By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We docked at a little after 1400 yesterday. The end of a cruise is always sad but at the same time welcome. Cruises are exhausting, so much energy is expended taking advantage of every available opportunity and sample. Now we must re-enter the real world. There […]
By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 I didn’t quite expect the Bering Sea to be quite this nasty in December. Bad yes, but perhaps a few hours to sneak in a few samples before roaring in again with another storm. No such luck, the storms are just rolling in like freight trains. […]
By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 Another day, another storm. The Bering Sea is relentless! We managed to sneak in three stations yesterday afternoon and early this morning but then the weather deteriorated and our sampling operations were shut down again. This time we were out in the open, far from the […]
By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We’re racing a storm across the Bering Sea, going 15 knots between stations to try to get as many done as possible before the storm catches us from behind. Fifteen knots feels really fast, Healy shudders a little bit as she goes. The wake is white […]
By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We have now bid farewell to the Chukchi Sea and are in the northern Bering, working north of Saint Lawrence Island. Most fantastically, the ice is coming with us! Winds have been from the north, bringing cold air south and also blowing the ice south so […]
By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We are heading south towards Bering Strait and the Bering Sea beyond. As we go, we are moving through young ice, with smallish pancakes ahead of the ship. The ice lamps illuminate the pancakes. The ship rumbles as she plows through the loose pancakes, with a […]
By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 There is a sense of anticipation in the air. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we will be observing it, even though we are at sea in the Arctic. As luck would have it, we have a couple of long transits between stations to accomplish tonight and tomorrow […]