Landers away!

The lander being deployed. Photo by
Kharis Schrage.

I set my alarm for 5 am. The plan said we would arrive on station at 8 am when I went to sleep, but that time had already creeped up a couple hours. I wasn't taking any chances. Better to stand on the bridge a few extra hours than sleep through my station.

As we drew closer to the red dot on the map, I could feel my heart pound ever slightly harder. Minute by minute, the estimated time to waypoint declined. Digit by digit, the water depth under the ship drew closer to my target depth of 1800 m. I had picked this station randomly off of the map, using bathymetric lines to choose a place with a steep slope and high probability of stones – well, at least the best I could find in this part of the Fram Strait. I chose 1800 m to match the depth of some other rocky stations further north, and it turns out my hand-waving guess at coordinates was pretty darn accurate. As we pulled up to the waypoint and the ship's thrusters slowed, the depth was dead on 1800 m. Excellent.

The first lander went over the side with no complications whatsoever. Once we were settled on station, the process took about 10 minutes, no kidding. The crew hoisted the metallic beast over the side, kept it from tilting or swinging with tag lines, and then Normen pulled the release and sent the lander to the seafloor.

We deployed a second lander in the evening at the southernmost station in the HAUSGARTEN. So far, everything has gone incredibly smoothly, but of course the hard part is yet to come. Here's hoping both the landers come back!