Full day out at sea and am having a ball!!!! We left the docks at 9:00 pm Saturday night, heading out around the south end of Vancouver Island. Weather was good. Woke up about 2:00 am to a very very rolling sea – not huge – about 3 foot waves and no chop – really no worse than Dan and I have had crossing the Strait of Georgia in our sailboat. So far (touch wood) I have not provided any ‘chum’ to the fish (in boat speak, that means I have not yet been seasick). At 5:45 this morning the fog horn was sounding (and yes, because we were in fog) which was a great alarm clock as breakfast is from 0600-0700.
I am understanding much more after today what the 3.5 KHZ is and does ..... I focused today on Sub Bottom Profiling. Essentially a sound wave (ping) is sent from the ship to the ocean floor and measures 8 mtres (approximately) below the surface. I have to log day, time, latitude , longitude, course heading, speed over ground, comments, file name, etc. each time we start and stop a line, every 30 minutes while we are measuring, and if there are major changes or turns during the scan. I have 3 computers that I work on - one that is telling me navigation; one that is logging the ‘soundings’ and one that I then enter all the log information into. And when I look up, i have the best view out the lab door of the ocean and islands - best 'office' view EVER! The computer sort of graphs the data – similar to what you see on the machines that are measuring earthquakes. What you can see in places though also are areas where beneath the surface there is rock, or sediment – and we are looking for sediment! Very very interesting. At the same time, Brent is operating the ‘multi beam’ equipment and is mapping the ocean floor – laying it out from the bottom up, while the Sub Bottom profiling is measuring from the bottom down. Not sure that makes sense to all of you but it does to me after today!! We (and by we I mean the real scientists, not me) brought up two ‘cores’ today – a tube goes down into the mud/sediment, then gets pulled back up. It is allowed to harden/drain a bit, then is cut and analyzed with our new MSCL (this is the main piece of equipment that was purchased through the CFI grant and it’s pretty amazing). The one core that Randy was showing me today had a very clear ‘split’ part way through in its color – above the line very dark; below the line a much lighter color and there was a shell embedded in the sediment. No idea yet if that means a landslide at some point or what, but that is something now that they will figure out!
We spent time today in Pachena Bay, then around the Folger node, and then most of the rest of the day in the Broken Group around Dicebox Island, Gilbert Island, and Effingham Island. It is absolutely gorgeous - stunning beyond belief and I understand why there are so many kayakers in amongst the area. Only saw about a half dozen boats, and noted a couple of anchorages that I would like to come back to!
This evening we are underway again, heading to Clayoquot Sound and will be in Tofino Inlet and Tranquil Inlet for morning. Tomorrow, along with sub bottom proliing and multi beaming, we will be freezer coring, doing water property tests, net tows, and I'm not sure what else!!
I will try and figure out how to post some pictures as well. The Science Team member are an amazing group of people - brilliant!!! And the Coast Guard crew are wonderful.
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