By Chloe Immonen
25 July 2018 @ 10:34

Unfortunately, shaft/cycloconverter (fancy pieces of machinery in the engine room) failures meant that science operations stopped a day early. We were forced to steam straight to Utqiagvik, Alaska (formerly Barrow) to avoid being stranded on a station in the middle of the ocean. Thankfully, this allowed us to spend that day packing up all of the equipment and get a good night’s sleep.

I’m increasingly aware of how incredibly rare it is for undergraduate students to participate in research cruises and I am even more grateful to have been given this opportunity. It is something I will cherish for a long time and I cannot wait to get back on a ship. I love doing science on boats. Despite rarely getting more than four hours of sleep at a time, being cloaked in endless fog, and missing three of the nicest weeks of the summer in Victoria, it was so worth it for this incredible experience of lifetime. The number of times I found myself BEAMING all alone, basking in how happy I felt, was a little ridiculous.

All of the tough things about being at sea made the positive things that much more welcome. A day of sun, a whale sighting, making connections with people from all walks of life, pensive life chats at 04:30 staring into the still-lit horizon, dancing to Motown hits while sampling from the rosette, hot tub soaks sailing past the Aleutians, gaining practical skills and knowledge associated with jobs I want to pursue, the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had, getting to see sea ice in person, collecting rocks from the bottom of the Chukchi (yes, I have been told that getting excited about this makes me a nerd), and even the daunting/rigorous arctic crossing ceremony (this shellback is no longer a lowly tadpole!!) – all of these things outweighed the trying times by far.

Final tally of wildlife seen:

• >3 pods of grey whales in various locations
• We almost hit a grey whale but the Captain saw it in time and Andre-Ann steered away perfectly!
• Breaching grey whale
• Countless bald eagles and a humpback whale coming into Dutch Harbor (seen from the hot tub)
• Many puffins, parasitic jaegers, gliders, fancy arctic ducks
• >4 albatross
• Lots of benthic organisms pulled up from the ocean floor during Van Veen mud grabs
• One adorable baby seal – the size of a loaf of bread!! It swam right up to the ship while we were on a station!

It was too foggy on our last day on the ship to helicopter off so we took our final glances of the CCGS Sir Wilfred Laurier from the “safety” of a Zodiac. I don’t think this is the last time the Laurier and I will cross paths.

Read all of the posts from Chloe’s voyage from Victoria, BC to Utqiagvik, AK: Bitter-sweet Bon Voyage, Fueled for Exploration, Into the Storm, Friday the 13th was the Luckiest Day Ever 

by Chloe Immonen
16 July 2018 @ 13:19

I am incredibly sleepy. We have now crossed into the Bering Sea after stopping in Dutch Harbour to pick up the American scientists. Leading up to Friday, July 13, I knew I had to finish taking 38 samples from the underway loop running through the ship, saving five samples for after Dutch Harbor. I had not had longer than two consecutive hours of sleep for the previous five days. I worked hard to finish off the last samples before finally having a bit of relaxation time with Gina and Shea. We hung out on the upper decks and the bridge, where we spotted loads of seabirds (puffins and albatross were the coolest) and tons of whales (orcas, greys, and humpbacks). The light was beautiful! Approaching the Aleutians, we hopped in the hot tub to watch the gorgeous scenery pass by. It was an amazing evening.

In Dutch, we made the most of being on land by going on one of the most stunning hikes I’ve ever had the pleasure of hiking followed by going to the Norwegian Rat bar in town.

The next two days were filled with preparing for the beginning of stations, helping the American scientists set up their lab space, and the Shellbacks (those science and crew members who have crossed the Arctic Circle by sea before) explaining some of the upcoming tasks for us Tadpoles (those science and crew members who have NOT crossed the Arctic Circle by sea before) to partake in. I’m pretty sure I’m not allowed to tell you any details, but the tasks have certainly consumed some of our time and energy.

Read more from Chloe’s journey across the NE Pacific: Bitter-sweet Bon Voyage, Fueled for Exploration, Into the Storm

by Chloe Immonen
July 7, 2018 @ 18:02

I finally experienced seasickness. I had begun to think that I was just going to escape it altogether but after five days of spending hours on end focusing on filling resin columns, taping them carefully, moving around, and lifting heavy water samples in the lab with very few windows, all while the ship tilts back-and-forth to some pretty wild extremes finally got to me after all. Sorry to be graphic, but I threw up once, felt immediately better than I had all day, but not good enough to eat until over 24 hours later. I have been taking naps whenever possible and drinking lots of water, both of which have been helping immensely. I still don’t sleep more than two hours at a time, but my samples have been running much more smoothly now (thanks to Magic Wrap), so that is a bonus.

As I spend more time with the crew, I’m finding every single person to be so kind and enjoyable to be around. The crew on the bridge now know that I want to be informed whenever they see whales and it has already paid off! As we were deploying an underway CTD [a reusable instrument to determine ocean temperature and salinity] off the aft deck, a pod of sperm whales was out on the starboard side of the ship.

Everyone is also curious about the projects that I’m working on. I love getting to tell them and ask them about their lives and their rolls on the ship as well. It seems like quite the crazy life they all lead. Most of the time, they work four weeks on, and four weeks off, but the Arctic voyage is six weeks on, and six weeks off. My favourite question to ask is what everyone likes to do in their time off because the answers are all so unique – from scuba diving and foraging for mushrooms to pottery and horseback-riding, everyone has a cool hobby to entertain them in their long stretches of time off.

Shea and I tended to the incubations on the helicopter deck for a couple hours this afternoon. I am stoked to be gaining skills in his line of work. The rest of the time, I was running my own samples, or sleeping with one break for dinner (feeling good enough to eat 😊 ).

Today marked the beginning of the on-board bingo craze. Nearly every person on the ship participates, they announce ~15 numbers per day just after lunch and each round, they go for a different shape (horizontal or vertical lines, wine glass, cactus, blackout, etc). The prizes are quite extravagant – there’s an expensive coffee-maker, high end scotch, and camping equipment – just to name a few!

Tonight is another movie night with unlimited popcorn. We are watching a film called ‘Annihilation’. I am mostly going to attend for the popcorn and the extra-strong G&T’s.

Not too much else to report here! I’m still having a wonderful time at sea regardless of feeling ill and not getting much sleep.

Read more from Chloe’s voyage to the Arctic: Bitter-sweet Bon Voyage, Fueled for Exploration