Life Beyond the Beaker

We have arrived at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), Southampton! Supposedly the port that is the gateway to the world! We are docked outside of NOC, it really is a fantastic setup! Yesterday, we had a very long day on the bus where we were socially distanced and wore masks all day. Caption contest for this photo anyone? The guy on the right is Stuart who is our PSO for the cruise. The rest us of are all also from SAMS and we range from postdocs to physics techs. I on the ship to be a chemistry and complete oxygen titrations, when not doing that I am a physics tech in training but I also have to revise for my Yachtmaster. It's going to be a busy one. It was a long day, but I mostly just slept! It is the first time I've ever had my own cabin! I really like sharing A cabin, especially as the last few years I have been with some awesome people however after only just coming out of lockdown it's nice ...

I will be honest, after 5 months of being on furlough, I am finding work hard. Mostly the big drive twice a day from Glencoe to Oban, I feel too tired to exercise and I've been waking up early to send emails before going into the lab because I working from home when not on a boat or in the lab. Very weird times, but hopefully I will settle back into it in the next few weeks. Seol mara the wee SAMS vessel took 2 months to fix, finally, we headed out to do some science. John, Norman and myself who make up the vessels team headed to our local site near SAMS and deployed a mooring! I was crewing and at the same time learning from John about how to prepare and deploy a moulding safely. What is science without correct labelling of samples and calibration of instruments?! My first proper week in the building of SAMS and I have been packing for my next cruise which I leave for in 4 weeks. 2 years ago we dropped off some deep-sea moorings with...