April 11, 2024
NBP24-04 departed from Lyttelton, New Zealand as scheduled on April 11, 2024 at 5:30am. We are Angela and Eric and we are sailing as technicians on the SOCCOM cruise aboard RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer. We will be deploying ten GO-BGC/SOCCOM floats along a transit to Palmer Station and then Punta Arenas, Chile. With each float deployment, we will also be conducting a CTD-Rosette cast to collect water samples.
We moved aboard the ship two days before departure to begin unpacking the science cargo sent from San Diego, CA and setting up the lab spaces for water sampling and analysis. While the ship was in port, Greg, a GO-BGC technician from the University of Washington float lab, was also at the ship for a couple days to calibrate all of the floats and ensure they were ready for us to deploy.
Now that we are underway, it is a 68-hour transit to the first station. We are continuing to prepare the labs and complete all of the safety trainings that are required to sail on a research vessel. Luckily, it is not too rocky yet, but we are still working on developing our sea legs!
Eric and Angela, the two SOCCOM technicians sailing aboard NBP24-04, preparing to deploy Navis GO-BGC float.