Hi all:  I’m one of the scientists on board this expedition of the JR.  This is my first time on a ship, except for the odd ride on a ferry!

So far I have discovered that I do get sea-sick, but that patches provided by the doctor on board work very well.  I’m getting used to the deck going up and down under my feet… Actually for the last two days the weather has been lovely and the sea truely calm and mirror like – the sunset last night was glorious.

We are currently busy getting set up and trained to do the logging when the first core arrives ‘on deck’ around about the 18th of November. After then we will be really, really busy logging and measuring core. Right now it is training and getting used to our working conditions, and changing our sleeping patterns so that we can work our 12-12 shifts – I’m on the midnight to noon shift which will be another interesting experience!

Our work at the moment is largely about agreeing within each group how logging and measurements and samples will be taken from the cores, and writing the ‘methods’ section drafts for the final report.  This makes sure that everybody uses the same words to describe things, and that measurements taken by one person are comparable to measurements taken by another.  If we just did things our own ways, then the final data set would not be consistent… and there are lots of different ways of doing the logging we have planned!

Anyway, in a few minutes there is a scientific talk happening, and I should go and be there.