Boxes, boxes and more boxes!

6th May 2011

No rest today after some long flights yesterday, we all started to unload, unpack, and organize at way before the crack of dawn (the sun isn’t rising here until after 9am). After a quick tour of the main science spaces and some instructions on where boxes should go, it was all hands to the starboard deck to unload all of our science gear from the van it travelled down to Chile in. With amazing efficiency our science party, many of whom only met each other for the first time last night, worked together to get all the science gear unloaded from the van, unpacked into laboratories, organized and inventoried to make sure all was there. Things that were missing were chased up, equipment from the ship was found and set up and the Towed Camera engineers worked tirelessly to start to get the camera system put together.

There is a lot to do before you can actually go to sea and often not much time to do it in. Large research ships spend most of their time at sea, stopping only to let the last science party off, the new one embark, refuel and restock. These ships see literally hundreds of different scientists cross the gangplank, each to do slightly different projects onboard that require different equipment, set-up and skills. As such the turnover from one science party to another can be fast and furious. Having a great science party and ship crew can make this process a lot easier, and we certainly have that here in Punta Arenas.

There is still much to do tomorrow and Sunday, but with our team working so well together today, we are well ahead of the curve. 

By: Rhian

Weather: 39F, 12 knot wind, rain

Most of our boxes were shipped down to Southern Chile inside the WHOI TowCam van. After a few days delay for high winds, it was loaded onto the ship yesterday morning, where it will stay for the duration of our cruise. (R. Waller)

And all the boxes needed to be unloaded today so the TowCam engineers could get inside to set up our camera system. It was all hands on deck! (A. Margolin)

Once all the boxes were unloaded from the container, it was time to start setting up equipment and unpacking. Andrea starts to set up the titration system in the Hydro Lab. (R. Waller)

By the end of the day the Hydro Lab was looking well used! (R. Waller)

 David (left), John and Suzanne cover the Dry Lab tables in contact paper, to both protect the tables and prevent any contamination to sensitive samples. (A. Margolin)