Where has all the rum gone?

Greetings from the SE Pacific! I am finally settling in nicely to my new life at sea. I am not longer sea sick, and I feel like a human being again. Those days that I was sick, I didn't know if I could last 3+ weeks at sea.

If you look at our online tracker, you can see we are making a butterfly figure. We are chasing an ocean eddy. The eddy originated near the coast, where there is significant upwelling. The eddy moves the cold water from the coast westward out into the Pacific. The edge of the eddy was sampled the past 2 days, we were trying to make our way into the middle of it and sample. The oceanographers use a tool called a CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) instrument, which is dropped into the water and lowered to near a depth of 1km. The instrument measures velocities in the water, and takes samples at different depths. These samples are then studied by the chemist onboard. They have been doing these samples all day today. Unfortunately it looks like we might have lost the eddy. It might have moved or dissipated. Later on today I will be helping in one of the CTD measurements. See picture below for the instrument being brought back onto the ship.




I thought I would show a picture of my work area. I am conveniently seated at the end of the lab, so I can see the entire main lab. I am also behind the chief scientist, so I can stay up to date on what is going on. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else on ship.