My last post was on August 11th and we were getting close to the end of the Gonsior cruise. The rest of the time on the cruise the weather was still rough, rainy, and overcast. There were frequent squalls with winds reaching 37 knots at times. We deployed and recovered the CTD using three taglines throughout the cruise because the weather was so rough and we wanted to ensure that we were able to deploy and recover safely. We got back to the dock early around 0845 on Tuesday August 13th. Demobilization happened very quickly for some of the scientists as they were set to fly out later that afternoon. Of course when we get back to the dock it is sunny and hot which was a nice change after being in stormy weather for the whole cruise. On Wednesday the Gonsior team finished demobilization and the BATS team started mobilizing because their cruise started Thursday August 15th. We are going to be going to the BATS location and also a few different spatial stations throughout the next week for the BATS study. The first day of the cruise on Thursday consisted of safety drills and CTD deployments along the way to the BATS location. Along with the BATS team, there is the BAITS team and a few other scientists studying trace metals. We bring along a different CTD and rosette that will be deployed using the MASH2K winch and wire so they can test for trace metals without contamination from the gear. On Saturday August 17th we deployed the CTD so we could get a profile for the glider. We deployed the small boat so Cordie, Jillon and Ronnie could recover the glider Anna. Anna was brought back onto the ship and there was a special frame made for her that we could attach to the rosette to send down with the CTD to compare the data the glider gets while attached to the CTD to the data the glider gets while it is out at sea on its own. They had never done this before so there was a lot of team work and effort put into lifting the glider up and properly attaching it to the rosette. We sent the CTD down with the glider attached and also collected water samples. It was a success and we redeployed Anna off the back dack. After this deployment we went to the site where the other glider Jack was. Cordie, Nick, and Ronnie went on the small boat to Jack’s location to adjust the weights and redployed him. Unfortunately, after they redeployed him they lost connection with Jack and he was not responding by satellite. Cordie wanted to pick him up and bring him back on the boat so we would not lose him. I was fortunate enough to be able to go on the small boat with them and help them recover Jack. It was truly a wonderful experience being on a small boat 50 miles out in the middle of the ocean and to see the R/V Atlantic Explorer from that view. We headed back to the BATS location and the next operation was a small boat operation again. The trace metal scientists needed to get a water sample far away from the boat so they could have no interference of their sample from the boat. We deployed the small boat and the scientists brought along a niskin bottle. I was fortunate enough to be able to go on the small boat operation again. I did not think I would be able to participate in small boat operations during my internship and today I was able to go on two! Later that night we were in the process of deploying the trace metal CTD and frame. Unfortunately the tagline trying to assist the frame going out got snagged and the welds on the frame broke and the rosette got a little bent out of shape. With some teamwork we were able to get it bent back and attached using stainless steel ratchet straps. It was unfortunate that this happened but the important thing is that no one was hurt and we were able to fix it enough to still be able to be used and take samples. On Sunday August 18th, we deployed in situ pumps and conducted deep CTD casts down to 4500 meters. We are going to transit to a site called spatial station #2 to deploy the CTD multiple times. We have had beautiful weather on this trip and it has been a great cruise so far. We will be out till Thursday August 22nd.
