Day 23
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Calmer seas and an Antarctic presentation

Much calmer seas today as we continue our journey back to Kirkines. It’s sad to look out the window and see waves instead of sea ice, but those arctic images will stay in my head for some time to come I’m sure. The sea sickness has passed on with the calming of the seas, so everyone is in good spirits today as people went around collecting photos and videos from everyone to share.

This afternoon many of us gathered for movies upstairs in between packing and working on other things in our cabins. After dinner I took a walk out on deck with my German friend and we laughed about fun moments during the cruise while enjoying the crisp evening. Both of us seem to really enjoy time at sea, especially when it’s in the Arctic. Later on we all gathered upstairs for another presentation by the ship’s radio officer, this time on his travels in Antarctica. His pictures were amazing and we all loved the penguins and seals so cute! I think that will continue to be my dream and goal to work on research there. Polar science is so exciting!

~Becki Legatt

Day 22
Friday, September 4, 2009
Rough seas as we head home

We were warned yesterday to make sure everything in our rooms was put away or secured with duct tape before heading off to bed, and during the early morning hours we discovered why. We left behind the polar ice pack around 6 AM and encountered quite rough seas. This led to a rough day for a few people on board that had some sea sickness with the ship rocking through the waves all day.

You know the seas are rough when while sitting down for a meal you see the ocean suddenly appear above the top of the window, showing only sea water, and then just as suddenly it sinking below the bottom of the window leaving only cloudy skies. The cups are now placed in crates for meals, and all of the condiments on the tables are tilted on their sides so they don’t roll around. It’s quite entertaining to walk around on the ship. I have found the stairwell to be quite entertaining! One moment you’re walking on air, and the next you’re being pushed sideways.

~Becki Legatt

Day 21
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Last polar bear, CTD cast, and sea ice cover

Tonight’s CTD shift kept me quite busy with 6 casts remaining on the St. Anna transect. The first couple casts went down to depths around 600 meters, and then they came up shallower as we approached the shelf. Some of the scientists gathering water samples have started to run out of sampling bottles and a couple have improvised with water bottles from the ship. We even had a collection of them gathered after meals a couple of days ago with everyone checking their rooms for empty water bottles.

We had our last polar bear sighting in between the final CTD casts and it caught me off guard as I did a double take when I walked out the hanger door not hearing the announcement. He was quite cute running along the ship as we passed by. Around 12:15 AM we completed our final CTD cast of the St. Anna transect with a shallow cast. It was also the last cast of the entire NABOS cruise - bummer. Tomorrow we head back home. I spent the late night hours on into the early morning walking around deck and watching the arctic scenery from my cabin window.

~Becki Legatt

Day 20
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Beginning of the St. Anna Transect at 10 PM

Many of the expedition members were able to catch up on sleep for the first part of the day and a few members began to start packing equipment that was no longer needed during the cruise. During the overnight hours we continued on to the St. Anna trench to complete another transect, this time further north that the other to allow for analysis of the complexities of the Atlantic Water in this region. Hopefully we will find some interesting results with the addition of this transect. We started the CTD casts in the late evening once again, this time with calmer winds and just a few light passing snow flurries. Work continued on deck throughout the early morning hours, with the water sample scientists busy as always bringing their bottles out to the hanger and then back to the cabins for analysis.

~Becki Legatt

Day 19
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Walking on the Arctic Ocean!

Work continued with CTD casts on the Cape Arkticheskii transect today, a new area for the NABOS expedition and it was fairly quick with only about 5 casts. Near the end of the transect we found out that we would have the opportunity to get off of the ship and walk onto the Arctic Ocean for an outing after the completion of our work on deck, which made many of us extremely excited! We took a large group expedition photo with flags from our institutions, sponsors, and home countries. Then we walked around on some of the ice ridges and took photos near the ship, all the while keeping a watchful eye on the horizon for any moving snowdrifts (aka polar bears… haha).

Later in the evening we had a BBQ dinner out on deck, which was great for the many hungry expedition members. Were also entertained by our chief scientists, radio officer, and several other crew and expedition members that put on a fun skit featuring Neptune, god of the sea. The overall theme of the skit was that Neptune was upset with us for taking his ocean water. It was quite entertaining to hear the Russian version and then the English translation.

~Becki Legatt

Day 18
Monday, August 31, 2009
An Arctic Winter Wonderland and NABOS the snowman

Today I awoke to a true Arctic/Winter Wonderland as I headed out on deck, which was covered in at least half of an inch of fresh snow. That was more than enough for Birke and I to have an impromptu snowball fight, and even make a snowman on deck that we named NABOS.

The CTD casts continued through the day, with the last few casts of the Severnaya Zemlya transect being much shallower, as we were approaching the shelf. These shallow casts are usually fairly simple and quick because it takes less time to lower the rosette to the ocean floor and raise it to the surface, however at our last cast location the ice flows kept compressing in around the ship, so it took longer to make an opening in the ice to drop the rosette. We kept in communication with the bridge over the radios to take extra care to keep the cable away from the ice.

NABOS the snowman

~Becki Legatt

Day 17
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Arrival at the Severnaya Zemlya transect

The scientists on board working on with samples and water chemistry were able to catch up on some well deserved sleep during the early part of today while we were still in transit to the Severnaya Zemlya (Sev Z) transect. Many of them work around the clock collecting samples from the CTD rosette after each cast so they’re always looking forward to a break in the action.

We arrived at Sev Z and began our first CTD cast in the late evening and began one of our deepest casts, down to 1800 meters! To put that into perspective that’s lowering the CTD rosette down just over a mile from the deck of the ship! It was another very windy night out on deck, but it was fun to see the snow flying yet again. Tonight we had lots of ice plate shaped snow, another shape I don’t recall seeing all too often.

~Becki Legatt

Day 16
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Completion of Laptev Sea Transect

We have all noticed that the temperatures out on deck now are much colder than when we started the arctic expedition, so when working outside for a CTD shift or anything else on deck we all bundle up like it is mid-winter. The winds today were very strong to make it feel even colder. They reminded me of the North Dakota winds that you could almost lean back into and still stay vertical! This was the kind of arctic weather I was really looking forward to as I’m a big fan of winter and snow.

With the strong winds we had to be extra careful with CTD operations making sure the rosette and nets didn’t swing around on deck when moving them around the deck. We successfully finished up the Laptev Sea transect late this evening with a total of 16 CTD casts, 11 Biology net casts, and 1 mooring deployment during the transect. Now we head on to the Severnaya Zemlya transect location.

~Becki Legatt

Day 15
Friday, August 28, 2009
Chilly Day with more snow

CTD casts continued as we continued along the Laptev Sea transect. Today many of the mooring technicians were kept busy as they listened for one mooring and attempted to retrieve another. During the retrieval a signal was sent to the mooring and was received (in the words of the techs, they were able to “talk with the mooring”). So they were fairly confident in the location, and sent the signal for the mooring to release from the ocean floor, which should cause it to rise to the ocean surface. The problem occurred when for some reason it would not release, so after many attempts we ended up having to move on.

It was a very chilly and windy night on board during the CTD shift, but we did get to enjoy a passing snow shower. The snow fell in a shape I don’t recall seeing all too often back home. I believe the type of snow is called ice needles or ice splinters, about a quarter to half of a centimeter long.

~Becki Legatt

Day 14
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Dark skies and my juggling German friend

The last CTD station of the transect was completed in the early morning hours, and as everyone awoke from their slumber this morning we were greeted with very dark and overcast scenery. We were now in open water, and the rain and snow clouds had rolled in, taking over the sky. After coffee time my German friend and I found a new announcement on the bulletin board written in Russian, so I ran back to my room to grab my English/Russian dictionary and we had fun trying to interpret the message. We got through the first line of the message to find out there was going to be a movie showing upstairs as we sailed to the next transect. We popped our heads in and watched part of the movie and found it quite
entertaining to try to guess what was being said as we watched.

We arrived at the Laptev Sea transect shortly after dinner and completed a CTD cast and biology net cast before my shift was over for the evening. When I returned to my room my German friend had found her juggling balls to keep herself entertained in between taking samples at the stations. We shared some laughs over the entertainment before she found some prunes and tried to juggle those too! It was very funny, and pretty soon we had two men from the crew coming out to see what we were laughing about and they decided to show off their skills as well.

~Becki Legatt