Posts tagged GOS

The last time I wrote a Sorcerer II blog was in November when we set sail from Spain to cross the Atlantic Ocean. For all of you that have been worried that we have been at sea for 8 months, relax we made it!! Over the next few days I will update everyone on what has happened and the upcoming plans for Sorcerer II.

First off, the Atlantic Crossing……….On November 13^th we left Gibraltar and on November 17^th arrived in the Canary Islands.

After a day on Lanzarote Island we sailed overnight to Las Palmas on Gran Canary, collecting two samples on the way. We stayed in Las Palmas waiting for a good weather window for the big crossing. During that time we traded out crew members, fully stocked the boat with food, supplies and fuel. We also had time to meet our collaborators from the University of Las Palmas. I gave a group from the University a tour of the boat and showed them the sampling equipment.

On November 22^nd we took off for the USA USA USA! There was one problem, a huge storm in the Northern Atlantic. To avoid the storm we had to go much more south then originally planned, also this storm sucked all the wind up north, so we had very little wind to sail with. With no wind and a much longer sail than planned, we couldn’t make it directly to Florida…………well we could have but we would have run out of fuel and food! So on December 8^th we arrived in St. Thomas USVI. For two and a half weeks we motored our way from the Canary Islands to the USVI sampling and fishing. Total fish count was 8 Mahi Mahi, 3 Wahoo and 2 Yellow Fin Tuna.

One more thing, during this crossing the following things all happened, the strange part is they all happened within 24 hours of each other!

1. Little generator broke (not a big deal we have 2 generators), both were up and running in a few hours

2. Auto-pilot went out……….could have been a real pain because we would have had to hand steer 24 hours a day for the rest of the trip, this was on day 8, but it got fixed in a few hours as well.

3. Water maker went down………no water for showers, dishes and oh yeah no drinking water……once again got fixed in a few hours

4. Mainsail ripped, this was fixed a few days later, but for those days we were pretty rolly out there with no mainsail to keep us steady.

5. Busted pipe in my head (bathroom)………funny thing is I woke up around 4 am dreaming about waves then I woke up and still heard the waves; it was the water going back and forth in my bathroom floor!

6. And the big daddy of them all…….. a full out engine room fire!! Not just smoke or steam…….we are talking flames and extinguishers! It was taken care of and the engine was up and running about 4 hours later.

On December 20^th 2010 Sorcerer II arrived in Florida. This wrapped up the 2009/2010 Europe Expedition. During this time we collected 213 samples, filtered over 51,000 liters of water from 13 countries. DNA from all 3 size fractions from the 213 samples have been extracted, although not all will be sequenced right away, a majority have been sequenced or are schedule to be sequenced this year. I will write a future blog on the sequencing status of these 213 samples and how we are working with many collaborators from Europe to work up this data set. I will also write about what has been going on with Sorcerer II since December 2010 and future plans for her.

September 28^th 2010

With one last sample to collect and the weather still rough in the Mediterranean, we made the decision to make the Banyuls sample a road sampling trip. So Jeremy and I loaded up a rental car with carboys and headed out at 5 am to drive the 125 miles (200km) to Banyuls France from Barcelona Spain.

After being on the boat for a few months straight, the 2 hour drive was a welcome adventure, even with the 5 am departure! We were greeted at the Observatory of Banyuls by Dr. Ian Salter. Ian showed us around the laboratory and down to the dock to their research vessel.

They have a station less than ¼ of a mile offshore, which they have been monitoring for many years. We motored out to the site, they did a water column profile with a CTD that was very similar to the CTD we have on Sorcerer II, and then we collected our water from a few meters deep with a niskin bottle . Once we got back to the dock we loaded the carboys into the car and drove back to Sorcerer II to process the sample. It is always good to collect samples with collaborators that have long term monitoring sites and are interested in working with the Venter Institute to analyze the data!

September 20^th 2010

We arrived in Crete today, bringing our Greek sampling leg to an end. We were very lucky to be able to sail in Greek waters, this place is truly beautiful. Not only did we get to see the natural beauty of Greece, but our hosts introduced us to the rich culture and extensive history of Greece. Our hosts, The Captain (AKA Mr Panayotis Tsakos ) and his family have been good friends with Dr. Venter for years. Being in the shipping business for decades, it isn’t surprising that they know the best places in Greek waters! We learned a lot about their shipping business, Tsakos Group , as well as the Maria Tsakos Foundation . The foundation is very interesting so please click on the link and read about it. The Sorcerer II crew was given a once in a lifetime experience from the Tsakos family, one we will never forget and are very thankful for!

Click here to read about the Corinth Canal

Everyone should go visit Greece, it is amazing!

September 15^th 2010

On September 10^th we arrived in the northeastern Aegean Sea and docked in the city of Alexandroupolis. We spent a few hours dealing with customs which was not normal for the Mediterranean countries. Turns out that this area is well known for being an entry point for illegal immigrants from Bulgaria and Asia via Turkey. Lucky for us we had our Greek observer Alexandra Meziti from the University of Thessaly. Alexandra helped get all our paperwork in order and got us all checked in with the local custom officials.

So the next afternoon we took off to start our Greek sampling leg………and to be totally honest it couldn’t have started any worse! We arrived to the sample site (#44 on the sample site map) at sunset, after we collected the samples the seas and winds picked up, plus a big lighting storm could be seen to the north of us and moving our way! For the record you don’t want to be in the middle of the sea with a 130 foot mast in a lighting storm! I was out sampling in high winds, rolling seas as we outran the lighting storm………all worked out and we didn’t get caught by the storm.
We sailed overnight and collected our Thermaikos Gulf (Site # 34) and then headed to an island called Skiathos to anchor for the night. The next morning we sailed to Maliakos Gulf (# 28 on sample map), unlike the previous two Greek samples the water was dead calm and no wind………it was nice and relaxing! For this sample our Greek collaborator Dr. Amalia Karagouni from the University of Athens was onboard.

After our samples were collected we dropped off Amalia and Alexandra and picked up Theodora Nikolakopoulou from the University of Athens (AKA Dora the explorer). Dora would be our Greek observer for the next leg to Santorini.

September 10^th 2010

Tonight we arrived in the Greek town of Alexandroupolis, which is located in northeast Aegean Sea. In the last 3 days we have collected 10 samples from 5 sites; it has been a long couple days! In the last blog I talked about the 2 sample sites in the Black Sea, since then we have collected samples on the north entrance of the Bosphorus (in the Black Sea), the South entrance of the Bosphorus (in the Sea of Marmara) and in the Dardanelles.

This transect is very important because you have huge amounts of water moving back and forth from the Black Sea and Aegean Sea. There are also big salinity gradients, not only in the surface waters from each body of water, but also in the water column due to the movement of water from each area. The salinity of the Sea of Marmara is slightly greater than that of the Black Sea but only about two-thirds that of most oceans. However, the water is much more saline as you go down the water column in the Sea of Marmara; it is actually similar to that of the Mediterranean Sea. This high-density saline water, like that of the Black Sea itself, does not migrate to the surface.