Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2000 19:50:29 +0000
To: lterpalpi@guardian.icess.ucsb.edu, quetinla@nbp.polar.org,
        fraserbi@palmer.usap.nsf.gov
From: Maria Vernet <vernetma@lmg.polar.org>
Subject: informal report

Hi to all,

this is a short note to tell you we are off to a good start:

Today is a beautiful day. We left Palmer this morning after a scare of lack 
of navigation by 3 GPS systems on board. It got fixed by mid morning. We 
did B and E without any trouble. Rosette and new bottles working fine. All 
instruments are a go although we are still working on the transmissometer. 
Slow day so we will finish late but cannot expect anything else this first 
day. We are now steaming to 600.040. We did 2 XBTs mid way between St E and 
600.040 and we will do 2 XBTs between the 040, 060 and 080 stations.

I will ask Bill to send Doug what I have on replicate XBTs to see what you 
think. They are decent but the surface 20-40 m is always suspect. I think 
it is the effect of the deployment until the signal stabilizes. Otherwise 
we have not had a 'bad' XBT. But let me know what you think and what type 
of error is acceptable in the inicial part of the profile.

Please Doug send the files with the CTD and XBT logs. We need them badly.

Bill and Donna are doing well. Polly is doing well too. She is glad to be 
back at Palmer after 3 years. She said we will talk about cruise scheduling 
after the cruise. The exchange was very positive. The replacement station 
manager for Ron, Bob Ferris, is great. Everyone at the station is happy and 
relaxed as in the old days. Dan Lubin has now yellow (trying to be blond) 
hair. Incredible.

The group of people on the cruise is very good. ASA has a very good 
component. ECO has the Chief mate (Robert Verret) as Captain and also the 
second Engineer as Chief Engineer. So the atmosphere is relaxed and we are 
already planning the next party although we are recovering from last night.

Today is very clear. Hopefully we could get a good SeaWIFS image. Could Ray 
check? We are getting NOAA and DMSP from Palmer Station but I did not know 
if we had a request for SeaWIFs and did not want to push the envelope.

One suggestion for next year: I would have Charleen make a master list of 
all instrument request for the cruise, combining individual requests from 
the SIPS. I think it will help ASA/Raytheon and it will make sure there are 
no forgotten items.

One sensor at the Bonaparte met station is not working. I talked to Rob 
Edwards and John "Johan" Booth about repairing. He has already tried it but 
without success. He is waiting to hear advice from Madison. If still broken 
at the end of the month, there is a chance the ship might have spare parts. 
I will have Dave M. have a look at it at that time. There was no time 
yesterday with only 1 day for loading.

Tmorrow we will have a general science meeting to discuss science and what 
every group does to all new people and refresh all the rest. I think 
everyone is happy with their science, instruments and space. A few glitches 
are being worked out but it is to be expected.

We will stop at Rothera on the 17th and do sampling similar to the one done 
last year. I will write to Robin to get names and info on science.

Hope all is well at home. The trip on Jan 1st went well. We even got to 
sleep on the plane for lack of competition. Polly travelled with us on the 
1st too. The early preparation paid off and everything was ready and loaded 
when we got to Punta Arenas. Thanks Charleen. Bob K. was very hekpful too.

Good bye,

Maria