25.01.2013 (Friday). Sunshine in the
morning. The weather has seriously cooled down. We see a lot of Cape petrels
and a few giant petrels. Two strong guys of the crew brings us two 50 kg rails
from the hold (ballast for the lander). It was really painful for them to climb
the trap with them. The holes in the metal plate for fixing the rails are not
exactly at the right position for the bolts, so the guys of the workshop have
to enlarge them. In the end our 100 kg of ballast (2 pieces of 50 kg of rails
fixed on a metal plate) are ready for use (but they should not be used before
two weeks). We mount the trap system, except the acoustic larger, which has to
be tested later on before fixation on the lander. A lot of bolts and nuts have
to be used for fixing the buoys on the lander. Now it is easy because we have
an electric screwer, but 6 years ago, we had to do everything manually and it
was a terrible job. At the beginning of the afternoon I see my first iceberg: a
small one far away. We mount four small lamps IKEA (model Jansjö) with flexible
neck as light source for photographying specimens. We are almost ready and
become excited in expectation of our first samplings of tomorrow: Agassiz trawl
(twice) and Rauschert dredge (once). I feel that this is too much (for me and
Marie) for doing everything as I planned and I guess that we will have to skip
part of the processing of the specimens. I also fear there will be a lot of
improvisation and chaos, as it is often the case during the first sampling day.
Around 18:30, we are just north of King George Island (which we do not see),
but the sea is still totally free of ice. However, around midnight, I have a
look at the window of my cabin and I see that there are scarce drifting
iceflows everywhere on the sea.
Fixing Buoys with bolts.
Lander partly assembled
(Cédric)
Last day of travel to station
Joinville North, we should arrive around 2:00 during the night. I’m quite
impatient to begin the sampling and see what we can find at the bottom of that
opaque dark blue ocean. Early in the
morning, we meet in the corridors of the working deck to build the Amphipod
Traps. This sampling device is a big metal cage, with 6 buoys attached on the
sides and the traps fixed on the bottom, a lander in the middle to release the
weights at the right moment, which are 2 heavy rails fixed to the cage with a
chain. A superior frame is also attached with a rope to the roof of the cage
and to the upper side of the lander, it has also 2 big buoys fixed on it. We
spent a good part of the day fixing the buoys and attaching everything
together. Before we use this device, we will still have to test the lander, to
make sure that it works properly because this equipment is very expensive and
we can’t lose it in the Antarctic waters! Then, we’ll fix it in the cage, as
well as the radio beacon which will be used to find the cage back after the
release. But this has to wait, as we won’t use the traps at the first station.
As we assemble the cage, I take a look outside and see a whole group of Cape
petrels floating just besides the boat. All black and white, middle-sized, very
beautiful birds. All along the day we will see them around the ship, many of
them flying everywhere. I wonder if they follow us, maybe hoping to catch some
fishes from our nets. We also spot an iceberg in the distance with a whole
bunch of small funny penguins on it.
(Marie)
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