Our
flight to Longyearbyen was a little delayed, and all ~40 of us arrived there
around 1:15 in the morning on July 30.
Once
we got off the plane and retrieved our luggage, we boarded a tour bus that took
us down the road to a small harbor where we waited for a small boat to take 5-6
of us at a time to Oden, since the
harbor was too small for such a big, icebreaking ship.
I
was in one of the last groups to catch the boat, so I walked around the area
and took some photos.
View of the road back towards the airport, taken at
1:59 in the morning.
The
following day (July 31) was spent getting reoriented on the ship, and getting
instruments running and ready in the labs.
That
evening a few of us took small-boat shuttles back to the harbor and walked into
the town of Longyearbyen. On my walk, I stopped by a grocery store to buy
souvenirs, candies and chocolate, as well as the neighboring brewery for my
last beer on land.
View of Oden
from the small boat on its way to the harbor, taken at 6:48 in the evening.
The
following day (Aug 1) at 1:02 in the afternoon, a pilot boarded Oden to navigate us through the straits
near Longyearbyen, and out to the Greenland Sea on the western side of
Svalbard.
As
the ship moved, my troubleshooting began, which involved testing a variety of
things and solving a number of small problems that presented themselves. Since
this is the first expedition that I’ve been on without having a supervisor on
board, it was and is my responsibility to resolve any instrumental issues by
troubleshooting.
However,
I do have the capability to email my lab’s technician, Olivia, who is an expert
with all of our instruments, or my supervisor, Elizabeth, who is the principal
investigator of my Arctic project. Unfortunately, though, I quickly learned
that for some reason my institute’s email server thinks my shipboard email is
spam, so I wasn’t able to exchange emails with Olivia or Elizabeth until
yesterday (Aug 7) evening! Over the past week, I truly was troubleshooting in the dark.
To
take breaks from my troubleshooting, I’ve gone up to the bridge to get a nice
view, as well as to focus on reading and writing. A few days ago I began
reading The New Yorker’s “The white
darkness: A solitary journey across Antarctica,” which seemed fitting for many
of the white out days we’ve had so far, despite
being about the other polar region.
At
the start of our Arctic expedition, a quote from that reading stood out to me,
which was actually taken from Shackleton’s The heart of the Antarctic,
and it is as follows:
Men [and women] go out into the void
spaces of the world for various reasons. Some are actuated simply by a love of
adventure, some have the keen thirst for scientific knowledge, and others again
are drawn away from the trodden paths by the ‘lure of little voices,’ the
mysterious fascination of the unknown.
I’d
say that quote probably resonates with everyone on this expedition, scientists
and crew alike.
In
addition to taking solitary breaks from work, I’ve also enjoyed the company of
the people on board, who I’ve shared many delicious meals with so far, as well
as coffees, teas and hot cocoas, and an occasional drink at the bar (once our
work is done, of course!).
We’re making ripples into the void spaces of the
world, taken on Aug 4 at 1:50 (GMT) in the afternoon.
My lab space is in good shape after a week of
troubleshooting, taken Aug 7 at 1:53 (GMT) in the afternoon, while analyzing
melted sections of a sea ice core for alkalinity and dissolved CO2.
Hopefully
by the next time I write you, we will have reached the Pole. Whether we make it
there or not, it’s nice and cool up here at 86.75°N :)
—AA
