We have just set sail, so we thought it would be a nice to send a newsletter to keep you up to date with how we are, after a week away. We left RAF Brize Norton on Monday evening and had no significant delays during the journey. Our only anxious moments were when Mike, Lucy and Alison only just arrived in the nick of time to check in for the flights, and we were already worrying about how we might have to manage without them ! We were very pleased to meet up with our French participant Michel and our German participants Uli and Oliver. Karen nearly made off with the hire car keys in her luggage to the Falklands. The enormous mound of luggage was shared out amongst everybody, and off we went. We enjoyed the brief spell in the morning sunshine at Ascension during refuelling. We had a slight technical delay but the captain said that ground engineers had given the plane the once over and thought it was OK. He added ‘The ground engineer seemed to know what he was talking about’ ! We finally arrived in the Falklands Tuesday afternoon.

The James Clark Ross was not due in until Thursday so we had 2 days to be tourists. We stayed at the Ross Complex (aka the Inferiority Complex), basically like a youth hostel. Various expeditions were organised. Some of us took a day trip to Volunteer Point, several bumpy hours in a landrover off road to see a colony of King Penguins. They were remarkably relaxed when we approached to take (millions of) photos. The Gentoo and Magellanic penguins were more nervous. Nick was the most enterprising, and arranged a 24 hour trip by air to Sealion Island, where he saw elephant seals and huge penguin colonies. The fittest amongst us went to some nearby hills on long walks. Unfortunately the weather was not good – some days showery, other days just drizzly, but always windy. We were excited to see the ship coming in Thursday lunchtime. First impressions of some people as she sailed past the headland were that she was awfully small to be going south in. However they were reassured when they went on board on Friday and realised how big she is. Kate reckons she is like a Tardis, looks small on the outside but is much bigger on the inside.

Our containers were craned on board on Friday afternoon, and in the evening we started to unload and unpack. The chemists have decided to all be one happy family in the main lab, CFCs, SF6, nutrients and dissolved oxygens all together. Soon they were surrounded by a huge pile of crates and boxes. The CTD, LADCP and data processing side is all in the UIC lab, one deck up. On Saturday morning the unpacking began in earnest. The liquid nitrogen generator was craned aboard and installed by Simon down in the scientific hold. We were greatly impressed and very grateful for his expertise when he announced after lunch that the beast was running. All we now have to do is wait 40 hours to see if it produces any liquid nitrogen. As an interim measure, to take some of the pressure off, Lucy made an expedition to Mount Pleasant, the air base, to fill a couple of dewars with liquid nitrogen. The RAF produce it as a byproduct and were happy to let us have some.

The mobilisation days were hectic but most of us still found time to visit the Seamen’s Mission, near the port, for tea and cakes. This is run by a Danish woman and is universally agreed to have the best home made cakes in the Falklands. Lizzy flabbergasted us all by going for incredibly long runs and still looking perky. Evenings were spent either in the ship’s bar, or some took the shuttle bus into Stanley to the pubs.

Our first major headache was the discovery that the Ashtech 3dgps is dead. This is a clever piece of navigational equipment which tracks GPS satellites and tells us a very accurate heading for the ship, essential for the shipborne acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). There is no spare on board and despite Pat Cooper’s best efforts it cannot be made to work. However a replacement had been ordered some weeks ago, and its delivery date was Monday 15^th March in Cambridge. Since accurate current measurements are vital for many of the cruise’s objectives, we decided that it was worth exploring all possible avenues for getting a replacement to the ship. We lined up a UEA PhD student, Tim Marwood, to be on standby to fly out to the Falklands on the Monday night flight from Brize Norton. This would entail a day’s delay in sailing, which we deemed worthwhile for the advantages of the Ashtech. Monday morning found us anxiously awaiting news from Cambridge whether the crucial parcel had been delivered. Our spirits sank when we heard that it had not, and would not arrive for several more days. We have had to resign ourselves to less accurate ADCP currents. We are so pleased that we have the lowered ADCP, which will now be our salvation.

Our other disappointment is that the XBT system is not working. This measures the temperature of the water in the top 1000 m, and can be launched from the ship while it is steaming along. We use it to fill in the gaps between stations, to get a more accurate picture of where changes occur. The XBT was hand carried out from BAS as a replacement for one which had broken. We are hoping that it may be coaxed into life. Oh yes, and we shouldn’t forget that Matlab didn’t work on our computer because of a bad license file, and the only exabyte (tape reading/writing device) on board caused Nick Crisp’s hard disk to be completed wiped, setting him back by 24 hours ( he has remained remarkably cheerful !). The good news is that the nutrient/oxygen team are ready to go, the CFC and SF6 team are making good progress, the CTD and LADCP are ready to go, and the technicians and engineers on board have been superb in sorting out problems of all kinds.

On Monday morning Prince Charles visited the Falklands fishery protection vessel, tied alongside the JCR. The JCR looked lovely all decked out in flags. Karen, and the Master, Chris, went to a reception at the Seamen’s Mission, and got to shake HRH’s hand, but were disappointed he didn’t have time to come on board the JCR.

We set sail from Stanley at 4 pm, resigned to the lack of the Ashtech. It was a relief to be started on our project. The first hour or so was devoted to Boat drill and safety procedures. We don’t arrive at our test station until midday Tuesday, so watches have not yet started, and only limited data sets are being collected. We sail on into the night, luckily with reasonable weather. ALBATROSS is airborne !

Karen and Dave (Chief Scientists)

Penguin joke of the week :

Q. How does a penguin build its house ?

A. Igloos it together.