64PE373 - Diary 1

In the evening of 13 July we left Istanbul. It was already dark and Istanbul was celebrating the sunset, since it is Ramadan and the people were allowed to eat. We sailed under bridges decorated with many lights that in time changed colour. The view was magnificent, the mosques against the skyline, the Topkapi Palace, the coloured bridges and even fireworks. Thus the start of 64PE373 could not have been better.

On board as usual an international group of scientists and crew starting for the Black Sea. We plan to sample this Black Sea in the centre from west to East at regular intervals, 12 stations. We skipped the first two, close to the Bosporus since these stations were so close to Istanbul that almost none of us was ready to start. These stations will be last one on the way back.

We have by now (Monday 16-7) finished two stations so we are getting used to the routine.
Our normal routine is three ctd casts and in situ pumps on every station. Two of these casts are with our ultra clean ctd, one is with the "normal" large volume ctd. Soon we shall give more details about what we do with all this water and pumping.

The Black Sea is quite a strange sea. A long time ago, it was a lake, until the Mediterranean water flowed into the lake. The salty water sank, did hardly mix with the fresh river/lake water and became anoxic (without oxygen). Until about 80 meters depth oxygen is present, deeper down we get into anoxic waters. Surprising that in such a shallow water layer with oxygen dolphins want to live, and they do, we saw them already twice.