Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 09:56
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Seawater Property Changes in the Southern Ocean

Hi Juan, I've been enjoying your blog! What an exciting trip. I've taken a special interest in your journey aboard the NBP because I will be boarding it immediately after you wrap up! The cruise NBP1103 will be leaving out of Punta Arenas on May 9th for 4-6 weeks to sample deep-sea corals throughout the Drake Passage. As a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology studying paleoceanography (in particular deep-sea corals), I was fortunate to be able to join NBP1103.

This will be my first cruise and I'm not entirely sure what to pack. I saw your blog post with a packing list before leaving but I wonder if, having now lived aboard the NBP for some time, you have any wise tips on what to pack or not pack. Have there been items you wished you'd brought? Items that you packed but haven't used? Any advice would be welcome!

One last coincidence: I grew up just outside Madison, in Cross Plains! It's a small world.

Cheers, David

Sun, 04/17/2011 - 14:50

Juan Botella

Hi David, Congratulations on your upcoming expedition! I will be glad to give
some advice as to how my packing went. The one thing I wish I had packed
more are more supplies to keep my camera lenses clean! And extra lens caps
or one of those strings that keep them attached to the lens.
I am overall pretty happy with my packing, but might have had a different
experience if we had to work more on deck. I have not had a big need for
the thick hiking socks with silk sock liners I got because we have done
most of the work form the baltic room, which takes us out of the elements
while sampling. I am happy to have them when we do work outside, like
during mooring work. I am not sure what type of work you will do. If you
will spend a lot of time on deck I would bring even more thick socks than
the ones I brought (for a weeks worth, at least).
I have not used my long Johns since I prefer to use the wind breaking
pants we got at McMurdo. They are easier to put on and remove going in and
out from the ship than long underwear. This might be a personal preference,
since I tend to get warm inside the ship. I wear jeans, t-shirt and a
fleece while inside. When it gets a little bit colder I use the dawn vest,
which I strongly recommend.
When I step outside I wear the windbreaking pants and the dawn jacket we
got in McMurdo. I also prefer using this jacket when going out to take
pictures on the decks above the main deck instead of the float-coat because
it is more comfortable (you will be asked to always use the float coat on
the main deck). If you are arriving to Punta Arenas at the end of the
cruise, you might not receive the dawn jacket and wind breaking pants, in
which case I recommend bringing your own. Think what you used in Cross
Plains during the winter: a nice outer shell with some warm filling inside.
Bring glove liners. I brought thin ones from REI and I lost one in
McMurdo. I am borrowing a pair of thicker ones when sampling from the
rosette with disposable plastic gloves on top. Again, I am not sure what
type of work is involved in sampling deep corals.
Most definitively pack plenty of ping pong balls, since we have been
suffering and had to glue the cracks on some. Hugo says bring a back up
camera if you can; his broke in Christchurch. I brought an extra camera and
mine has not broken. Check what batteries you will need and bring extras. I
checked everything except the microphone I brought. I could not find that
battery at Christchurch, so I am am trying to conserve the juice. I am very
happy I brought an extra battery for the camera, as one can be charging
while I use the other. Bring extra memory cards if you plan on taking lots
of video, and a hard drive where to back up everything! A 500 Gb might do
it, but get 1Tb if you can.
Do bring a headlamp if you can, with red light if possible. I am very
happy with mine when I have to move around the cabin and someone else is
sleeping (I am in the only room with four people). Also bring books. I was
expecting a better library than what I found here. Lots of people have
their Kindles and other readers and are most happy with that choice. If you
are bringing an apple laptop bring the connection that allows you to plug
it in to a monitor. They have plenty of those on the dry lab.
I am not a coffee drinker, but people who drink coffee are glad they
brought their own. Same with tea. About food, it is plenty abundant, but
not always vegetarian friendly. I am not sure what you would do about that
if you were vegetarian. Perhaps bring lots of dry nuts. Let me know if you
are and I will ask the vegetarian crowd what would they have brought.
I packed too many dry-fit shirts (the ones for running that keep you dry)
thinking I was going to be more active on the ship that I have been, but I
could have done with two or three t-shirts more, since they are less stinky
over time. Do bring the synthetic shirts if you plan to workout on the gym.
I like the flip-flops for the bathroom. Do bring moisturizing cream, as
the ship is pretty dry. Ah! I almost forgot. I am relying on the
seasickness pills from the ship, since everybody told me to stay away from
the patches I brought. It is not dramamine, but also over the counter I
believe.
I have seen people brought their own dawn comforter, which seems a nice
idea if you have extra space in your luggage, but the blanket you will get
here is enough for keeping you warm.
My message turned out to be quite disorganized, I apologize. Let me know if
you have more questions or need clarification.
And for my own benefit: how old are the corals you will be collecting and
at what depths are they? How do you sample deep corals? How do you find
where they are? Why would you do this work in winter and not in late summer
or early fall (like us, I guess)?
Good luck on your trip!
Juan.

Sun, 04/17/2011 - 20:48

Anonymous

Hi Juan,
Thank you for all the packing tips! It will be helpful while acquiring equipment and packing my bags. I'm beyond excited for this experience, which I'm sure you can relate to.
The corals we'll be collecting will span from modern to tens of thousands of years in age. Their skeletons are excellent archives of ocean characteristics over 10kya timescales. If we're lucky, we'll pull up some that are hundreds of thousands of years old, but those corals are more rare. They are found at a range of depths, from "shallow" (low 100's of meters) to "deep" (several thousand meters, perhaps 2500 m at deepest). We will be collecting by a "rough" method -- dredges and trawls on the seafloor. We will first cruise over sampling locations with a TowCam to acquire images of the seafloor. Those images will allow us to perform targeted sampling with our equipment. It is also possible to sample deep-sea corals with submersibles (manned or unmanned), but our cruise will not have a submersible onboard. As far as where they are... that's a great question! The PI's on our cruise performed preliminary sampling in the Drake Passage in 2008 and found a trove of deep-sea corals. We'll be returning to the 2008 locations as well as exploring some new ones, but one major goal for our cruise is build an algorithm for finding deep-sea corals based on seafloor bathymetry and conditions. With such an algorithm, future cruises wouldn't be shooting into the dark when they search for deep-sea corals. Lastly, I'm not exactly sure why our cruise is leaving in the winter, other than that the boat is currently occupied! Our cruise was originally intended to be earlier (I think the 03 in NBP1103 is for March), but I'm not sure why we pushed back to May/June.
We will have a blog updated daily during our cruise. If you're curious feel free to follow along at: http://antarcticcorals.blogspot.com/
David