Craig Hunter (MLML) adding iron to the ocean!!

0457 GMT  Jan 13  

Ship  56.2180 S, 172.0107 W

1800 Jan 13  At Sea

We started adding Fe at 0300 this morning after completing the pre-fertilization station.  Craig Hunter from MLML is the man of the hour now.  He’s using two 15,150 liter (4000 gallon) tanks filled with seawater and iron to create the patch.  The ship is driving up and down a square grid that we have created that has its middle fixed on the drifting buoy we launched yesterday.  Each leg is 15 km long and 500 m from the next leg.  We’ve oriented the grid to face into the swell, so the ship rides more smoothly.   The ship shows as a flashing blue dot on the screen and the officers drive up and down the grid.  It will take 43 hours to finish.

I have to confess that I’m a wreck, thinking of all the things that can go wrong.  Updates may be a little terse until this thing is going well.  Nothing to do now but wait.  At least the weather is cooperating - wind is about 10 knots right now.

We finished the pre-fertilization station successfully with only a few glitches.  The CTD failed on the last cast, fixed in the morning, and the winch used for the net tows failed, but also fixed. 

Sunday dinner today so a glass of wine for all.  It’s the only way we tell what day of the week it is.  Everything else just revolves around work - no weekend for us.

Bye for now.