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| Alex Clarke and the CTD, starboard deck |
Hello, I am one of the students on board
RRS Discovery, helping out with the refurbishment of the RAPID array. I
graduated from the University of Bath in physics and have been searching for
exciting opportunities for further study in various fields. I have never sailed
any meaningful distance before, and so the opportunity to spend 6 weeks as sea
was very exciting, especially tied in with the science work.
I have to say, the
excitement somewhat died on day 2 and 3 due to feeling ill and sea sick.
However I am gradually able to use a computer for longer periods now without
having to go and lie down. The constant wavering of the boat is quite an
interesting experience, I am still finding it hard to walk around and carry out
daily tasks without almost falling over.
One of the major points of excitement
was when we sailed over the continental plate and took a look at the echo depth
sounder as we went from 500 to 5000 meters of water (unimaginably deep!). I was
also lucky enough to see a pair of dolphins whilst I was looking over the front
of the boat.
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| The moon, Venus and, most importantly, the CTD |
I am a keen star-gazer and I got a glimpse of the sky out here the
other night, it was very misty (which was fairly scary in itself being out on
deck in the dark) but I still caught a shooting star, saw part of the Milky way
and picked out Andromeda without any need for binoculars! So I am looking
forward to even clearer nights to come.
We are currently in international
waters off of Portugal and have tested the CTD to 1000 m. The next one (due at
3am) will be interesting as it goes all the way down to 5000 meters. Lastly I
am looking forward to getting out to the RAPID array, seeing how they are
retrieved and deployed, and also using the data that we get from them.
Alex Clarke
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