Amy Bower and Kate Fraser stand in front of R/V Knorr before departing on the cruise. (Photo by Terry McKee, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Local Time: 1400
Position: 41 32ºN, 69 28ºW
Weather: Overcast, air temperature 66º
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From Dr. Amy Bower
Sailing day at last! After almost two years of planning, we finally cast off the lines at 0930 this morning as the research vessel Knorr pulled away from the dock. The weather was cool and overcast, but the early morning fog was starting to burn off. A crowd of about 50 people lined the dock to wish us well. As I write, we are heading away from Woods Hole and Cape Cod--east toward Newfoundland. When we get close to there (it will take about 4 days), we will make a big turn to the north to head up into the Labrador Sea.
The seas are not very rough now. The ship sort of lazily rolls gently back and forth. But I notice it, and my stomach tells me we are definitely on a ship! But I’m happy to be finally on our way! On the ship, meals are served cafeteria style. We go up to a window and the ship’s cook dishes out the meal. Breakfast is at 0730, lunch at 1130 and dinner at 1700 (that’s 5:00 PM in ship time). For lunch today we had vegetable soup and pasta with pesto sauce. Pretty yummy!
At 1300 (1:00 PM), we had a meeting to meet some of the ship’s officers: Captain Kent (see his photo and read more about him on The Team web page), the Chief Mate (a woman named Dee), the Chief Engineer, the Comm ET (he’s in charge of the radios) and the ship’s cook (also a woman). They told us all about how to be safe on the ship. Tomorrow we will have a fire and abandon boat drill.
All the excitement and work of the last few days has made me very tired. I think I’ll take a nap!
From Kate Fraser
This morning at 9:30 AM the Knorr began its journey to the Labrador Sea. We are far away from the shore now. I cannot see land. The motion of the ship is making me feel a bit queasy, mostly when I read.
Today I was assigned the position of scientist 5 and an email address to use while I am on the ship. I set up my work space in the lab where I will keep my computer. All the equipment in the lab has to be tied down in case the sea is rough. I also watched Amy and David, the graduate student, collect salinity samples. We will post some data tomorrow.
