After the excitement of photographing a tiny rock in the ocean, Rockall, we sampled one more station then set off for the Wyville-Thompson Ridge. The sea is still calm so we should arrive there and start sampling by 17:30 (in the middle of my watch and dinner again) and continue through the night. There not being much happening, it was time to visit the bridge and the magnificent 360 degree view. Liam, who is 2nd officer and also Medical Officer was in charge and described all the instrumentation for sailing the ship and also what happens up there when we are waiting for the CTD to arrive. Someone came looking for a plaster for his cut and it appears that Liam had only just filled the first aid kits. This set us to wondering what other uses there were for elastoplast or were there a lot of unreported cuts!!
Because we are ahead of ourselves, Colin has added in a few more stations to our itinerary. In particular, we are going to sample a transect across the George Bligh Bank. This is a seamount lying at the northern end of the Rockall Trough. In 2005 the Joint Nature Conservation Committee surveyed the biology of this area and SAMS was involved in assessing the benthos. A report can be found at http://www.offshore-sea.org.uk/site/scripts/consultation_download_info.php?downloadID=179 . So far no-one has looked at what happens to Arctic water here but that's about to change.
What a nice Captain we have. He announced that he would slow the ship down so we could eat our dinner in peace and start sampling at 6pm.
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