Well at least I think it's day 6. It's hard to keep track of the days. The beginning of the cruise was going well until we had to run away from Hurricane Ophelia! We managed to work as planned up until Saturday afternoon but then we had to steam way off course to avoid the storm. We actually ended up not far off the coast of the US, in an area called George's Bank but with Ophelia moving up to a Category 4 we couldn't take any chances. If you follow this link you can see where we went.
Saturday's weather was still pretty rough, with the sea washing over the back deck while we tried to work. Although this was nothing to do with the hurricane, it was just a little squall! We had hoped to do some sampling at 40 degrees north but only managed to get to 39 degrees north before we had to change course. Oh well, next year we might make it to 40 degrees north! So apart from finishing off the samples from Saturday we haven't been able to do any science because we are not in the right area.
Later today we hope to be in position for the guys from Woods Hole to carry out a 16km line of sampling. Then we should arrive at the regular BATS site some time Wednesday morning and fingers crossed, we can carry on as planned. We have missed a big chunk of work north of Bermuda that won't get done this year - but they have extended the return leg from Puerto Rico by one day to try and squeeze in some extra work.
Now we just have to hope Philippe doesn't come our way.
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