have been nicer a bit
further into the voyage.

Still no wildlife :(
Still no sea sickness proper :D
Still very tired :S

Current lat = -48.1635 S
Current lon = 144.5988
Current air temp = 11C (min was only about 10C earlier) - was very
foggy though
Current SST = 10.5C - at 4km depths it's about 1C making my hands
very cold when I have to sample

Oh, and that e-mail address I gave some of you is correct, so feel
free to e-mail me to alleviate my boredom. Mother, you have not
replied to my e-mail, and this saddens me (check you junk mail if you
didn't get it).

___________________________________________________________________________

Australian Antarctic Division - Commonwealth of Australia
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