Yesterday (4/10/07) was our first day out of port- we steamed away at 12:30pm and headed for our first station, which was only a few hours outside of Dutch Harbor. It was exciting to be heading away from the port, but also unsettling to know we won't be on land again for a month. Outside of the harbor the water has been calm and the Healy sways ever so gently side to side- they told us if we were feeling seasick now then we were going to have BIG problems later!! I put on my seasickness patch just in case (a little round disc that goes behind your ear and you can wear for up to 3 days at a time).
Leaving Dutch Harbor, blue skies all around!
We kept on with the setting up in the lab and unpacking of things in the cargo hold. I lugged my gigantic suitcase (boy do I regret packing so much…especially since it's not very cold out right now) up 3 flights of stairs that resemble ladders more than stairs…boy I'm going to get my workout on this ship!! I think I've climbed the ladders around here more than humanly possible- my body is sore from all the climbing and lifting we've done so far.
All flights of stairs are at least this steep.
The equipment in the lab has decided to give us some troubles- we're quickly learning to adapt as we've gone from 6 units to analyze our samples down to 3. We also have some very large jugs that hold water samples, and I've already broken an important piece off of one. Oops. All part of working in the lab I suppose, and all part of science. You learn to adapt quickly and change your methods to fit around the problems. David seems optimistic about everything still, so that's a good sign.
Radon board- for measuring radon gas in the sediment and water. Those big white containers in front hold water- up to 20L (NVMS: can anyone tell me how much that is in gallons??)
Cheese grater- EVERYONE: any guesses to what we use this for??
We reached our first sampling station around 15:30pm (that's 3:30pm military time!) and people began scurrying about getting ready. First they cast the CTD, which measures conductivity, temperature and density of the water, and takes water samples at different depths. I'll try and include a picture of it in a later post. The depth of our first station was 1500 meters (NVMS: can anyone tell me what that is in feet?)…so the cast takes a long, long time to go down and come back up. They can only set down one instrument at a time, since there are strong currents on the bottom of the ocean that drag the instruments and can get the wires tangled up. So our group had to wait and wait, because we wanted to send down the multi-corer, which was scheduled to go last. The multi-corer is a big instrument that gets lowered down to the sediment and takes samples of the mud (sediment) in long tubes. The CTD cast took longer than expected, while everyone worked out the kinks, and by the time we got to take our turn it was already 20:45 (8:45pm). Since the station was soooooo deep, it took around 45 minutes or so to get the corer lowered and back up on deck. Once we got it back on deck however, we went to work…which meant taking care of all the cores that came up with the multi corer. By the time we got done processing them, it was close to 2 in the morning! Yikes. I think I was starting to go cross-eyed by that point, especially since I'd been up since 7am so I could have breakfast.
Getting the multicorer ready for deployment.
Sediment cores from the multicorer.
But the work wasn't done yet! I still had to take some of my samples and stick them in a nitrogen glove bag to filter them. What this means is you have a very large plastic bag, and you put all your stuff inside it that you need to work with. Then, you fill it up with nitrogen gas (like a big balloon). Then let all the air out by squishing the bag, just like you would if you were squishing a big balloon. Then, seal it up and do it again. You do this 3-4 times to fill the bag with only nitrogen gas- we didn't want any oxygen in that bag. This is because my samples are very sensitive to oxygen and we can't let the oxygen mix with the sample. So after the bag is full, you stick your hands inside the built in plastic gloves and work through the bag. I take some syringes, put a filter on the end of one, and pour water into the syringe to filter out all the mud- we just want water. Working in a glove bag is awkward, especially on a boat, because you have to hunch over and the bag gets foggy inside so it's hard to see what you're doing. So that first night I filtered 12 samples in a nitrogen glove bag, and FINALLY got done at 3:30am…phew! I finally got to head off to bed- though we had a science meeting the next morning that I had to be up for- so I didn't get much sleep. The ship's movement did really help put me to sleep, which was great, although I probably didn't need much help!!
Nitrogen glove bag, full with supplies.