7 March, 2000

Off to LaLa Land

72 28 s 119 43 w

Course 047 (northeast) at 6 knots (7 mph)

Temp 5 c (23 F)

Winds out of southeast at 25 knots (30 mph)

Barometer 980 mb and steady

Overcast, visibility about two miles

Breaking new gray ice and older multiyear floe ice, sea almost 100% covered Mapping the edge of the continental shelf, following edge to maintain depth of 600-700 m (2000-2300 ft)

There is lots I want to tell you but I'm just so tired that I have to get some sleep. I sure hope we don't have an emergency drill tonight!

The coast of Carney Island

Alice Doyle working on the back deck. Her main job is to coordinate everybody's schedules and needs, so that the ship's crew, science technicians, and on board scientists can work together. She does a lot of other things also, including running winches, helping with CTDs and Zodiac launches, and setting up piston coring equipment, which is what she is doing here. She knows a little about everything going on, and a lot about most of it.

Xiaobing Zhou (foreground) and Dr. Shusun Li, leading lights among the "ice people," prepare to go out in the Zodiac for the morning satellite passes. The instrument in front of Xioabing measures the albedo of the snow. Albedo refers to how well an object reflects light, specifically the brightness of the reflected light divided by the brightness of the incoming light. When the device is set up on two tripods, one photometer points down and one points up. This is not a good picture of Xiobing, because I happened to catch him one of the few times I ever saw him without a smile.