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1. Location map

2. Eddy kinetic energy in Drake Passage

From: Graham Quartly
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:50
Subject: Getting ready

Off in two days time for our annual Drake Passage cruise - from Stanley in the Falklands to the Rothera research station in Antarctica.

Drake Passage - between Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula (see map) is one of the roughest stretches of ocean in the world. We don't go to test our strength against the wind and waves, though. Instead we want to study how the waters of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current flow through the passage from the Pacific into the Atlantic. Believe it or not - knowing that helps us understand how the Atlantic Heat conveyor transports tropical heat towards the shores of the UK and the rest of North Western Europe.

So, we've been crossing this stretch of water every year since 1993, making measurements as we go. And this year, I'm in charge.

You don't set off on an expedition to Antarctica without a little preparation. We've all been given a clean bill of health after an hour-long medical; we don't want any medical problems when we are several days from a hospital onboard the ship. We've also been trained in 'sea survival' - how to cope without panicking should we have to evacuate ship. But when I think about cruise preparation, the first thing that springs to mind is the packing that happened more than two months ago.

Brian, who led some of the cruises in the past, gave me a hand. Most of our kit was packed in large wooden crates and loaded onto the ship in September before it headed south. Boxes of clothes: waterproofs, thermal insulation suit, hard hats, and hundreds of gloves (or at least it seemed that way - we really ought to decide which ones we need!) When we fly out to join the ship we'll take our personal working boots with steel toe caps, plus a few more hard hats - a large mound of extra baggage.

Over the years Brian has also acquired an impressive set of "useful tools": power drills, spanners, screwdrivers and the like. There is technical help onboard, but it can be useful to have your own tools for those little jobs - even if they do spend four months of the year travelling the ocean without you. Then there's the large box of stationery (just as important): pencils, pens, PostIt notes and pins. And log sheets, graph paper, folders, rubber bands, highlighter pens - all the hallmarks of an everyday office job.

Finally there is our specialist equipment: 6 ARGO floats and 40 bottles of sea-water! (Why? Isn't there enough seawater in the Southern Ocean without taking more of it all the way from the UK? The reason for will become clear later).

The main scribes for this cruise diary will be Ben and Gerard - both PhD students at the national Oceanography Centre, Southampton. Neither has been on an oceanographic cruise before, so I look forward to seeing what they make of life and work at sea, and the preparations to-date. Will they develop an urgent need for a screwdriver not covered by the three sets provided? Will they bemoan the lack of enough pencil sharpeners?

For now, I'm just praying that everyone remembers their ticket when we go to the airport.

Back in touch when we board,

Graham