What was: Day 48 - Ice, Sun, People

Tons of photos to share today. Let's get to it.

Seriously, we really are breaking ice. I realize the photos I've had up recently have been rather lacking in the ice-department, so here's something like what I'm talking about - this is the back of the boat, on the walkway near the lab where I work:



Like I mentioned, we have really random working hours, so I very often get to see the sunrise (actually, usually at the tail-end of my working day). The days are still quite long, so the sunrises (and sunsets) last a really long time. Lots of photo opportunities.





When you open the main hold on the front deck, this is what it looks like:



Funny story - we actually have a submarine ROV onboard. It's sitting down inside that big hole opening in the deck. It's situated directly above the moon pool (they use the moon pool to deploy the rosette when the ship is frozen in for winter). Problem is, this $2 million ROV doesn't really actually fit through the moon pool. Bummer.

Rock is watching you.



More woes on the ship - we have these moorings that sit at the bottom of the ocean for long periods of time collecting data. Temperatures, salinity, other such things. They're attached to massive weights that use acustic devices to release the sample collectors (which are attached to floation devices) when we come by and sent them off. These moorings are massively expensive, and the trouble is they're also massively difficult to retrieve. The first one we tried just didn't work, so they tried dragging the bottom with a big anchor, hoping to hook the collector and just pull the whole thing up. This is in water about 1000 m deep.



It didn't work. But that does not stop us from releasing new moorings!



At least we get to work in places like this:



I don't believe I've introduced the captain yet. This is Captain Stephane Julian:



Um...yeah. Ask me about him another time.

Scientists making big decisions on the bridge:



Meanwhile, the local computer nerds condescend to go out in public.



This is their ringleader, Jonathan:



And this is a photo of Lisa and Ian, who dispite appearances are not an old married couple.