Time out here is precious so the nights are busy too. Corinne deployed a new zooplankton net overnight; the last one got ripped as it was hauled back on board and the Mega Corer was deployed again.
Henry, Brian, Sara and Kerstin have worked hard most nights processing the cores when they arrive back on deck. The amphipod trap was recovered in the middle of the day and then a deep SAP deployment to 2500, 1400 and 1000m took up the rest of the afternoon. I spent the morning updating the website showing the data the PAP1 mooring is collecting (www.eurosites.info/pap/data.php) and then most of the afternoon catching up on paperwork. The only pictures I took today were of the samples collected by the sediment traps prior to packing them up for Corinne to analyse when we get back to NOC.
The ship is now continuing the multibeam survey to give really accurate mapping of the sea floor in the area and then Corinne will be deploying nets again. After that the ship will chase down the PELAGRA traps which will be on the surface by then. The PELAGRAs have iridium transmitters and a bright navigation light (only on at the surface) so it should be not too difficult to find them, but it depends how far they have drifted from where they were deployed 48 hours ago. Once they are covered we will get back on station for another deep CTD dip, so there will be lots to catch up on at breakfast.
It is amazing how time flies, but I eventually found time to go to the gym for a cycle and a row. The food is so good I really needed to burn some calories! And now I am winding down before going to bed.