Off we go!

The gangway has been raised and the ship has left its berth! As of two hours ago, we have spent our first full day at sea. So far, my motion sickness pills seem to be doing their job and I am very grateful for that. Some of my fellow crew mates have not been so lucky. The first few days at sea are usually the worst but after a while your body usually learns how to cope. My sea-legs are not quite there though. Standing still remains a struggle.

Most of the science crew were on deck to watch the ship leave the harbor.  Photo courtesy of Alison Macdonald.

The past 36 hours have been hectic. The entire crew participated in numerous safety demonstrations and evacuation drills. Additionally, all the student volunteers, myself included, began our on-the-job training. This was a lot of information to absorb in one day but we were assured we will get the hang of everything in short time. Before we left, Rick also gave tutorial on how to float deploy Argo floats from the ship. All the students were in attendance and it was a great learning experience for everyone.

Rick educating all the students about the Argo/SOCCOM program. Photo courtesy of Alison Macdonald.

For the next 9 days or so, we will transiting due south to the Antarctic shelf where we will begin collecting ocean samples and deploying Argo floats. Over this transit period, Alison, our chief scientist, will see to it that her entire science will be prepped and ready to go when we arrive at our first station. Tomorrow we will make a brief stop a few hundred miles south of Australia and do a dry run of a station sampling. Basically, everyone will go through all their data collecting procedures as if they were at their target locations. 

The red line roughly outlines our course over the next 9 days. The purple line shows where we will stop to collect data and deploy instruments.

Ok guys, that's it for now. Next time, I will try to talk a little bit more about what we are trying to do on this cruise.