Hello, southern Indian Ocean.

Southern Indian Ocean sunrise. We got to sample with this view in background.

It's getting warm again! That's what I said when the outside temperature rose above 50 F (10 C). It's funny how a trip to the Antarctic can completely changes your perspective on things. We crossed into  the balmy subtropics a few days ago, which means we can finally stash away our heavy thermal layers and foul weather gear.

Natalie and Dave are super excited to be out of sub-freezing weather.

After an eventful and turbulent two weeks in the Southern Ocean, operations onboard our ship are going much more smoothly. Early on, we suffered setbacks to due to major equipment loss and failure. However, due to the resourcefulness and commitment of everyone onboard, we overcame our hardships. We have now completed 63 stations with 7 days of sampling to go. This puts on track to finish most, if not all, of the 89 stations we originally set out to complete. Everyone is crossing their fingers for a seamless finish to our cruise.

The final unboxing.

My friend Kaia. She was the last float to be deployed on our cruise. Photo courtesy of Cara Nissen.

In other news, we deployed Kaia yesterday!! Kaia was the sixth and final float deployment of this cruise. Everything went smoothly from start to finish. Our float even got a final farewell from a curious albatross. Special thanks to Cara Nissen for being out on the deck to capture the moment! All these deployment photos came from her camera.

Dave helping me with the deployment. 

And down she goes. This is so much easier when the ship is not heaving several meters in the air. 

I'm a bit bummed that the deployments have come to an end because I was just starting to get the hang of it. I was hoping for more opportunities to deploy with the other students onboard, but the Southern Ocean is a tough place to learn. There will always be next time.

Splash down. Kaia was safely released into the water.

[Cue jaws soundtrack]. Don't worry, the float and was fine. The albatross kinda just sat there and watched this weird looking fish sink from the surface. This is actually a photo of Z-Pod.

In other good news, we have been receiving some great data from the floats we just deployed. I'll blog about them in another post.

-EW