SAMS students in the Arctic 2018

Hi guys! Last week the Polar Ocean and Climate Course went on field work on the R/V Helmer Hanssen for 7 days. We were all pretty excited and a bit nervous too as we were told that at least half the course would get seasick. However, turns out that we were extremely lucky and the weather was perfect all the way through the excursion. For 7 days, we had to work separated in day and night shifts and lucky as I am I was in the night shift from 2AM - 8AM and 2PM to 8PM. No wonder that all our sleeping patterns was outrageous after a week. When we were on duty we either had to be in the instruments room in charge of the CTD or be downstairs taking salinity and oxygen samples. After a short introduction, we were left alone in front of 5 screens in charge of this ridiculously expensive equipment. It took a while to get comfortable in our position. However, during the night shift taking 1 sample an hour can be rather boring and its challenging not to fall asleep especiall...

SAFETY TRAINING The first day of safety training was mostly theoretical, apart from performing CPR on mannequins (Daniel’s died) and being wrapped like a burrito to survive hypothetical hypothermia.  The second day started with a big bang, as we were brought to the shooting range at about 8:30 AM. More with luck than skill we all passed the assessment in kneeling position. Hugo would like to point out that he actually can shoot and he passed purely on skill, no luck involved, and Daniel even managed to hit the target 12 times with only 8 bullets. For any lefties considering coming out, there are no left-hand rifles, and to quote the instructor: “You guys are used to having life made difficult for you”. The next exercise was putting up a tent and bringing a pot of water to the boil. Time-wise, the Norwegians beat us by far (even though we had Daniel) and their camp looked much better than ours as well (probably because we had Daniel). T...