We left Cambridge last Sunday - Jess and I, both PhD students at BAS, Bruce, an American physical oceanographer, Helge, a Norwegian engineer and Keith, the chief scientist for the ship. At Brize Norton, a military airfield in Oxford, we met up with some members of the ships crew and flew, via Ascention Island (a small island in the middle of the Atlantic) to the Falklands. The 24 hour journey was made bearable by Helge's stories of sailing round the world in a small boat and the fighter jets that escorted us into the Falklands! That night we went into Stanley, the main port and town of the Falkland Islands, for a meal with the crew, all of whom are lovely, really interested in the science we're hoping to carry out on board and keen to help wherever they can. The ship itself is very impressive, it has a homely feel to it with lots of communal areas for watching TV, a great selection of films, a mess room (canteen - there's a different name for everything on board!) serving really good food, and I've got an en-suite cabin to myself - comparative luxury after sleeping on sofas for the last month!
3 days later, after unpacking, setting up equipment and finding my way round the maze inside the ship, we set sail for Signy, which is one of the sub-antarctic South Orkney Islands. Despite earlier protestations that I didn't have time to be sea sick I spent the first day at sea in bed, feeling disorientated, dizzy and exhausted, and dreaming fitfully of revolving rooms and being inside a hamster wheel! The drugs do work however and since then I've set up the rest of my equipment and, despite some early problems and heart-stopping moments, is now running well and I've started some calibrations. I'm running a GC-MS to measure iodocarbons in air, seawater and ice, a mini-max DOAS to measure IO and denuder tubes to measure molecular and inorganic iodine I'm hoping to produce vertical profiles of iodine compounds in the Antarctic enviroment to determine the meachanism of iodine release in the sea ice zone. Diatom analysis will also be cardied out when I get back to the UK.
My temporary labToday we arrived at Signy to drop off Jess and two others catching a ride on the Shackleton. The first view of icebergs today was spectacular, especially as I was working at the front of the ship setting up my air sampling tubes so I had a great view of the approaching land and ice. Signy is about 6.5 km long and 5 km wide and is mostly covered with ice all year round.
The view of Signy from the ship.Tonight it's burns night so I'm off to play games and drink whisky....or maybe not, ugh!!
