Arrival on Oden on Saturday 24th and departure on Sunday at 6 pm

Saturday - end of Quarantine and arrival on Oden

 I was so happy we finally reached this day - when we can leave the Quarantine Hotel and be transported to Oden! We were transported in 3 turns by a bus only dedicated for us. In order to avoid catching covid during the travel from our hotel rooms to the bus, we had to wear both the facemask and the face shield. Better safe than sorry! Anyways, it was so lovely to finally get out of the room, feel the sun on my face and breath fresh outdoor air!


Ready to leave the Hotel and start my life's adventure!


I was one of the 24 people joining the last bustransport to Helsingborg, from where we were picked up by Oden crew (who also had several weeks of quarantine on the ship) by small boats (6 persons per boat) in order to get to Oden. It was so nice to meet some of the others joining this adventure in the bus, now for the first time! There are a lot of Germans joining this cruise, which is super nice and I get to practise my German. While driving on the bus we could se Oden outside the harbour, it was so beautiful - especially the contrast of people swimming on the beach and Oden on the far background made the scenery so special. It was in this moment it all felt real: I am actually going to spend the next 2 months on an Icebreaker, together with cool people, going to the Northpole and doing science! How cool is that!


Transport from Helsingborg by small boats to Oden.


Once we arrived at Oden, we were welcomed by the Chief Scientist, and were guided to our Cabins to leave our luggage. I am sleeping together with 3 other lovely young scientists :) On Oden you have either 2-person or 4-person cabins. Our cabin is next to the Sauna on the 3rd deck. Right upon arrival we had safety training, where we got to know what to do in case of emergency, such as fire (which would be the worst danger on Oden), how to evacuate (we put on the orange survival suits) and practise where to meet in case of fire alarm. It was well organised - always safety first! 


Safety training on Oden.


Being exited about getting on Oden, meeting all the other 75 people that you are going to spend the next 2 months with (can't remember all the names yet) and spending the first hours running around the ship, it was time for dinner - and drinking water. I was really in a need of water after all this, and the with 26 degrees in the sun! I am pleased that the food on Oden is really delicious and they take care of special diets - the vegan food was really good! :) I think I will survive here the next weeks :D

We got a nice tour around Oden by John - in the beginning I felt so lost, there are stairs everywhere - hidden stairs, stairs behind containers - stairs at the foredeck, to the fourth deck, to the 7th deck, to the helipad, to the bridge... But I am slowly getting the map over Oden in my head and feel like I slowly know how to orientate on Oden!


Back of Oden: helipad and helicopter and Oden's logo.

Helium bottles ready to fill our weather ballons with!

Our weather station on 7th deck.


We were anchored outside Helsingborg the whole Saturday - in the evening we could enjoy the red sky from the sunset on the helipad - while dancing! What a wonderful evening! Since in a week we won't have any sunsets due to the midnight sun up in the north (only daylight in the Arctic - sun never sets), it is highly important to really enjoy all these lovely sunset-evenings that we have left to enjoy. I was in heaven! The late evening we spent in the lounge room just chilling :)


Sunset Lindy Hop on the Helipad on Oden.

Sunday 25 July 2021 - building up instrumentations & departure


Sunday started with a short session in the gym, followed by breakfast. Here on Oden we have strict mealtimes - which we need to follow. Breakfast 7.45-8.15, lunch 12-12.45 and dinner 17.45-18.30. Since this is a Swedish Icebreaker, of course we have some coffee breaks ("fika") at 10 and 15. It was nice to meet everyone this early in the morning, ready for the FIRST day on Oden. Almost everyone were busy today - checking up all their boxes, samples, computers, instrumentations etc., that they were on right place, build up things, prepare what can be prepared - just make it all ready for the coming science adventure. 

We had a lot of things to do with John today with the meteorology-stuff: We started our day to run up to 7th deck (well, it was running up and down the stairs the whole day today - which was fun but also I could feel it in my legs in the evening!) and getting out the stuff for the weather station and sounding station. Before lunch we managed to build up a holder for filling up the helium balloons - these balloons, with the sounding attached to it, will then be launched up in the air 4 times a day, once we get to the ice edge. We also managed to attach all tubes to the helium tanks and it worked (after some trials). 

Actually we were busy building up and running around the whole day - we got up the base for our weather station, we got the foremast taken down and installed lot of our instruments already on the mast, secured all the boxes in our 2.5 containers (due to departure)... We finished working around 20.45 today! What a long BUT instructive day - I learned a lot and feel like I am much better handling tools now after all the screwing and tightening upp things for the whole day. But the weather was lovely, despite the wind it was nice to work outside in the sun for the whole day! And we could watch the helicopter dong its trial flight from the top of the ship!



Row of containers. Oden has so many containers with labs and instrumentations for the scientists. We will also spend a LOOT of time in one of these containers you see on the picture.


Oden taken from the front - on top you see the weather station, just above the bridge on the 6th floor. We are standing at the foremast in the evening to set up instrumentations on the mast for flux measurements. We were pretty tired after this day! But look what a beauty Oden is!

Oden at departure.

We departed today at 18 in the evening - traveling between between Denmark and Sweden and soon going passing Norway. The evening was super beautiful today as well - lovely sunset! Again, we had some lovely dances on the foredeck on Oden, in the sunset and afterwards enjoyed a cool drink and chilling outside together with our friends.
Sunset

Sunset picture from the 7th deck - got to enjoy these beautiful moments!


I am sooo happy I am on this cruise - I feel already as one of the luckiest persons in the world: get to travel to the Northpole with lovely people, dancing, doing science, work on the Ice, just living on an Icebreaker (and being able to dance lindy on this trip)! I enjoyed the work today, even though it was a bit tiring in the end of the day, it was a perfect day and I cant wait to see what the other days will bring with them! Tomorrow there will be a storm coming -  I hope we'll be fine and the people on board avoid becoming seasick.

Also hoping for getting some more of our instrumentations connected and ready for the expedition done tomorrow. The transit over the Atlantic to the ice edge (which is about northeast of Svalbard), will take about 6 days, so we do have plenty of time... 

The journey has begun! :)












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