14 July, 2001

Rotation Day

Saturday, 14 July 2001

Valkommen! (Welcome!)

Life on Board

The VIPs are here! The SuperPuma helicopter landed about 2 pm

with 5 guests: 3 VIPs and 2 camera crew. Also onboard were

6 new scientists. The camera crew spent some time interviewing scientists and filming some of the experiments going on. A kite launch, a balloon launch, as well as some of the laboratory experiments were documented on film for Swedish TV news. Good fortune that

the sun came out for the occasion and the seas were not too rough. We also said goodbye to 11 scientists who left in the helicopter

about 6 pm for a 2-hour ride to Longyearben, the largest city

in Svalbard.

Where Are We Now?

We are still sitting off the coast of the Svalbard/Spitzberg Archipelago. The sun is out but it is pretty windy. We will

steam along the beautiful coast for the benefit of the guests

and camera crew and also try to approach a small island that

is a Wildlife Preserve for walruses. Apparently it is illegal

to get too close so as not to disturb the animals.

Scientists at Work

Even though we have guests onboard and new scientists, we are preparing for an open water station tomorrow afternoon. All

of the new scientists are rushing to get things ready for their first station and coping with jet lag and being on a ship. More

new names to learn! The person in whose lab I will be working

is my Principal Investigator, or PI, Dr. Patricia Matrai from Bigelow Laborotory for Ocean Sciences in West Boothbay Harbor,

Maine. She has just arrived on the helicopter and must try to

set up her equipment for tomorrow’s station. Off I go to help

her. (And can’t forget to fill the liquid argon at 3 am!)

Vi ses! (See you later!)

>From Deck 4 on the Icebreaker Oden, somewhere north of Spitzbergen, Dena Rosenberger