AMASE blog – August 9: Lance arriving

by Adrienne Kish

The simple explanation for why there was no blog entry for yesterday is that yesterday rather bled into today….it’s all a bit of a blur. Science being what it is, we were processing samples until the wee hours of the morning and headed to bed for a quick one hour nap before rising from the dead to meet the Lance at is arrived at the NyAlesund harbor. Tired eyes with dark and puffy circles greeted each other from either side of the railing of the R/V Lance, but smiles were found all around as we were reunited with friends and colleagues as the research vessel docked. Hugs all around transitioned into an exchange of gear between the lab in NyAlesund and the ship as we reset ourselves for the next phase of AMASE 2009. The ship departed to shouts and laughter and faded into the fog to float along side the icebergs on the way up the island of Spitsbergen to the next field site.

Weather has not been on our side so far this trip, so the activities of the next week are based on a nominal plan which I’m sure will be on to Contingency Plan B or C by the time we finish our coffee and get a feel for what the weather will be like both in NyAlesund and for the Lance crew up further north. Helicopters will be used to ferry field scientists and equipment between field sites and labs, and the science show will go on, with allowances made for the notorious variability of the weather in mountainous areas.

And with that we will sign off for the night, and wander off to find out beds in an attempt to catch up on a bit of rest before doing it all over again. It’s tiring and sometimes difficult, but it is always rewarding and at the end of the day when you look out and where you are you realize that no matter what worked that day and what didn’t you are working at the top of the world and that is an AMASing thing.