After the successful medevac of my roomie, the LMG came back to Palmer Station, allowing the science to continue and station operations return to the much-needed normalcy. The Gould spent a day breaking the ice around the pier and Hero Inlet (where our pier is located). Entertainment was provided for both folks on the boat and on station. Human waves were created, yoga poses were performed, communications were shouted between the bow of the boat and the balcony of the gallery and many photos were snapped in the first clear beautiful day we had since the chaos began. It felt good standing on Gamage Point and just be in the sunlight. It felt good seeing friends that I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to on the last exodus.
Me (in tree pose) with chris on gamage point, greeting the LMG
In the wanning light, Captain Scott decided to hold off the final push of tying up the boat til the next morning. The strange thing was that just knowing that friends are here and that I will see them soon was an exciting and calming effect. I felt like I could almost relax. Even though I was only going to see them in passing, it still was a relief seeing them. I don’t know how to put that rush of emotion into words. It was almost as if the “new” people somehow washed away the stress and chaos that just occurred, even though they had their own ordeal and their own stories.
Tying the boat up, offloading and on loading minimal cargo and science personnel went smoothly. Hugh, Matthew, and JoeG pretty much set up the lab space that we needed for our sample collection. Hugh stayed onboard to help with the sample collections and processing. Chris Selgia from station also came aboard to help out. We untied, pushed away, and set sail for Palmer Deep (an LTER station). It’ll be two hours of steaming before we get to station. The station isn’t that far, but with a lot of ice on the ocean, it’s pretty slow going.
Once at station, we sampled our two depths. We used the CTD for the deep (500m) sample and the Submersible (the Monsoon) pump for the surface (10m) sample, sampling at the same time. Working late into the night and into the wee hours of the morning, we concentrated both samples and collected for molecular work for both. The whole process took about 8 hours.
the CTD rosette heading out for a collection at 500m.
chris and hugh, filling bottles.
One day on, one day off. The next day (day two of our cruise), we found ourselves steaming between Paradise Harbor and the more “open” waters of the Gerlasche Straight. The skies remained gray and cloudy with only a sliver of sun off on the horizon. It was a day to catch up on sleep and recover.
Day Three of the Cruise was marked with an early sample collection similar to the one we had the first night of the cruise. Processing of the collection went a lot faster than the first, or so it seemed. The cogs of the collection machine were warmed up and ready to go. Unfortunately, it was the last large volume collection that we would be taking.
On the last full day of the cruise, we started in the morning with a surface water (10m) collection. Since our main goal of the trip was to collect high volumes of water for the purpose of RNA/DNA/molecular work was met, we were looking for opportunities to sample surface water for community profiling in other locations. Since we were still in the Gerlasche Straight that morning, we got and opportunity to take such a sample. Once we took our sample, the chief scientist of the cruise decided we would go to La Peyrere Bay to survey for potential trawl conditions and do a trawl.
inside La Peyrere Bay
La Peyrere Bay is probably one of the most gorgeous places I’ve been to on this planet so far. There are pretty places and there are gorgeous places. Here we took another sample in the beautiful blue water in the full sunlight. After we took the sample, we proceeded with the survey of the bottom of the bay and then started a trawl. In order for us to get back to station on the 3rd of September, we had to leave the bay by 7:30pm that night. The amount of ice that was between the station and us will serve only to slow us down.
By breakfast the next morning, we were still 20 miles out and making slow progress through the ice. We ended up tying up at the pier about couple of hours late.
It was a very good fishing trip.
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