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From Alison Macdonald (chief scientist) and Viviane Menezes (co-chief scientist)

Here we are at week three. When last you heard from us, we were some 1100 km to the south. Now not only have our water temperatures risen out of the realm of negative numbers, we seeing surface temperatures as high as 6°C or more. Not quite subtropical, but certainly more bearable for sampling. We have left the icebergs behind and although we saw one last penguin a couple of days ago we are well on our way north.

Over the last week we have been working out the kinks in our replacement rosette. As we began using the DASH-5 system, our students were trained in deck operations for deployment and recovery - a plus for their sea-going experience. Unfortunately, no sooner had we begun using the new system than we had to find work-rounds for wire monitoring issues. It seemed like we had it all under-control when a few days ago the winch jammed at 2000 m and a very long and tedious shift ensued as the rosette was brought up at 4 m/minute. But, we have seen worse and we count ourselves lucky – at least we have a rosette to bring up. We have since moved back to our other winch, but are not using the docking system. To get this working took a few trials, first with a weight and then with the rosette. All is now going smoothly.

V. Menezes

Satellite sea surface anomaly and absolute geostrophic currents for Feb 24, 2016 (stations 21-26). Pink squares show the I08S stations. Near real time altimetry data are courtesy from IMOS. (V. Menezes)

We are working our way through the eddy field that forms as the Polar Front passes the northern edge of the Kerguelen Plateau. Velocities upward of 1.5 m/s test our ability to both stay on station and keep the wire angle reasonable. They also make for speedy departures of floats and drifters. We have now deployed 10 surface drifters for the Global Drifter Program and 4 bio-floats for SOCCOM program. Just today we received the first profiles from these floats (below).

K. Johnson

As we finish this report we have left the furious 50s and have headed into the roaring 40s. We are glad to be moving – see what is coming (below, courtesy of passageweather.com, overlay by S. Travis.)