And We’re Off….Finally!

After much preparation getting set up, we've finally set sail for Poverty Bay and adjacent coastal areas (the map is from a recent paper by Clark Alexander and others). Everyone is excited to do some sampling. A tugboat pulled us away from the dock. With the help of a harbor pilot, the Roger Revelle was pointed out of Tauranga Harbor. A small pilot's boat pulled up beside the R/V Roger Revelle to retrieve the harbor pilot. On our way out, we passed by a pleasure cruise – that picture has been included to remind everyone that unlike the folks on the pleasure cruise, we are working hard....really! Anyway, since exiting the harbor, we've been doing about 30 knots heading toward our first station with the hopes that the conditions of the water column and the seabed will be conducive to deploying the first tripod. Estimated time of arrival at the first station is 10:30 Thursday January 14th New Zealand time (that's 18h ahead of US East Coast Time which is indicated in a subtle unobtrusive manner via the date stamp in some of the pictures).

For purposes of evenly distributing workload, two 12h shifts have been set up: a midnight-to-noon shift and a second noon-to-midnight shift; there are eight scientific crew per each shift. Once we get to the first station, the first task will be sending off the rosette with the Niskin bottles and collecting conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) data. After that, we will deploy the multi corer and retrieve some cores to get an idea of the seabed. If all looks good, we will deploy the first tripod. Getting everything going at the first station is always a challenge but we have an eager and hard-working group so we will get er done!!

G'day everyone!