Home Again

Gareth here, now back on dry land and writing from the warmth of my home, having slept last night in my own bed (which wasn't rolling back and forth all night!). We returned to port on the flood tide early yesterday morning, having left Georges Bank a day early -- gale force winds and seas of up to 21 feet were in the forecast, so we headed for the calmer waters of Cape Cod Bay to do some last calibrations before heading home. During the 10 hour steam from Georges to the Bay we saw some pretty heavy seas - wind speeds topped 40 knots and the ship made some pretty impressive rolls! Luckily all of our instruments had been tied down thoroughly so although a couple of the scientists and their chairs toppled over on the rolls, none of the equipment did.

The science party for Endeavor cruise 487. Left to right, back row: Cindy Sellers, Nick Woods, Nick Nidzieko, middle row: Gareth Lawson, Phil Alatalo, Kelly Kleister, Kaylyn Becker, Reny Tyson, Tim White, front row: Peter Wiebe, Wu-Jung Lee

All in all, we only ended up having one calm day out of seven days on the Bank, but even in the rough weather we were able to get the work done and the cruise was a success. Like on our first cruise we saw a whole lot of krill with our various instruments, and are looking forward to analyzing all of the data we collected to understand more about the krill's habitat and behavior. Thanks to the Captain and crew of the Endeavor, as well as all of the members of the science party who made the cruise a pleasurable as well as successful one!


Stay tuned for more krill research and blog posts as later in the winter we'll be back out on the water piloting a new broadband echosounder mounted on an autonomous underwater vehicle...