We got up early in the hope that it would be calm enough to finish our sorting. It wasn’t really, but we still went for it since we were already awake. It was actually pretty successful, you just had to move very quickly to catch the little buggers as they ran across the trays with the mini waves. In case you were wondering, mornings like this, science is run on tea. The British empire still reigns.
One of the teachers was also very excited to show us this little punk guy, he was pretty awesome. And quite possible we will have to identify him on our exam, which would be awesome, cause he’s got some pretty visible punkage going on.
After all the sorting it was pretty important that we at least give identifying things a bit of a go. Though.. we are talking about polychaets, its not an easy kind of worm to be differentiating between. In fact, it’s more than a little bit difficult. There’s a million new different words to learn, and even telling which bit is the head and which bit is the tail is tricky. So, the fellow below is what I had to try and identify. It was not the most pleasant or easy experience. I have gained even more respect for our experts, of whom there are very few in the world. They do a hard job, a very repetitive job and they know their stuff. This is the little guy I had to identify.
The captain did a great job of trying to shelter us today from the weather, so that we at least had a chance of getting some work done. He sheltered us behind a glacier and with the winds picking up you could really feel it. We’ve also had some horizontal snow which all the Australians got pretty excited about. It was that special kind of wind that rips all heat out of your hands instantly and wends its way through and into your clothing. It was at least two cups of tea and hot chocolate to regain feeling.
And now we are sitting up on deck waiting for the storm to hit. There’s been a few casualties, and there’s bound to be a few more. But currently yours truly is going ok. I’m hoping we’ll see some proper north seas, it hasn’t felt a whole lot like we are in the Arctic till now.
We did see some proper seas, but they were almost impossible to photograph. Waves crashed over the bow, I got airborne in my bed and woke up covered in little bruises. But over all I had a great night. It was the first night off in a very long time and it was a shame most people weren’t up for enjoying it. We watched a movie, at this point about 10 of us were ok (from 17), then had dinner, after which we dropped to about 5, and gradually dried off from there. It was fun, although it wouldn’t be any fun to live in for any extended period of time. You have to hold onto everything, you have to hold onto both banisters as you walk up and down stairs. The change from floating down the stairs to being squished onto them can be a bit rough and has been known to break the occasional leg. But for the people who were sick it was about 15 hours of hell, and most of them only seem to have got a few hours of sleep.
I was quite glad we didn’t a) run into the perfect storm, b) run into one of the freak waves some of my mates at UNSW are researching in their water laboratory. Occasionally, due to a combination of wave effects, you can end up with waves 10’s of meters high. These freak waves have been known to wipe out ships and oil rigs in one wave. They are almost impossible to predict and to prepare for so the guys at UNSW are attempting to replicate the conditions using millions of different wave combinations.
Tomorrow we are back to Ny Ålesund and the sheltered fjords to do some kelp collection and learn about echinoderms.
I was quite glad we didn’t a) run into the perfect storm, b) run into one of the freak waves some of my mates at UNSW are researching in their water laboratory. Occasionally, due to a combination of wave effects, you can end up with waves 10’s of meters high. These freak waves have been known to wipe out ships and oil rigs in one wave. They are almost impossible to predict and to prepare for so the guys at UNSW are attempting to replicate the conditions using millions of different wave combinations.
Tomorrow we are back to Ny Ålesund and the sheltered fjords to do some kelp collection and learn about echinoderms.