This week we are on a cruise called Gonsior cruise. Michael Gonsior is the chief scientist that is why the cruise is named that. There are a few different groups of scientists all conducting their own experiments. The scientists come from the east coast mostly from Maryland. A few of the groups are looking at water samples and using different filtration techniques (such as Tangential Flow Filtration) to study bacteria and viruses. They are taking water samples from different depths. The only piece of gear they are putting in the water is the CTD with the rosette and the Niskin bottles to collect water samples. The location we went to sample is the same location where the BATS study is conducted about 50 miles south of Bermuda. We were supposed to mobilize to St. George’s at the beginning of the week but there was some issues occurring with the engine that needed to be sorted before the cruise could be conducted. We ended up mobilizing to St. George’s Wednesday (08/07/2019) afternoon and left to go offshore Thursday (08/08/2019) morning around 0700. We will be offshore until Tuesday (08/13/2019) morning. There were a few shallow casts that were conducted but most of the CTD casts went down close to the bottom around 4500 meters. These casts take around 4 hours from the time we deploy it, fire the bottles, and recover the CTD and put it on deck. The weather was not in our favor this trip with winds getting between 20-30 knots at some parts of the day. There were different swells coming from different directions so most of the trip the boat was rolling a lot. I actually like it when there are some big waves because I love seeing how powerful the ocean can be. All the scientists did pretty well on the trip only a few people got sea sick. Usually we use two taglines when deploying and recovering the CTD but since the weather was bad we used three taglines to ensure the CTD came up safely and efficiently. Overall it is a great cruise and I am learning a lot from the scientists and more skills regarding marine technology. We will get back on Tuesday and have a few days of work at the dock while getting ready for the next cruise that leaves on Friday. The next cruise that will be going out is the BATS (Bermuda Atlantic Time Series Study) that goes out once a month. 

Below is a picture of Mike the Chief Engineer teaching me about one of the engines.