Setting off

17 January 2024

After beginning their journey at Norwich train station, the UEA team, including Lead Principal Investigator Prof Karen Heywood, made their way to Punta Arenas – a 13000 km and 36 hour trip – on the southernmost tip of South America. The cruise embarked from there on 17 January and is due to return in mid-March.

On the RRS Sir David Attenborough, the team joined up with researchers from other institutions to form an international research group of 32.

The PICCOLO research cruise will travel 1500 km to the Weddell Sea, east of the Antarctic Peninsula, where the research will finally begin! On the way they will drop off teams of geologists and paleoclimate scientists at Seymour Island and James Ross Island. Those teams will camp there to complete their fieldwork.

From Ruth Airs, Plymouth Marine Laboratory:

Mobilisation or getting set up for a science cruise is such an unwieldy beast. The whole process started months ago when we packed all our kit in the UK for it to be loaded onto the Sir David Attenborough in containers in Harwich. Typically seven or eight scientists will fill a full size shipping container to the brim with aluminium boxes, instruments, and specialist equipment carefully packed and labelled. Packing is a skill in itself. It’s probably most similar to moving house, except you have to buy everything you need first, in the right quantity for the whole of the cruise, make sure it will arrive in good time and not forget anything you will need.

So the process of mobilisation starts with three or more containers full of kit on the ship and 25+ scientists eager to get started unpacking. We have to make a plan and co-operate as space is limited, kit can be heavy and there are lots of potential hazards/bulkheads to pass to get a single box in a useful place.

That’s once everyone has found all their safety gear.

Once everyone has access to their boxes and their work area, unpacking and set up can start. This is a slow process with problem solving along the way. How best to position and secure everything so science can be conducted safely while the ship is moving (sometimes a lot). Gaffa tape, ratchet straps, bungees, hooks, rope and screws become a scientist’s go-to. We also have to stop for safety briefings and other essential preparations for going to sea. We tend to work long hours to make sure we can meet the deadline of the ship’s departure.

What are scientists like during this process? Well, we tend to be outwardly pleasant and humorous (it’s great to finally be here and the promise of getting started). We help each other out and support each other. Inwardly most people feel quite anxious until the chaos starts to resemble a working laboratory, and we know we can finish.

In fact, in a science briefing yesterday our principal scientist asked if anyone was feeling anxious. We all laughed because everyone was feeling anxious – it was the last full day of mobilisation. We did it though; everything is safely secured, and we are at different stages of ready to conduct science.

And we set sail about four hours ago.