Passage down the peninsula

Posted: Fri 29th Feb, Describes: Mon 25th Feb
Had a good long sleep until 9am when I woke up to discover that Hilary was gone, and had left me some toast to eat, which was nice as I was starving! Spent the morning catching up on what had happened on the ship and in world while I was ill, then I had a lovely lunch, my first proper meal since the Thursday evening. It was a roast with beef, potatoes, parsnips and other veggies (accidentally ate the parsnips in my hunger…). The afternoon was spent doing some file sorting and checking of the ADCP, which I had neglected. Luckily on the Fri when its properties had to be changed (as we were going into deeper water in Drake’s passage), I was able to come and quickly do it before heading back to bed, so the data wasn’t a mess. Changed the properties back as we were heading towards the slope off the peninsula. During the afternoon, we arrived at the first core site, so most of the geos headed down to the lab to label and cut it up. They used the piston corer, which they lower to the sea-floor, and then the piston gives it a shove and under this force and gravity, it sinks into the sediments. They were pretty pleased with the result and I believe they got down as far as 10m into Pliocene sediments!
It was Rob’s birthday, so at dinner, when he came in, we all sang happy birthday to him and gave him a card, which everyone had signed. He had bought bottles of wine from the bar (a tick-sheet which at the end of the cruise is totted up and the amount deducted from your salary), so every table had one. The swell had got a bit larger, so I wasn’t very hungry and stuck to the welsh rarebit starter and the wine. Sat on the same table as the two Davids (Pearce and Barnes) – both biologists, who I am getting to know and get on with quite well now.
I had a quick power nap after dinner, and then it was time for my first swath (and TOPAS) watch (9pm-11pm). Rob sat with me, going through it all so I knew what to change when the data gets patchy or if the TOPAS loses the sea floor.
Then off to sleep again…