Today is Sunday, and it is the first Sunday in Advent 2007, recognizable by the kitchen serving us duck and red cabbage together with dumplings. Additionally, most of the scientists started decorating their working places with Christmas stuff, creating a holiday atmosphere even far away from home and the normal routine. There is a fairy light making for a Christmas atmosphere in the sorting lab and an Advent calendar (you get to open a door to look at little pictures hidden behind each day until Christmas Eve) around the next corner.
While the lonely “Continuous Plankton Recorder” (CPR) is recording data behind the vessel, we enjoy Christmas cookies during tea time. The weather is a little bit unpleasant. With Beaufort 8-9 the wind is quite strong, and ever so often a wave is entering the working deck, so we are not allowed to go out there anymore. Thus, scientists and crew spend most time of the day inside.
As we would like the first station to be in the region of a plankton bloom, we need the data collected by the CPR while underway. We will revisit the first station on the way back and then hopefully know more about the influence of the plankton bloom to benthic organisms living 2700m below on the deep-sea floor. This is the whole idea behind our expedition. We want to know more about bentho-pelagic coupling. What happens in the water column and on the deep-sea floor. How is everything connected?
Today for most scientists it is the last chance to relax before approaching the station and the first deployment of their gears during this cruise. During the daily evening meeting we discuss the deployment and the order of the gears. Due to the high waves, to deploy the gears may not be so easy. During the coming night wind will increase to Beaufort 10 and it will be quite rocky on board. In the labs, all equipment is well fixed and we are prepared…
Saskia Brix, Senckenberg
Photo: Lydia Kramer, Senckenberg