Unfortunate turn of events

The ship is currently suffering serious mechanical issues and it is very unlikely that we will be able to continue on with the cruise. We are currently operating on one propeller and finishing up a few last stations before making a port stop in the Cape Verde islands to assess the damage. The repair will require the boat to go into dry dock and would be too lengthy to be able to continue on. We will arrive in Cape Verde Nov. 4 to have a professional make the final call, but at this time it is almost certain we will have to fly home from there.

This device is a robotic probe used as part of the Argo program for oceanography. While in transit we drop the probes into the ocean where they sink to the bottom and resurface after 10-days. Upon breaking the surface the top antenna transmits conductivity, salinity and temperature data along with GPS location to a satellite that logs the data. All data logged through the program is free and assessable online. The device will continue to sink and resurface for up to five years before the batteries fail and the device is laid to rest at the bottom of the ocean.

We are currently in route to Station 9, our last station moving south before heading west towards Bermuda. We will be in shallow water close to the coast of Mauritania, Africa and hopefully will be able to see some land! After station 9 it’s homeward bound (though this will take five weeks!) moving west towards the US. We will stop in Bermuda just before thanksgiving before heading north towards Woods Hole, MA. Once on a western track we should have pretty calm seas; we will be traveling mainly in the horse latitudes, a region of subtropical high pressure. This region gets its name because there is little wind and early sailors crossing the sea were often stuck for months and forced to eat their horses to survive.

Team Mercury! With our mad hatter mascot

My lab station for methylmercury and dimethylmercury analysis.

Here is our current position! The red line is the section of cruise track completed and the black numbers outline stations to go. Odd numbered stations are full stations with water sampled at each depth, while even numbered stations are demi stations with only the upper 1000 meters of water sampled. As the stations get closer together I can cut out some of the demis if I start to fall behind!

Setting up all of the bottles on the rosette. There are two casts at each station, one shallow and one deep. Seawater collected from these casts is used for trace-metal analysis (including mercury). If you look closely you will see shower caps on the tops and bottoms of each bottle, these are the openings that are protected as the bottles are transfered in and out of the clean van and prepared for deployment to prevent any contamination. Everyone using water from these casts helps out with deployment, recovery and transporting bottles.