Danny Baza Blas

Green arrow is our current station; white arrow is next station Where Are We? This is Day 9 of our Arctic Expedition. The Google Maps image to the left will give you a good idea of where we are currently (click the image to enlarge). We are currently in Canadian waters after leaving Alaskan waters yesterday. The green arrow on the image indicates the point where we are currently coring for sediments, while the white arrow points to the area where we will be headed next, Amundsen Gulf, part of the Northwest Territories, Canada . ICE We are finally surrounded by ice! As of yesterday after dinner, our icebreaker ship has finally found ice to break. I will be posting a video later today describing our surroundings, in addition to our first sighting of a polar bear mommy, and her cub. Our Current Status Click to enlarge As you can see it's cold . The temperature is 21 degrees. Brrrr. Today's video will be posted very soon. As we continue eastward, we will lose I...

Our current location and status can be discerned from the above image. Day 8 gave the science team a little precipitation, 30-knot winds, and rough seas. Today's workload was a near-exact carbon copy of yesterday's--multicore, piston core, gravity core--with the only difference the rougher seas and a different sampling station. This afternoon the sun made a brief appearance. The keyword here is brief. We are currently underway, headed east on the Beaufort Sea, to our next sampling station. by Steve Walters Look for a new video tomorrow. Today was spent re-editing Day 7's video to give it more context to the outside world. If you have any questions, please send it to: danny.blas@healy.polarscience.net

Click to enlarge current position [Today's video (below) "In Transit" includes appearances by: Martin Reedy, Akash Kataria, Lloyd Keigwin, Neal Driscoll, Woody Sutherland, Steve Walters, Chris Griner] The image to the left displays our current position (latitude and longitude) as well as the current temperature, wind speed, and barometric pressure. Our current position is on the Beaufort Sea at a point near where the Mackenzie River empties into the Beaufort Sea. Click here to see a map . The ship, the crew, and the science team are engaged in full-bore instrument deployment at the moment. The gravity core , multi-core , and piston core instruments have been in-and-out of the water all morning and afternoon. Marti Jeglinski 's team are busy taking the cores, labeling and storing the cores. Brendan Reilly has been scanning the cores, using an assortment of instruments, to determine the contents of the cores. Brendan does this without opening the core...

This blog post was written from the upper most observation deck (Aloft Conn), which is the 08 Deck, above the bridge. The Beaufort Gyre source: http://goo.gl/7scLp6 This is what it looks like from the Aloft Conn (D. Blas) Today (Monday) is purely a transit day. We are making our way east from Barrow, AK to the Beaufort Sea, where we will begin sampling around the Beaufort Gyre. When we finally arrive to our desired location, the science team and the Healy crew will begin the deployment of the core sampling tools to collect sediments. Our expectation is to arrive to our location between 8-10pm. Not much new to report at this time, other than rougher oceans than the previous days. Signing off from the Aloft Conn. Your blogger, Danny Blas (D. Blas)

Day Three, August 17, 2013 of Healy Mission 13-02 was an exceptional day for the science team and the crew of USCG Healy. We finally raised our anchors, after three days on the ship, and began movement on the Arctic Ocean. The earlier parts of the day were spent unpacking and setting-up all the equipment that will be dropped into the ocean to collect data and sediment samples. Saturday was also the day we practiced: (1.) man-over-board, and (2) abandon ship drills. "Better safe than sorry" is what mom taught us. Saturday was movie night, which was hosted by ENS Follmer, MSO in the helicopter hangar. There was one movie, The Grey and a Weather Channel documentary on USCGC Healy titled Breaking Ice . Saturday was a good day.  Check out the video about Day 3 on USCGC Healy as we begin our journey around the Arctic Ocean, collecting the things we need. And finally, expect more blog posts about the science our science team is working on. Currently we...