The sea was slightly rougher by morning and a shower was out of the question. Some were missing for breakfast.
Colin held what was to be a daily meeting at 9 to outline the day's activities. A trial CTD would be deployed to test the system then everyone would undergo hands on training in all the collection techniques. There would also be a lifeboat drill and at some time we would be changing to GMT. All working times are in GMT so it makes sense that we live in that time zone also. In the evening Clare will give a talk on water masses and their movements.
After lunch, the CTD was lowered overboard to 500m. It was then brought back up to 10m for a few minutes to allow the instruments to settle then goes went straight down at 1m per second. The wire it's attached to is an armoured cable with a core carrying 250v DC which transmits the data back to the ship's lab in real time. From the graphs generated, a decision is made on what depths to collect water and this selection is transmitted through the wire' The CTD is then winched up with water automatically collected at the chosen depths.
The fun began with demonstrations of what samples were needed for which analysis, which bottles they should be collected in and how, information required for the log and how to lable and store them. Then came the tricky bit with each of us trying our hand at repeating the techniques. It was great to have this experience as when it is happening for real, with new samples coming in all the time, order out of chaos has to be maintained.
There was a brief interlude as some common dolphins came out to play on the port side but as is usual in these circumstances, they disappeared by the time the cameras came out.
Lifeboat drill followed and we had been instructed to wear warm clothing. As luck would have it, the sun was beating down and the lifeboats were roasting.
After dinner, Clare Johnston gave a short talk on the type of temperature signatures we are likely to see when work starts on Thursday morning and Colin gave a brief history of oceanographic research in the area we are covering.
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