Cruise
Log: Monday, March 29, 2004
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March
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29
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April
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| Pre-press
Publicity Shot for The Men of NIWA Calendar 2005: from left
to right Tony (Mr April), Chris (Mr December) and Toliv (Mr
July) (Photo by Matt Walkington). |
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The patch a couple of days ago (Photo by Matt Walkington).
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Contact
Lost?
Contributor: Matt Walkington
With the tempest somewhat
appeased, early this morning we returned to SF6 mapping. The patch was originally
released as a hexagon approximately 7 km across, and as recently as Saturday
apparently a single well-defined blob. The question now is whether it has
been stretched, distorted and broken into filaments by the variable relative
motion of the surface ocean currents, particularly in response to the recent
storm. It also could have been forced down by a slightly less dense, warmer
layer of surface water. This real prospect would effectively spell the end
of following this patch and perhaps set the scene for moving on to a second
release. The surface buoy tracking the patch was moving erratically, reflecting
the great variability of the surface ocean confronting us during this experiment.
By 1 pm today, we
completed in-station CTD casts for continuous vertical profiles of water
properties. Water samples at selected depths were also collected. This
allows for post-cruise analysis of dissolved-gas, chemical and biological
properties. CTD measurements were hampered by the ship drifting out of
the patch during the course of the scheduled "gas" and "bio"
casts, resulting in necessary repeat casts.
Thank goodness for
the strains of Miles Davis' Summertime floating from the new speakers
of the CTD control computer. Thank goodness, too, for last night's entertainment
from our own shipboard musicians: Ed Abraham (Irish fiddle and banjo),
Craig Stevens (guitar) and Skipper Roger Goodison (guitar). Thanks too,
for the so-far reliable e-mail contact with home and our real lives. And
thanks most of all for the safety and protection of our vessel RV Tangaroa
and for all the good folks of the shipboard party, without which none
of this would be possible. The difficult conditions and ambitious tasks
of recent days have illustrated this last point only too well. Evening
now and we are still searching for the elusive patch. Much depends on
decisions to be made in the next day or two. Much depends also on the
whims of the weather. A second release or infusion increasingly looks
to be a prospect.
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The CTD Team
The CTD Team
consists of one, Matt Walkington, with casual and much appreciated
help from many others of the science party and crew. Its aim is
to use our Seabird 911plus/32 CTD/water sampler instrumentation
to deliver high resolution, high accuracy profiles of water properties
plus discrete water samples as required at the "in," "out"
and "survey" stations. Next Day>>
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| Cliff
Law ponders our situation at SF6 mapping headquarters (Photo by Matt
Walkington). |
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Introduction 
