During lockdown we have a had more time to think, learn new things and take reflection on our lives and everything around it! I am currently on furlough, so focusing on my fitness and doing some online courses to hopefully progress my career somewhere fun.
This is me having lunch on a beach near our house, went for a swim and warmed up with a cuppa. I used the mug that I got whilst on the Neil Armstrong in 2017, which got me wondering when are we going to be able to go on research cruises again!? The next cruise I am due to go on is to collect the moorings we dropped off on in 2017, so we are due back out there to pick up the moorings near the Rockall Trough. I will be calibrating the oxygen sensors again by titration of oxygen samples taken from water samples. I am also keen to learn more about the mooring deployments, instrument setups and calibrations! Matlab here I come.
So I thought I would start up my blog again and focus on some of the epic stuff that we get up to at SAMS and what being a technician is all about. I have renamed it, tales of a research technician because this fits the life I am going down at the moment. Don't worry...the poles are always near by.
During lockdown, I saw an opportunity on Twitter (I really do find it a great platform for networking, keeping up to date and finding new opportunities) which I totally jumped on. It was to help update a Polar Resource book. Two things I am passionate about...the polar regions and educating the importance of learning about these epic places.
Editing this resource book got me excited during lockdown so I have been getting involved with some citizen science and education work.
Again, on Twitter, I saw a cool opportunity from a collaborator and friend called Caitlin! It looks like a fantastic project, so now I am the Loch Leven project area lead. When lockdown restrictions ease we are planning to do a community-led biodiversity shoreline survey!
https://www.nature.scot/community-led-marine-biodiversity-monitoring-scotland
The partners of this project are:
- Scottish Natural Heritage
- Fauna and Flora International
- Coastal Communities Network and Local Groups
I may go back in time for the next few blogs and talk about some of the ship's operations and tech things that I've been up to this year!
Stay in there, lockdown is slowly starting to ease (feels a bit scary)! This was me today having a wee solo mission on my wee yacht Xarifa outside our house in Ballachulish. Gave the engine a good run then sailed off the mooring, to the Ballachulish bridge and back and then managed to sail back onto the mooring. Sometimes the wind is too fluky near the shore and the mooring is only in 4 m of water so you don't have much room to mess up when it's low tide!