Wednesday 19 January 2011

Antarctic Voyage - 19/01/2011[Sec=Unclassified]

Another fairly quiet day on the front. The main transect heading from
Tasmania to the Antarctic continental shelf (SR3 for the
oceanographers amongst you), has been finished! In total, the carbon
team has taken, and analysed about 1000 samples, with more to come!
With the transect complete, we have moved to some underwater canyons
were cameras are being deployed on the CTD rosette in search for life
(meaning only 4-10 niskins are being sampled). Last time they found
some communities in these deep trenches, so the plan is to explore
these further. After the camera work is finished, I think we head to
the Mertz region. I'm not entirely sure of the plan but will keep you
posted.

The wind has definitely picked up, meaning the ocean is no longer
eerily calm. Fortunately it's not too choppy yet, but I think the
worst is set to hit this afternoon/evening, with snow forecasted too.
With the wind comes bitterly cold temperatures, which brings a line
from the Muppet Christmas Carol to mind - "when the cold wind blows
it chills you, chills you to the bone", and that most certainly is
the case. It feels markedly colder so I haven't been outside for long
today; just long enough to get a photo of an amazing pink sky behind
an iceberg.

I am very tired today, so an early night is in order.

Current Latitude: -65.6757
Current Longitude: 140.9047
Current Air Temp: -1C (-10C wind chill - bbrrrrrr)
Current Ocean Temp: 0.57C (sample temperatures have fallen to below
-1.5C...unsurprisingly my hands get mightily cold)

Wildlife: The same array of birds as yesterday
Sea Sickness: None - seas starting to get a bit choppy

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