Week 3: Training accomplished!

The flow cytometer is the backbone of our research down here, without which we would be working blind. It is a laser based particle counter which we use to discriminate and quantify populations of viruses, bacteria and phytoplankton (unicellular algae). This information, along with other parameters, provides an insight into energy flows between trophic levels of the marine microbial food web. 

 

 

 Corina at work with flowcytometer.

 

  

So now we have been trained on all the machinery required to put the boat onto the water, it’s finally time to actually become competent crew. There are two different types of RIBs (rigid-inflatable boats) at Rothera, centre console (steering wheel in the centre of the boat) and tiller (a lever attached directly to the engine) controlled, of which we need to prove that we can safely handle both types. First we were going to take out Terra Nova, the tiller controlled boat.

 

 

Tim the boatman gave us a safety briefing and then he showed us how to start the engine using the pull cord “you don’t need to worry about breaking down out on the water, I’ve been here for over a year and never had any engine problems”, great! So we crane the boat into the water, I start the engine, switch it off and then its Zoi’s turn.

Zoi pulls the cord and it sticks and doesn’t move, Zoi tries again and you hear metal banging around. Tim tries and all you hear is grinding metal….”what have you done Zoi”, and that was the end of that boat for the day! Luckily, Stella (one of the console boats) was on its way back into the wharf from a dive and so we quickly swapped boats and headed off in Stella. We familiarised ourselves with pulling away from and back to the wharf, handling the boat around the bay, how to pick up a man over board, using the radio’s and keeping in contact with the communications tower, how to use the drogue to keep in position and how to drive in and around ice (with a crabeater seal keeping an eye on us).

 Zoi boat training around the crabeater.

 

The next morning, after Tim had pulled out the piece of metal that had jammed in the recoil cog and replaced the cover, we took Terra Nova back onto the water. After repeating yesterday’s activities, we stopped the engine in the middle of the bay, put the drogue out and took a compass bearing for the route home. “You should drive back Zoi as you need to start the engine” says Tim. Zoi takes a solid stance, and takes one strong pull on the pull cord. “I hope that’s not the pull cord handle in her hand” I am thinking as I hear the recoil cog spinning the cord back into the engine. Surely enough, Zoi is standing there with nothing else but the pull cord handle. With his hands on his head Tim says “Not again Zoi”, and that was the end of Terra Nova for another day. Within 15 minutes however, we were rescued by Stella once more and received towing training at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tristan parked in drift ice and penguins sunbathing meanwhile.

The next day the ice had blown back into the bay which coincided well with ‘Gash’ week for all three of us. Gash is where you take a day out of your normal routine to help out in the main building (cleaning and doing dishes largely). Apart from cleaning, Zoi helped the chefs with rolling tortillas for Saturday’s Mexican dinner and Zoi made a typical Italian Polenta ai funghi and amaretti for dinner.

Towards the end of the week the winds changed direction which gave us a small ice window to get our first zooplankton net haul. Ice still covers RaTS sampling site 1 (the main monitoring location), so we tucked the boat into the edge of the drift ice as close to RaTS 2 (the backup site) as we could and hand winched a CTD and net haul from 300m depth. Back in the lab we identified our target zooplankton grazer for lipid analysis, the so called Calanoides acutus!

 

 

The team en route to the Gerritzs Lab on one of the few sunny days so far.

 

Sunday was Corina’s last day on Rothera. We spent a very long day going through any remaining questions we had as the sun retreated behind the mountains painting the glaciers shades of orange and pink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It was time to say goodbye...

 

Corina’s departure on Dash 7.