In a post the day before yesterday, I wrote that we were soon getting ready to put a glider in the water. Here’s how it went. It may well have been an outdoor rock concert. We got word when we should go outside, and got all dressed in layers (required, at a latitude of 81°N, air/water temperatures of 0°C, and wind seemingly about a billion miles per hour). We all stood on the helideck, leaning over the railing and watching scientists and technicians on the deck below operate the “knuckleboom” crane (a slang boat term, but you’ll get it from the picture below). It slowly reached toward the glider, lifted it up and over the side, and dropped it in the water. It all happened in slow motion, but none of us even thought of getting out of the wind without seeing the whole show. This glider will “listen” to instructions from a driver at the University of Washington, periodically surfacing to get more directions and transmit data. The driver will have it meet us on our way back this way in a few weeks. Everyone should stop and be amazed about all of that for a minute.
Hello,Lindsey,your pictures are very interesting, please -more pictures!
Hi Ludus, thanks, I’m glad you are liking the photos! Trust me, I will have thousands by the end of this expedition. It’s really difficult (and expensive) to send emails and photos from the ship, but I will post as many as I can! Do you have any requests of things you’d like to see, and I can try to post something like that?