Working 12 hour shifts filtering water to preserve the phytoplankton can be fun..even when those shifts are at night, because in the Arctic, it really doesn’t matter….there is no night. 24 hours of daylight, so that when you go on deck for air, its bright and clear even at 0200 in the morning. That happens to be the time I have to go to the bridge to record ice conditions for another part of the scientific mission. I always linger on the bridge. The ship breaking through the ice is mesmerizing, and there is always the chance that you will see wildlfie. So far I have seen two polar bears, walruses, whales and a LOT of seals. The BEST part of the last few days was when Master Chief invited me up to Aloft Con, the crows nest like pilot house high above the bridge and let me pilot the ship through the ice floes…obviously under very close scrutiny. It was a real dream come true for me – a real bucket list item!
My normal work is not so fun. collect CTD water, filter it, preserve the filters…repeat. The breaks come as we transit from point to point, that is when I do my work for my mentor, programming a microcontroller, configuring winch monitors, cleaning the seawater flow through system and making educational videos about the mission for out-reach..I stay busy.