Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 12:11:37 +0000 From: "Sirovic, Ana" Subject: Message 08 67 degrees 29.45 S lat 73 degrees 00.84 W long (shelf off Marguarite Bay) Air surface temperature: 2.0 degrees C Sea Surface Temperature (SST): 0.5 degrees C Wind speed: 21 knots, 320 degrees Air pressure: 981.8 mBar Hello again! An early morning edition today to report on last night's activities. Physical oceanographers have spent 4 hours trying to track down their missing mooring. Pinging on it every 3 mi over the search grid with 9 mi radius did not result in a reward, the mooring is still missing! You just have to count your losses sometimes - we had to move on and go ahead with the plan of recovering and redeploying our moorings. Another reason for writing this early today is that I kind of wanted to send this picture out! Not every day do I get a chance to stear a big ship, so I wanted to share my excitement. Now granted this happened yesterday, but I had to wait until today to send the picture because there were a lot more reasons to send a nice picture of the oceanographic equipment with my last report than there was to send one of me at the steering wheel. I am proud to report, however, that I did not bump into every bigger piece of ice on our way, although I wasn't far from it, either! Viewing the ocean (and ice) from an "officer's" vantage point was interesting though. Even though they have the autopilot they can switch to at any time, staying alert up on the bridge hour after hour can certainly be a challenge. Running into floating objects is a constant threat that an autopilot cannot forsee so a set of vigilant eyes is always necessary. Scenery, however, can be truly amazing, as it was yesterday! A sunny day down here can be really painful on your eyes, though, because of all the reflection from the ice, as well as the ocean, so a good pair of sunglasses is really a necessity. Right now, however, there is no fear of eye damage since it's overcast again as we head out to the shelf break, to the line of our 5 moorings. You will hear all about our endeavors to recover the moorings in the next edition! Bye for now! Ana