Sept. 10, 2005
Jim Cowen

After a bit of a rough transit during the night, we arrived on station at ~0930 hrs. Unfortunately, today’s dive was cancelled due to the sizable swell and modest winds. We will modify slightly our dive schedule and continue preparing for upcoming dives. We will also likely collect to near bottom seawater using the ship’s CTD-rosette system. The CTD is a standard oceanographic instrument that measures conductivity (from which salinity is calculated), temperature and depth; the “rosette” refers to a rosette of water sampling bottles (Niskins in our case) that can be tripped (closed) remotely from the ship when we reach a particular depth or see a feature of interest. We also had several safety drills this morning. These drills are held on a regular basis and are mandatory for all hands. Some accompanying photos show the scientists mustering for fire drills and then an abandon ship drill. One photo also shows one of the UH people (Mike Cole) trying on a survival suit.