We are now in weather area Rockall, to the west of Ireland. Today has been a gruelling day because, in addition to normal tasks, we also started analysing some of the water we have been carrying with us since Scotland.
In Wednesday’s blog the setup of the bioassays was described. On Wednesday, the water for the bioassays was collected off the Outer Hebrides in the early hours of the morning. Today, two days later, at 5am, we started measuring them, to see what difference the CO2 level made.
This involved a surge of early morning activity as most of us got out of bed in order to extract water from the bioassay bottles.
After the early morning surge we have been kept busy by two more “CTD stations”. These are times when the ship halts temporarily to lower the CTD and collect water at a number of different depths; the water is then brought back on deck for sampling and analysis, after which the ship gets underway again.
Today has been rather cold and windy, although thankfully not much rain. Most had hoped that the weather would get warmer, now that we are heading southwards, but so far there is no sign of that. Some are finding the cold weather invigorating and bracing, but many, especially those from warmer countries, are finding it uncomfortably cold, even with thermals and windproof jackets.