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Deploying an O-buoy is a complex and dangerous task. Even putting the pieces together takes the ship’s onboard crane to help do the heavy lifting. This is all just preparation for when it is deployed on the ice. The main job then is to make sure the ice is in a safe condition in which to work before doing anything else. If deemed safe, a hole is drilled through the ice, and a metal tube goes into the water underneath with this “antenna station” (shown in the photo) remaining above the surface. The antenna station takes measurements like temperature and wind speed/direction, and has GPS tracking (if the ice melts, you’ll be able to find it). When in the water, the top of the tube will stay afloat due to the yellow “flotation collar.” The O-buoy apparatus will be stabilized in the sea ice, and measures carbon dioxide, bromine oxide, and ozone in the atmosphere. It’s going to take the ship a couple more days to get to the sea ice (this is summer, and sea ice is at its minimum), so stay tuned for O-buoy deployment, and to see the operations in action!

 

It’s hard to get a sense in pictures for the scale of this ship. From the inside, it is a labyrinth of cabins, offices, radio room, laboratories, machine rooms, hallways, and steep staircases (be sure to remember you are on the ocean, and hold onto the hand rails when you’re walking on those steep stairways). From the outside, the ship is decks full of equipment and cargo, the tower leading to the “bridge” (where the captain and watch officers drive the boat), crane, helipad… and many more features I’ve yet to learn, but hopefully will! But here is one thing that gives you an idea of scale. These are spare propeller blades for the ship. By the way, don’t touch them, unless you want black something all over your hands. (Notice that Willy the Box Turtle got curious, and you can see the size of him compared to the propellers.)

 

As I have mentioned, we are more than 60 people from almost a dozen countries (and more than 70 crew). Some people might know someone else onboard, but many don’t. And we’re on a ship together for the next few weeks, so it seems like a nice idea to get to know all the people who will never be more than a few hundred feet away from you. One of the expedition sponsors/organizers, the Arctic Antarctic Research Institute in Russia, planned to help us all out by providing some food and refreshments for a “get to know each other” reception. Afterward, we went outside to stand on the ship’s helipad to get some fresh air. (The air is very fresh, as you may imagine.)

There are two life boats on board (which is good to know). If you want to learn some proper ship terminology, one life boat is on the port (left) side of the ship, and another on the starboard (right) side. Yesterday we went through the whole emergency drill, beginning with the ship’s horn sounding the emergency signal: 7 short blasts followed by 1 long blast. We all had to get our life jacket from our cabins, make sure we had their boots, coats, hats, etc, and get to our designated meet-up location under the life boats (each person was previously assigned port or starboard side) for roll call. That’s the last time I hope to think about life jackets…

As we move further into the open ocean, scientists on board are busy getting their instruments and equipment prepared for when we stop at our first observation “station.” These two scientists on the expedition’s chemistry team are attaching this white disk (called a secchi disk) to a rope, and at a station, will lower it into the water to measure the depth sunlight reaches. There is little current in the region of the Arctic, so the disk drags the rope fairly vertically downward. Using periodic markings on the rope, they will calculate how far down the disk is when they can no longer see it, and also the intensity of sunlight at different depths. They will use water samples taken at depths between the surface and 70m deep that correspond to 100% light intensity (meaning the water’s surface), 50% light intensity, 30%, 12%, 5% and 1% (when the light intensity is nearly zero). The goal is to learn about phytoplankton in the ocean, and how much carbon it takes in via photosynthesis. We still have some distance to cover before our first station, so later on we’ll tell you more about this and how it goes (and how scientists will continue to study the water samples in Korea).

Our first official meeting onboard came just after we pushed away from land. It was the safety briefing that is mandated to occur within the first 24 hours of the expedition with the Chief Scientist onboard, Vladimir Ivanov. Here is what to keep in mind:

•     When you see a “Don’t Enter” sign, don’t enter. (The sign may be in Russian, so pay attention, and use common sense).

•     For mooring operation (moorings are structures that will secure the ship in a given location, and the operations can be complex and dangerous), the only ones allowed in the area are the mooring technicians. The rest of us should go to another deck to observe from above.

•     A loudspeaker is piped throughout the ship, including our cabins. Announcements are in Russian, and will be translated to English for select important announcements (although if you go by tone of voice alone, they all sound important).

•     Cabins have emergency life jackets (put them on while on the ship, don’t wait until you’re outside like they tell you on airplanes), and if we hear the ship’s horn signal with 7 short blasts and 1 long blast, that’s the emergency signal. If you hear a pattern of horn blasts that you don’t recognize, don’t do anything, because it doesn’t apply to you.

•     My favorite question/answer of the meeting: Question: What do you do if you lock yourself out of your cabin? Answer: It’s best to keep your door unlocked.

•     Emergency boat drill today at 5pm!

 

As the ship left dock and headed for the opening in the fjord to open waters, I saw a tiny boat coming at us at full speed. (If I wasn’t on this mammoth ship I might not call this other boat tiny, but now my perspective on ship size is forever altered.) It pulled right up to the side of our Akademik Fedorov, and dropped off a “pilot” who climbed onboard our ship to help “drive” us in exactly the right path out of the fjord. Looking down onto the little boat from the upper decks, I learned what that when ships like this are leaving port, they often need assistance in staying on the exact preferred course, which is given by the bathymetry (underwater topography) of the sea floor. This little boat helped push our mammoth ship onto the right path!

My first night on the ship, I looked out my porthole at about midnight, and saw something out of my ordinary experience – some light! It looked like what I would normally think of as the last bit of red/orange light after sunset. Of course we’re at high latitudes here, and it’s summertime, which means that the Earth is tilted so that the northern hemisphere is nearer the Sun. Grab a flashlight and a globe and try it out.

These TV monitors in the canteen/cafeteria/mess hall have all of our location coordinates and data (in Russian). We can always find here the latitude/longitude, the underwater topography of the ground (also called bathymetry), wind speed and direction, temperature, solar radiation, and humidity. And the little red ship is the Akademik Fedorov! (Side note: You may see me spell the ship’s name as Akademik Fedorov or Akademik Fyodorov. I was told before coming that either could be considered correct, but the name on the ship is Akademik Fedorov.)

Thanks to Ilona, a scientist onboard from Poland, our expedition, and this blog, as made it all the way onto Polish media as well! (You may just need a little help with the link below from Google Translate.)

Report on a Scientific Expedition to the Arctic with NABOS