Breaking the ice / Casser la glace

Arrival in Quebec city / Arrivée à Québec

2009-11-19T10:40:00.001-08:00

Arrival in Quebec city The last days went by pretty fast. Last days to clean around the lab, pack our bags, work on the film from the last leg. We had a rough windy day (40 knots), some people were not feeling well. I decided to go outside with a few people, wearing mustangs and flying in the wind. It was hard to stand up !! Crazy wind ! but lots of fun. It was too rough to stay inside anyway.

Anticosti and the fog horn / La corne de brume et l'Ile d'Anticosti

2009-11-15T19:13:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 15 I worked on the movie today and we had a fun last Sunday dinner. We are already near Anticosti Island! Wow, getting close to Quebec! It’s very foggy, we can’t see a thing. The fog horn has been heard all day every 2 minutes. ================================================================================== Dimanche le 15 novembre J’ai travaillé sur le film aujourd’hui

New Foundland / Terre-Neuve

2009-11-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 14 Today, we had a meeting at 9h30 to discuss the report of Leg4b. Each person in charge of a project has to write one. I had to finish mine before 1pm because I wanted to film Joannie’s presentation on primary production and Anabelle’s presentation on contaminants in the Arctic. I gave a tour of the ROV control room and the moonpool to the students after that. Pascal did a

Anaktalak Fjord & the end! / Le fjord Anaktalak & la fin de la mission!

2009-11-14T18:45:00.001-08:00

November 12-13 Day36-37 Well these two days blend together a bit because it has been quite busy. We studied our last fjord, Anaktalak. The trawl on Nov 12 at 7pm was really good and we had many species, mainly crabs, shrimp and fish. It’s rarely that many! We sorted until midnight, then I went filming Joannie with the students at the Rosette and primary production until 2am. I crashed for a few

Okak Fjord

2009-11-12T13:11:00.001-08:00

Wednesday, November 11 Day35 Okak Fjord We are in Okak Fjord and it’s a sunny day. I had a trawl net in the middle of the night and got splashed by all the mud from the net. It was funny. Then, I went back to bed 2 hours later to catch on some sleep and started my day around 8am. Tanya and I sorted species until 1pm or so. Then, I went to film the skimmer (small catamaran) from the ship. Oliver

Land, land! / On a touché terre

2009-11-11T16:46:00.001-08:00

Tuesday, November 10 Hebron Island in Saglek Fjord Day34 Long day today! The trawl was at 4h30am. We hit a rock that seriously damaged it. Roger from the coast guard was able to sew it… We had tons of species, no mud. I’ve never seen it so far. So many species, like brittlestars, clams, shrimp, sea cucumbers, fish, etc. Around 12h30pm, I joined the first barge trip to Hebron Island. Due to

Saglek Fjord

2009-11-11T16:45:00.001-08:00

Monday November 9 Saglek Fjord Day 33 Today was the skimmer day. Oliver, a postdoc at Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney (BC) tried many times the famous small catamaran to take a microlayer sample of the ocean without success. The big waves, the ice, all seem to work against it for a while. Today, in Saglek Fjord, it was the day. I went in the barge with them so I can film the event. I

Nachvak Fjord

2009-11-09T18:28:00.001-08:00

Sunday, November 8 Today I had an Agassiz trawl in Nachvak Fjord and some students joined me from School on Board. Tanya Brown is working with me collecting species, she’s really used to all the species found along the Labrador coast. The species collected in the fjords will go to the CHONe project for genetic identification. The students had a good time looking at critters and playing in the

Iqaluit - Nachvak Fjord

2009-11-08T20:24:00.001-08:00

Saturday, November 7 Day 31 Today was a transit day towards the first Labrador fjord: Nachvak. I tested my new GoPro Camera that I got in Iqaluit (shipped from Victoria). It is really fun and it gives a 180 degrees view. We met with Sam Bentley, the Chief Scientist for this Leg4b. He’s a researcher at Memorial University in NewFoundland. Then, we had 40 knots of wind... that I dealt with pretty

Iqaluit

2009-11-07T08:44:00.000-08:00

Friday, November 6th Iqaluit and end of Leg4a Seeing lights on the coast today was a bit of a shock after one month in the “wilderness” where we could only see the ocean, the ice or the coast. Not a bad shock but just surprising. I finished my film 30 minutes before the presentation that was at 9pm. Actually I would have liked to put more time, but I wanted it to be good enough for tonight. It

A day in paradise! / Une journée au paradis!

2009-11-06T12:51:00.001-08:00

Thursday November 5th Well, when we say that our day is already perfect at 9h12am. I went to bed pretty late last night and asked Melanie to wake me up in the morning if it was nice. I wanted to wake up around 8am to sleep a bit. The phone rings at 7h15. It’s Joannie telling me that I should go outside, it’s nice, sunny and we see the mountains pretty close. I was happy that I thought about

Transit

2009-11-06T12:49:00.001-08:00

Tuesday, November 3 Still in transit towards Iqaluit for the change of staff on November 6th. We will probably arrive on the evening of the 5th when we’ll have our gala night with prizes. There was a quiz about ‘the person the most this or that’. It will be a fun last night of the leg4a. Then, 25 people leave, 25 arrive. Among them, many high school students. There is a plan about H1N1… I heard

Rush

2009-11-04T23:33:00.001-08:00

November 5 I'm in a video editing rush... the showing is tomorrow night for the last evening of most scientists on board. Also have a dive report and leg report to finish up. Stay tuned! 5 novembre Petit rush de montage video... c'est pour demain soir pour la derniere soiree de la mission pour la plupart des scientifiques a bord. Ah j'ai aussi 2 rapports a finaliser. Je vous reviens bientot!

ROV dive / Journee Plongee

2009-11-02T19:41:00.001-08:00

Monday, November 2 I woke up to see the full moon over the Baffin Island coast and the sunrise on the other side. I filmed and took a few pictures. I couldn’t stay very long though because we had a busy day ahead: a ROV dive in Scott Inlet. We met at 9h30 with the captain and the ROV team. Then we thought we would star tat 10h15, but there was a delay because of the ice in the moon pool (where

Back in touch / Enfin internet

2009-11-01T21:46:00.001-08:00

Without internet since last week... here are my blog updates! Now near Iqaluit, Baffin Island. Sans internet depuis une semaine, voici la mise a jour... Maintenant rendu pres de Iqaluit, a l'ile de Baffin. Sunday October 25 Another day in Lancaster Sound, heading out to Baffin Bay now. Finally out of the ice world, we’re entering more and more the icebergs world; it’s really beautiful. The

Lancaster Sound

2009-10-25T20:10:00.001-07:00

Saturday, October 24 Day 17 The landscape has new shapes: coasts and small icebergs are now present. Some are stuck in the ice, some are free. It’s pretty nice, but still cloudy. We worked in the mud inside the lab. Also worked on the ROV dive report, it’s almost finished now. Katie Blasco finished the maps. Joannie is working on a piñata and our Halloween costume (5 girls together) in

Closing the frozen road / Fermer les glaces

2009-10-25T20:08:00.001-07:00

Friday October 23 Day 16 We woke up this morning in a beautiful landscape at Radstock Bay. Attached to the Louis-St-Laurent and fueling, we had a few hours to take pictures and visit our neighbours. The Louis-St-Laurent is much more powerful and is the biggest icebreaker of the coast guard. They came from the East to meet us and we will head to the East together. The northeastern wind has

Louis-St-Laurent breaking the ice / Le Louis-Saint-Laurent nous casse la glace

2009-10-24T12:38:00.001-07:00

Thursday October 22nd Day 15 We were making a slow progress in Viscount Melville Sound. Multi year ice from the North came last week or so because of the wind. I filmed Heike and Melanie working in the lab. Then, we all went outside: The Louis St-Laurent was arriving in a beautiful light. And she was fast! I did a presentation at night showing a short clip of the ROV dive. Then, giving a

Breaking the ice? Casser la glace?

2009-10-22T12:41:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, October 21 Day 14 Well, I called my blog « breaking the ice »… but it seems we can’t break it as much as I though. There is lots of ice. We are trying to get through Viscount-Melville Sound but we’re making little progress. The Louis St-Laurent, a much more powerful icebreaker from the coast guard, is on its way to escort us. Until then, lots of science is suspended. We’ll start the

20 000 leagues under the sea / 20 000 lieux sous les mers

2009-10-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

Tuesday October 20th 20 000 leagues under the sea We hard our first dive with the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) today. The dive was supposed to be at 12h30 last night, but was postponed a few times to de-ice the « moon pool » (hole to put the ROV in the water). It actually too 8 hours to de-ice it! I slept a bit here and there, but not safe and sound as I knew we were diving soon. So we

Viscount-Melville Sound

2009-10-20T01:03:00.000-07:00

Monday October 19th Day 12 Today was a transit day to the Viscount-Melville station. It was a rough night because of the noise. I had some work at the benthic lab with the cores to filter. Then I prepared my database to write comments during the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dive that will be tonight… around 3-4am. Ouch. Gotta sleep before if I want to make it. The dive will last 6hrs. Lots

The day after... / Le jour d'après

2009-10-20T01:01:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 18th Heading out of Prince of Wales Strait Day 11 Today was a recovery day. The main topic of the day was what happened the night before of course. They had to check everything to make sure the ship is alright. Then, they dove with the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to check the haul. At 8h30pm we had a general science meeting. The captain was there to tell us what happened

Arctic adventures / Les aventures de l’Arctique

2009-10-18T21:14:00.001-07:00

Saturday October 17 What a day. Where to start? Woke up early, around 5am for a trawl at 90m depth. From maybe 6am, we could start to see a pink layer in the sky with a planet shining above. We were up for a beautiful day. The sunrise was breathtaking, the sky changing colours from pink to orange and yellow until the sun finally showed up. Then, two polar bears, probably a mother with her cub

Prince of Wales

2009-10-17T20:15:00.001-07:00

Friday Oct 16 Day 9 Northwest Passage through Prince of Wales Long day! Well I didn't go for the bar night last night, it became to be rocky again :( So I preferred not to drink. Then, from 11pm to 1h30am I did some lab work with the girls. Then woke up around 11h30am for my day. We had a busy afternoon with box cores (helping and filming) and filtering the mud to find critters. And tonight

Rosette & cie

2009-10-16T23:24:00.001-07:00

Thursday Oct 15 Day 8 Today, I filmed the Rosette recovery, and it went pretty well. A rosette contains many bottles to take water samples and measure temperature and salinity at different depths. The sea was calmed and it was not too cold. In the evening I worked with Heike and Melanie with the incubations until late in the night. I haven't done that kind of lab work for the past 3 years (2nd