Suited
"When I woke up this morning, it felt like the whole world was hugging me."
- the TV show Suits
It's amazing how much my mood can be improved by even a small success. Yes, friends, that means that my settlement plates have been recovered from the Ny-Ålesund dock.
After breakfast today, I walked out onto the pier to see just how much the wind had calmed down. I could already tell in town that it had receded, but I wanted to feel out the conditions on the exposed pier just to be sure. To my cautious delight, the wind seemed manageable, and Peter and Daniel agreed. The dive was a go.
We suited up and loaded the zodiac. Of course the two divers had to wear their thermal layers and thick drysuits, but this time, I had to wear specialized gear too: a survival suit, built to keep you warm and dry in even the coldest water. This is the Arctic, and we aren't taking any chances. I pulled on thermal leggings and an undershirt, a thick wool sweater, my old snowpants, two pairs of wool socks, and then the suit. The suit has a hood and zips over your mouth, but since I wasn't actually going in the water, I just wore a scarf and a hat, then pulled on two pairs of mittens. I felt like a marshmallow woman, but it's a heck of a lot better than freezing.
We launched the zodiac from the beach outside the marine lab and drove over to the old city pier, now out of commission but a great place to attach experiments. I was wondering how exactly Peter was going to get into the water, and to be honest, I jumped a little in surprise when he sat on the edge and just rolled over backwards. It works, I guess. Daniel and I stayed in the boat, and by the end, I think we might have actually been colder than Peter. Underwater, he was isolated from the wind, and he also wore an electric heating vest under his drysuit.
Peter recovered two frames worth of settlement plates in almost no time, but he reported to us that the structure where the frames were attached had been partially destroyed. Actually, one of the recovered settlement plates was broken, and another had lost half of its cable ties. I'm still trying to figure out how the cable ties got broken without the plate being cracked, because the cable ties were pretty protected and in the middle of the frame. Something must have fallen into them at just the right spot. We decided to move the remaining frames to a safer-looking part of the underwater structure. With any luck, they'll still be there when we come back in September.
I'm relieved to have my plates back and excited for the analysis. As far as I'm aware, nobody has ever put down settlement plates like I have in Kongsfjorden, so we'll see what organisms are there. New discoveries await!
- the TV show Suits
It's amazing how much my mood can be improved by even a small success. Yes, friends, that means that my settlement plates have been recovered from the Ny-Ålesund dock.
After breakfast today, I walked out onto the pier to see just how much the wind had calmed down. I could already tell in town that it had receded, but I wanted to feel out the conditions on the exposed pier just to be sure. To my cautious delight, the wind seemed manageable, and Peter and Daniel agreed. The dive was a go.
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| Survival suit selfie |
We launched the zodiac from the beach outside the marine lab and drove over to the old city pier, now out of commission but a great place to attach experiments. I was wondering how exactly Peter was going to get into the water, and to be honest, I jumped a little in surprise when he sat on the edge and just rolled over backwards. It works, I guess. Daniel and I stayed in the boat, and by the end, I think we might have actually been colder than Peter. Underwater, he was isolated from the wind, and he also wore an electric heating vest under his drysuit.
Peter recovered two frames worth of settlement plates in almost no time, but he reported to us that the structure where the frames were attached had been partially destroyed. Actually, one of the recovered settlement plates was broken, and another had lost half of its cable ties. I'm still trying to figure out how the cable ties got broken without the plate being cracked, because the cable ties were pretty protected and in the middle of the frame. Something must have fallen into them at just the right spot. We decided to move the remaining frames to a safer-looking part of the underwater structure. With any luck, they'll still be there when we come back in September.
I'm relieved to have my plates back and excited for the analysis. As far as I'm aware, nobody has ever put down settlement plates like I have in Kongsfjorden, so we'll see what organisms are there. New discoveries await!
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