Li Ling – Feb 24:
Today is the final day of science operations for this cruise (other than the TMC towfish to be deployed later and the continuous underway water samples and multibeam data collections)!
The day started with recovery of RAN from her last mission in western Dotson Ice Shelf. RAN showed up 00:02 with 12 full water samples taken ~20 m from under the ice shelf!
A few hours after dinner, we were planning on sending down the last CTD and TMC casts at ~1500 m depth! To celebrate the last CTD, we decorated some plastic cups and tied them to the CTD.
The last conventional CTD cast with a net full of decorated plastic cups
After a round trip down to the seafloor at 1500 m with the CTD, the cups came back and became quite a bit smaller! What better souvenir can you ask for from Antarctica!?
Lisa, Andy (ET), Asmara and Daisy (from left to right) checking out the shrunk cups. The cups shrunk quite uniformly, Andy’s cup became really flat!
After the CTD cast, we had our last TMC cast of the cruise, which is the final science operation of this cruise! Here is Gareth, Janelle, Daisy and Lisa (from left to right) setting up the last TMC
Today also marks the last serving of mid rats, or the meal between 23.30 and 00.30 for people working night shift. Jay and Aerial (the two cooks that have been making the mid rats meals) really put all their skills into this last serving!
Aerial making a really fancy fruit plate (Yes, after almost two moths we still have some fresh apples and oranges left!)