The Fog
[This post written 6/11/08; position: lat -57’49”, long -44’28”; temp 1C; wind chill -13C]
I have had a very low-key day, still dealing with lack of equilibrium due to this head cold. Didn’t make it down to breakfast this morning. I dined on crackers in my cabin. Outside, the fog was so heavy that the iceberg was nearly invisible. Temperature read-outs on the monitor showed it was barely freezing outside — unseasonably warm to say the least. General mood was subdued, as the loss of the ROV is now confirmed. It is well and truly gone, which is a blow to everyone. Still, there was some exciting science going on down on the main deck today, I knew. Last night, they launched the MOCNESS, a water sampling device spoken of variously as “a monstrocity” and “a very clever invention, when it works right.”
MOCNESS stands for Multiple Opening-Closing Net Environmental Sensing System. I have not actually seen this thing, but from what I hear, it is several meters square and is towed from the ship’s conducting cable through the stern A-frame. It has six nets, each with a 10 square meter mouth opening, and each of these can be controlled separately to gather samples at different locations. It’s used mainly to collect krill, and I knew several scientists, including Ron Kaufmann, were very much looking forward to seeing what came out of it. The previous night, the planned deployment didn’t happen because getting the device ready is such a process.
So I was hoping to get down there and see what the MOCNESS yielded. But never could keep my balance well enough to do it. Late in the day, word came down that the iceberg had split apart. I made it up to the bridge to see what was up, though I didn’t manage to stay long. It was very eerie up there. The fog is so heavy, nothing is visible from the big windows. It’s easy to imagine anything coming out of that curtain, even Cthulhu himself. A good, big chunk of the iceberg has indeed broken off. Don’t know yet whether this will change our plans or not.