On
the morning of the 9th, after having moved onto the Healy the night before, all of us cruise
participants woke up in our cozy staterooms to make final preparations to leave
port and begin the 2015 U.S. GEOTRACES Arctic Expedition at 1 pm. For the most
part, final preparations consisted of organizing and securing our lab spaces,
along with securing our bulky science gear that we had to store in the holds. The
holds were secured by 1 and most everything in the labs was tied down, so we
all went to the forward 02 deck (the deck that directly overlooks the bow) to
watch the Coast Guard crew members pull in the ropes before the Healy was tugged away from the dock by
two small tugboats. Embarking on long research cruises like this one is always
exciting, and it was great to celebrate with so many faces that are just
beginning to become familiar. I look forward to getting to know the cruise
participants, and I know that this is just the beginning of many great memories
to come.
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| Some of us who gathered on the forward 02 deck to celebrate the beginning of this great cruise. |
After
our celebrations, we went to the conference room for the general orientation
meeting, where members of the Coast Guard that we’ll be working with introduced
themselves and briefed us on their roles on the vessel. Following the Coast
Guard introductions, the cruise chief scientist, Dave Kadko, gave us an
overview of the science plan for the cruise, noting the ice conditions and the
schedule for the next few days.
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| Dave sharing the current ice conditions and discussing the science plan with the science party and Coast Guard. Captain Jason Hamilton can be seen sitting to the right of the white board. |
Following
the meeting, we had abandon ship and man overboard drills (typical for the
first day of research cruises), which are always an interesting ways to get to
know each other and to get to know the ship.
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| Trying on our survival suits in the helo hanger. |
After
having our science meetings and safety drills, all 145 of us (51 are scientists)
were ready for a tasty dinner (with salad while it lasts!), and were prepared to
spend two months at sea.
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| One of our last views of land as we left the waters of Unalaska and entered the Bering Sea. |
My
next post will be on the carbon van, which Ryan, Fen and I have organized
beautifully!
—AA
