Lindsay in the Arctic

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

 

Note to self: When people who are experienced in expeditions like this tell you to bring oversized backpacks, or bags you can throw over your shoulder, instead of rollerbboard-type luggage, listen to them. I brought a big suitcase, a little suitcase, and a backpack. I had to lug them up this rail stairway onto the ship, over and around doorframes, steep steps, and tight corners. Lesson learned.

After navigating me and my luggage through the labyrinth of the ship’s interior, I got to my room. I have a little bed with curtains, a desk, a bathroom, and – I have to put an exclamation point behind the sentence that says I have a porthole for a window for the next 5 weeks!

I have said that we have 61 or so participants on this cruise, but that number does not count the crew. There are over 70 crew members on the ship, including the Captain, machinists, cooks, and the radio guy. I met him (his real name is Vladimir, not “the radio guy” – he’s on the left in the photo), and tested out the Iridium Satellite sim card that I brought with me in the Iridium Open Port, and it worked! (Insert sigh of relief here.) This is what is going to allow me to communicate with you. I will be participating in onboard activities and writing offline, and then I will go meet Vladimir every day at a given time, and he will help me send off the stories and photos of the expedition. We can also buy satellite phone cards from Vladimir for $10 for 10 minutes. That’s comforting to have that option, but I’ll have to talk fast.

It’s a great irony: the ocean is like a desert. There may be lots of water, but there is none to drink. We were told that we are allocated 1.5L of water per day, in addition to meals. A big discussion before boarding was how much extra water to buy and bring onboard. We all went around town and bought out the town’s supply of bottled water – literally. Just thinking about limits on water can make you thirsty, and even though we’ll be surrounded by water, it’s only the illusion of something to drink, and thirsty is something you don’t want to be.