Bag has been packed, but........my security has not cleared in Ottawa, so on standby tomorrow morning. Positions have been cut in Ottawa and clearances are being held up, there are two of us on the hook for the cruise tomorrow. For now, nothing to do but stay positive and hope for some last minute magic tomorrow. Good thing is Ottawa is three hours ahead, so there is an extra three hours for something to happen before boarding.

So in the spirit of staying positive, a little about what we will be doing. The first cruise is along the BC coast, with one station in Alaskan waters and one in Washington waters. We will be collecting water from the stations marked with the blue circles, about 48. At each station we will be sampling at up to 12 depths.

Sampling happens with this rosette, each of the 12 bottles can be closed from deck. We are pretty spoiled, we can monitor temperature, salinity, and oxygen in real time on deck and then select sample depths, thanks technology!

After the rosette comes up we filter the water, which is then either analyzed on board, or stored for later. Our group tests for trace metals in the sea water. Some metals are important for microscopic phytoplankton that use the sun's energy to form the base of the food web, these metals include iron, zinc, cadmium, to name a few. Other trace metals can be used as indicators of how these biologically important trace metals get to the ocean, either through the air or from the sediments along shallow coastal areas, these metals include aluminum, gallium, and manganese.

Ok, well, thinking good thoughts for tomorrow. Will give info on next cruise as it approaches.

Alright, enjoying a sunset here on land, but come Tuesday it will be 6 weeks of sunsets out on the ocean! Wow, Tuesday is coming quick, considering nothing is packed. Some clothes are in a pile on the floor to be packed, and clean bottles are waiting in the lab to be packed into buckets. These bottles are going on our first cruise along the BC coast, then second cruise out into the North West Pacific.

Bottles also need to be shipped off tomorrow to Old Dominion University in Virginia, to then be shipped to Lisbon, Portugal, in preparation for a cruise back across the Atlantic (others will be graciously providing me with these Atlantic samples). Quite a trip for these 72 bottles! (which were originally shipped from the east coast of the US, across the continent to Vancouver, then subjected to a rigorous acid cleaning, then double bagged, put in a bucket and shipped to Virginia, Lisbon, then loaded on a ship, filled with Atlantic sea water, arrive in Massachusetts, then get returned back to Vancouver!)

Finishing up a little apple torte here, which is probably completely unnecessary, seeing as how we will have desert offered once or twice a day out on the ship. Defiantly looking forward to the food for the next 6 weeks. I have heard it is better than what we had last year in the Arctic, and that food was AMAZING!

So anyway, looking forward to an awesome time out on these two cruises. From my one other experience, one of the best parts is learning about what everyone else is doing and helping out when needed (cause you know you are going to need their help sometime too!). Will try to stay up on maintain this blog here (kudos to Jeff for the helpful advice!)

and oh! we might get to fish for salmon and tuna! so.....gotta get a fishing license tomorrow too......