Cas Price Day 2 28.02.2013 1050 Wake up in the darkness of the cabin, scrambled for the phone to see what time it is. Eekkk! Its 1050. We have a science meeting at 1100. Jump out of the top bunk, chuck on clothes dash upstairs, quickly stopping at the mess for a quick cup of tea. Make it in time? 1100 Science meeting . A quick chat on how things are going and a brief about what the day is going to entail. Small discussion on the giant eddy we had been sampling in. Apparently previous studies have shown that Bass Straight waters have been detected in similar eddies. Bass Straight water has high salinity, but we won?t really know what the characteristics are of the eddy until the samples have been analysed- so a bit of a wait but it?s still exciting. That?s why I really like science- investigating and discovering. Being on the PM shift means, no CTD launch until 2030, but there?s plenty of zooplankton to be looked at. Although it is lunch time and with salmon on the menu, I?m sure the zooplankton won?t mind waiting. Sometime after lunch Hmm , looking at zooplankton under the microscope while underway, is a tad bit more tricky then anticipated. Look there?s a copepod, then comes the slow rolling of the ship, the copepod moves out of view and I?m staring down the microscope at seawater. Less seawater is the key I reckon. New sample with less seawater, this time there?s an array of zooplankton in all shapes sizes and colours. My favourite is a copepod, that?s vivid purple and pink. Copepods seem to dominate, but there are also some pterapods, molluscs and polychaete (worms). Spend an hour or two sketching and identifying zooplankton. The weather is starting to pick up and you can feel the ship heaving, back and forth with a slight side to side roll, perhaps it?s time to put pack up. 1700 Dinner. Due to the heaving seas, the ship has slowed down to around 6 knots. We are starting to fall being schedule and the next CTD launch is cancelled due to weather and time. The evening consists of reading a scientific paper (more like flicking through) and watching a DVD.

Sara Keltie Day 2: Stormy seas and her secrets The East Australian Current (EAC) chose to keep its mysteries to itself today. Rolling waves and gushing winds prevented us, multiple times, from launching our equipment designed to reveal her deepest, darkest secrets to us (quite literally as we are surveying waters down to 1000m, well beyond the range of sunlight or the epitrophic layer as it is known.) Out of the four sampling sites we had planned only one was able to be conducted successfully and even then it required our scientific crew braving the cold wind and rain. This procedure involved lowering a large piece of equipment called a Conductivity Temperature Depth sensor (CTD) from the side of the ship down to 1000m. Various cylinders are programmed to shut at a variety of depths, allowing us to target specific layers within the water column of the open, or pelagic, ocean. Providing information on salinity and temperature this tool is an invaluable ally for the scientific community in conducting vital research into climate change. The heavy seas and strict orders to remain inside the ship freed up other crew to begin analyzing and classifying zooplankton samples from the day before. These are obtained by dragging a large net alongside the ship as she moves at a leisurely pace of a few knots, targeting fauna ranging from a few milometer to a mere half milometer in size. During my undergraduate degree a lecturer, in an attempt to draw out an affection for plankton usually reserved for the larger megafauna, stated "Looking at plankton through a microscope is no different to looking at a whale through a telescope." I took that to mean that just because these animals are so small and swim around us generally unseen does not make them any less beautiful, important or fascinating than those we are familiar with. Peering down a microscope one encounter creatures designed in the most unique fashion that even the greatest minds of science fiction could not dream them up. Take a moment to google such words as 'copepod' and 'fish larvae' and you will surely understand the fascination. That is one of the true beauties of science in that it opens up to us unknown worlds within our own, and through expeditions such as this we are able to understand how their lives are intertwined with the EAC and in turn with our very own.

Rob Polmear - Day 2 Today seemed a little easier than the previous day. It was mainly due to weather conditions. The captain had decided that it was unsafe to perform any CTD, XBT, and plankton net deployments and so station 6 was cancelled. However we were able to do station 5 just before the weather got too bad. It was actually quite fun on the back deck launching XBTs in the wind and rain. The wave action made it hard at times but we managed to do a very efficient and successful deployment. I also got to learn more about the particular sampling methods from the niskin bottle including O2 and nutrients. The afternoon went fast as the swell increased. I attempted to identify some key species in phytoplankton samples but found it challenging and felt a bit sick. After that I went for dinner but felt to sick and had to go and lie down, which pretty much concluded my day as I didn't wake till morning. A note on the others health.... it seemed that about half the group is either in bed sick or pushing themselves to help and running off to throw-up. Today was short hopefully tomorrow the weather improves. See ya rob

Tom Coad - Day 2 We have altered our course to south as we prepare to cross Bass Straight. With fierce weather slowing our progress and jeopardising us making it home on schedule, there was only one stop made today amidst a cold core eddy. Voyagers are making the most of transit time, spending the day analysing some CTD and underway plankton samples under the light microscopes on board. Some of these samples included an interesting fluorescence anomaly at 75m yielding large numbers of Dinoflagellate Ceratium sp. Operations that have gone ahead despite travelling delays are running smoothly with the CPR still happily underway. CTD and XBT deployments are going ahead, providing important information in allwoing us to accurately determine the drop rate of the XBTs. Most of us have found our sea legs and are taking advantage of the outstanding cuisine produced daily in the galley, definitely a major perk that comes with working at sea. We also celebrated our chief scientist Zanna Chase's birthday with sticky date. Currently our hopes are to pick up speed, allowing us to gather enough slack time to sample a number of stations en route to and off of Maria Island.