Second day during our transit trip from Helsingborg to the Ice edge

I am sitting in the lounge area in the starboard mess on Oden, enjoying the calm wavy movement from the ship, while we are traveling along the coast of Norway - heading up to the north. We were really lucky with the weather yesterday - there was a high risk of us getting into a low-pressure system with rain and thunderstorm, but we travelled just within the warm sector of the front, with the wind and avoided most of the rain. This gave us perfect conditions for working on the deck and installing instruments on our foremast and the weather station on the 7th deck. 

In the morning we set up the 3D sonic anemometer (see the photo, the instrument on the top of the mast that looks like a tripod for the camera). This instrument is an accurate instrument, that sends sound waves that get received on the opposite side by the receiver (on the picture you can see three metal sensors inorder to get the whole 3D flux in the horisontal and vertical direction). It measures temperature and wind, which then gives us surface fluxes. We are especially  interested in the the eddy-fluxes (turbulent fluxes) in the vertical direction, and with this sonic we can then measure sensible heat fluxes. We also mounted the other sensor, a Li-Cor, a lidar flux instrument (looks like an ice cone, located next to the sonic on top of the mast), measuring fluxes as CO2 and moisture, which then gives surface eddy-fluxes such as latent heat fluxes. Of course, there was a lot of cables involved and we had to secure all the cables with Cable-ties - this was a fun job! It was like doing a sewing project but with a bit bigger strings (here cables) that you had to secure onto the mast in a nice way so that it does not get tangled or messed up by the wind.

In the afternoon we fixed the weather station on the 7th deck - also a lot of cable securing of course! We mounted the rotronic (temperature and humidity sensor)-looks like a torch on the figure-mounted parallel to the vertical metal mast, the radiometers for measuring incoming solar and thermal radiation (they are on the horisontal plate with a scale that cancels out the movement of the ship so that the instruments are always directed upwards) and an anemometer (the cup-wind instrument, pointing out on the edge of the railing) measuring the 2D horisontal wind and a GPS sensor (next to the anemometer). We also mounted on both side of the ship at the rails Infrared temperature sensors, that are directed to the surface down from the ship in order to measure the surface temperature. 

So it was a busy day as well, with small rain showers but mostly pleasant weather to work outside. Apart from the physical work we need to do, we also have daily sea ice meetings during this one-week transit period, where we discuss important issues related to the work on ice. It was during this meeting we could for the first time sense the ship swinging to the waves! Some of us that potentially would get seasick were wearing bracelets that helps for seasickness, and they really seemed to work! I am happy I don’t get seasick (or I hope I won’t ;) ) :)

In the evening after dinner and our daily evening meeting, I gave a beginner lession in Lindy Hop, kindly assisted by the other lindy hopper Frank - I was soo happy that so many showed up, eager to learn to dance Lindy Hop! I really enjoyed it - seeing others having so much fun gives me so much joy! Also there were really quick in learning and I got asked several times after the session when will the next class be :) I hope to continue with the classes during this trip, it is a nice and happy evening activity after a day of hard work. Especially now during the transit most of us don’t have that much to do, so why not dance? We finished of by dancing out on the Helipad. It was a lovely evening! Later on we all met at the lounge and enjoyed some cold, alcohol free drinks, played some card games, laughed a LOOT and just relaxed after a perfect day on Oden.

I hope we get the sounding station set-up today and maybe in the evening we’ll dance again - haven’t missed any evening of not dancing!