This year the three Changing Arctic Ocean cruises (CAO) are being separated. So we are kicking off this years CAO cruise with the DIAPOD and ARISE team, we will then jump off in Longyearbean in Svalbard the PRIZE team will then jump off and head up the Barents sea to complete a similar transect that we did last year then finally the last cruise will be CHAOS who will also be going up the Barents sea. The JCR will then come home to Southampton where all 4 projects will collect their scientific gear and valuable (and rather expensive) precious samples!!!!
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| Such a mighty vessel...she's been in action for almost 28 years. Newly built containers these days only last 15 years, so it's great to see how integral the building material used on the JCR is to make it still in action at what is seen as quite old for a vessel! |
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| The X-MEN are protecting us on this cruise. |
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| I am going to spend a lot of time on this cruise looking at beasties under the microscope...will this make me seasick..? Stay tuned to find out. |
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| I spent many hours earlier on this week ensuring that everyone's chemicals had the correct MSDS paperwork, COSHH, safe systems of work and that they were all in the correct container for the correct ventilation and hazard class of the chemical..! I learnt a lot. |
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| We spent a week in Immingham (mingingham) loading the ship for this years cruises. |
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| Dave Pond my boss and our PSO for the cruise looking happy with his filtration rig! |
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| Filtering water is serious work! I have to behave on this cruise (ha) as both my boss and line manager are here to keep me in check! |
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| How many people does it take to make a microscope/camera work....!? |
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| We completed a shake down station today to test all of the equipment! We got some live zooplankton in these bongo nets so that we could test our incubators/respiration equipment/filtration rigs/microscopes! |
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| Lots of people interested in the bongo nets |
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| The last few days we've been in the fog so not much opportunity to spot wildlife or read a book on deck! Really earie. |
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| The fog dissipated near when we crossed the Arctic Circle giving us a fantastic sunset...it's much lighter already giving us very long days which is going to be great if we have to do nightshifts. Bring on the ice, so excited! |
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| We have been on the ship for a week now and have finally crossed the Arctic circle!!!! We stayed up until midnight last night to cross the line. Can't believe this is my second time crossing the arctic circle on a ship (hopefully I get another certificate). It's definitely less smelly and scary than crossing the equator on a ship as you do not need to ask permission from King Neptune to cross into the Arctic Circle!! |
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| Feeling at home on the sea :) |
On Tuesday we will be at our first station so stay tuned to hear about what we're actually doing up in the Arctic this year!!