Common dolphins on the bow

It was the noise of dolphins having a good time time that alerted the guys to their presence on the bow. The clicks were quite loud and they had an infant with them...

If you are going to the deep make sure to wear flowers in your hair...

Helena suggested to the others that if we attach flowers to the bow of the boat then good luck will ensue. So at the local Tesco, we bought some and attached them to the bow and of course, evidence is here! We bought sunflowers as well just for added effect.

Its 2 am and I’m still trying to sniff out Bill Murray…

Footage of Callanish

A brief look over the some what desolate plains of Callanish floowed by cake and coffee in the cafe overlooking the bay.

Anton with Harris Tweed, Therese and Cajsa

Day12

I guess you could say, the crew need a day out in the hills just to relieve the disappointment of equipment failing. So a look at the tourist information board decides where to go. We go to Callanish, pre-historic standing stones around 5000 years old. Archaeological excavation at the site has determined a construction period as early as 3400BC and palaeoclimatology studies have shown that the ring’s use as an astronomical observation ended around 1500BC.
They are amongst the most important in Europe. The ring of Callanish is part of a cluster of some twenty megalithic ruins within a 2 mile radius. Exactly how and why the prehistoric builders used the rings we may never know, some point at a sacred temple function as well as astronomy, however there is also a hint offered by an old legend which states Callanish to be an auspicious place to consummate a marriage…?!
Well, it did feel kind of special there…
I actually had a better time listening Dave talk geology. I have to say had great day, reminded me of home and the hills of Donegal, as we wandered around the desolate wind-swept moors.
A swim of course was next and this time Emma joined and we dived in amongst a forest of seaweed, much to the screams of the girls (including me). A seaweed known as mermaids locks was everywhere and it was kind of creepy having these strings twist and turn around your body as you swam… reminded me of invasion of the body snatchers… although I didn’t say that out loud (Helena was frightened enough I feel). Therese and I decided to sing, ‘Tequila’… just sort of happened… I wonder what tunes these prehistoric builders sang when they built the ring... mmm

Ah, we find Neil at the ferry terminal with a few locals...

We have employed Robin and Robert as Surveyors and Purveyors of good music... I have sealed the deal...yeah!

Boogie nights...

The queue for pizza in Stornaway...

group shot...where is Neil?

Day 11 contd...

Second pub called with jukebox oh so bizarre and then we try and find a space to boogie and pull some shapes. First stop the Fish Angler, local community dance hall… not good! Then on to the grooviest part of town, the nightclub. The whole place was absolutely wrecked (meaning all revellers were sufficiently oiled) and I had a one bandaged hand man, Micheal Jackson dance impersonator on my tail. I had to firmly tell him to back off, it worked and I don’t know if the post-telling off gymnastic splits were to try and impress me more?! Yes, he was going home alone tonight I think. The Nightclub was called Era… yes not one I will want to frequent again. A quote from Emma will stay with me for a time, “yes, someone should carry out some anthropological study there…” ha ha…

House rules regarding glassware in Scotland

Day 11

Had a bit of a late wakeup as I didn’t really sleep well last night. I ingested two of those whacky qwells sea sickness tablets as I presumed we were off to sea. But remaining stationary, does not bode well after ingestion. I was a bit woosy and wide awake at 1.30 am, not even sex & the city could make me sleep!
However, breakfast called and then it was… swim time. Helena and I headed off in the direction of the castle via a wool and tweed shop. What a gem of a little place and what a gem of a little man who owned it, except that he didn’t want us to leave and kept talking as he moved. I got out first and Helena was still there. This morning though we had a dive and a 10 second dip, phone call and the boat is leaving. We made the 30 min walk into a 15 min run… with breaks in my gazelle like speed in order for Helena to keep up.
Alas, we make it back. But we are not leaving… where the hell is Bill Murray? He must be hiding out here somewhere? Yo Murray, where are you? I mean it is groundhog day!
Jaime and I head out on the front deck in the fresh air to do some work… I’m listening to the Cinematic Orchestra. I imagine if we didn’t have music... unthinkable! However, I remember a story of a first date where the male element admitted quite fervently that he didn’t like instruments?! Not music, but instruments?! Huh! I blame his mother! That was courtesy of a friend though, I do not lay any ownership on that story, I just like telling it…
Back inside and myself and the jaimemeister are going through the stills images from the tows… exciting stuff I say, exciting stuff (although I am not allowed to show you… just type in gorgonian on the web and you will see)
While I am here, you must watch a film called Waveriders, has the best sound track I have heard in a while and of course it is Irish made. I’m back to work, these damn midges! Do you know they have approximately 37 species in Scotland… Factoids!
We are yes still awaiting the Seatronics engineer to arrive and fix the problems with the system and now I see the divers on the pontoon. They are here to check the underwater positioning system… its all go here!
Ok, so all on board feel that it is indeed time for beers and we go onto the local drag! One very scary pub, although saved by the pool table. Well, almost saved. I beat Dave at pool, but the dude Dave is in deed a hustler… a local man entered the ring and placed his hand on the table asking ‘ is this a private game’, meaning he plays the winner. A bitter divorce later and the guy is telling me women cannot play pool well and stopping me mid shot to tell me to change my angle… I don’t bear fools well, but I did enjoy watching him fall on his last two balls and make excuses. I didn’t win, but I made it difficult by trying to continuously snooker him! Ha!

00Behave speedboat...

...damn he the cutest that I ever seen...

This is Bob, in his finest poses...

Mr Grey Seal...

Every day we would see the seal in the harbour. He would lounge around, taking it very easy... Maybe we should call him Bob...

Great skua...

Day 10

I awoke at 7 am this morning and straight to the Faroe-Shetland channel video to finish it. A few good finds indeed and am liking the bat cave set up in the Operations room, mainly as I don’t move so much in there. Its now 9.24 am and we are heading out to test the new winch set up, fingers crossed. I introduce the offline ladies to Santogold.
I have also introduced the foxy offline chicks to Mr Motivator, who people after a 9 year absence is back to stamp out obesity in the UK. God bless that man, and his outfits! Douglas Jones, remember that thai curry bet we had…ha ha! I will suggest that we may be joined by the legend that is Mr M to the T to the V to the TOR and he assists Anders on the Franklin Fitness Challenge. Can’t wait!
Meeting at 7pm time and the Biologists gather together to sort out the video analysis of the tows we have successfully completed and we hear of new records in the species catalogue. Whoopwoo!
Today we spotted a Great Skua, pretty neat. Hope you enjoy the photos Tony John and the rest of you birders, especially you Bicknell if you have bothered to read this far!
I break out the raspberries and had the brilliant idea of covering them in chocolate, however, there was a bit of a swell and I spent too long in the galley area, you would think that I would have learned that by now, 1 hour later (and after a snoozle on a flat plain) the treats were fully appreciated I think.
Well sleep had to equal something and that was missing 10 bottlenose dolphins at the bow of the ship, twice!! Anyway they are documented just for your pleasure guys.
Over evening toast and tea, we hear of the seal encounter with the Franklin OOBehave speed boat, wish I had of been there after missing those dolphins today! Maybe I’ll take it for a little spin tomorrow, Captain Christer is in a good mood, it was his birthday today! Yiaowee
Nite ya’ll
X

In flight movie...

Day 9

6.45 wake up, it’s swimming time. I’m writing this blog as I wake…… and am excited at a morning swim. I have to say when I was little I used to get up 4 mornings a week at about 6.30 am and swim with my auntie… Brings back lovely memories! The day is spent then going through the image catalogue which holds all the necessary faunal groups and I think Jaime is having fun being able to take time a bit to enjoy this.
Evening swim time again and its warm… twice in one day that’s pretty good I’d say! In the eve, I retreat to the bat cave and continue my Faroe-Shetland channel analysis to the sounds of the King Bruce Springstein, nice one Robert!
During the day we were joined by a fishing vessel in order to aid ‘spooning off’ the winch, so the hydraulics man can sort out the problem. Notice Erik, Head surveyor MMT oiling that winch cable (but not enjoying it) Nice guys these fishermen, until later when I heard that they thought all the girls coming off the boat were all cleaners?! I guess this an island after all…

Day 8...Stornaway

I awoke to the sight of land and sheep, heading to the port and doing a smooth 5-6 knots (well in comparison to last night, it felt like as if it was half the speed. Fab! The common tern is well, common here, and man do they make noise. So we pulled up alongside the port, as I ate breakfast of porridge and honey. We were joined by a fishing vessel in order to aid ‘spooning off’ the winch. In mid flow all the chaps and chapesses who could go, headed out to check out Stornaway and make use of some free time to stretch our legs. We found the path to the Victorian castle, walking amongst the Rodedendrons and found a nice bay, good enough to swim in. Yes, as always there’s a spare bikini in every bag I have and in I went. In a word, beautiful, a crisp 15 degrees I’d say. This was my most northerly swim and was pretty awesome. Soon Therese joined in… a great evening, followed by evening beers. We met a fantastic sailing dude called Jim who has been travelling since his retirement around the British Isles. I also meet Odd, the new 1st mate here to accompany the bridge crew on the rest of the trip and I have to say one of the funniest men alive. The ship has a new dynamic positioning (DP) system and there has to be two on the bridge at all times, so we have the pleasure of Odd here. A guy who has sailed the world and perhaps reminds me of what my brother will be like when he gets to that age, being a seaman of the world. A Jukebox was present, so quickly au bar, then to le box. I have to say I would not even call the collection of music on this machine retro, it was bizarre, I mean who the hell puts Daniel O’Donnell and a techno version of Lovefool by the cardigans on the jukebox. Anyway, Niklas and I were trying to convince el Capitano Christer to have The final Countdown by Europe as the ships song, a pleasant laugh was the answer. Damn, we will try again.

Day 7

Back on shift, delayed as the camera has shorted and we are waiting for the technical assistance of the camera and video suppliers. It looks like we will be steaming to Isle of Lewis, Stornaway to make contact, unless we can have a helicopter drop, which will include chocolate for the ladies and “normal” tea.
The offline chicas and chico, Cajse and Anders taught me how to say awesome as in awesome/cool in Swedish today while we were working in the lab…. Häthight (pronounced phonetically- hefdit)! That’s my new word I feel.
Although here are some more that I will be using:
Natti natti- goodnight
Suveränt- superb
Some deck shots...hi Helena, the engineer!
So I’m all set up in the little cubby hole in the lab area and am ready to analyse some video footage from the faroe-shetland channel. I find Now Hits 68 on Jaimes music collection… Phil Collins (NO!). Yes this little area will be the singing DJ area (no Phil Collins requests though). Dinner calls and the chef has made a Thai green curry, not like yours though Lucy Lui…
Not a good evening, I wasn’t well and went out on the aft deck to watch the horizon and have my dinner and managed to fall asleep, awoken by Jaime around 6.30. I knew we were in for a rough ride and I had to go to bed. I woke at 10 pm and found an orange, biscuits and water next to my bed, the dudess Jaime had been in and left some treats. I really thought I was gaining my sea-legs, guess it is gonna take me a little longer, damn.
The ship had finished multi-beaming the area and was approaching a speed of 12 knots to get to Stornaway in time. I have to say after a few hours I was awake and the noise was pretty impressive. We were heading into the wind and the noise of that breeze hitting the ship and moving through the metal railings sounded like a scream and there were quite a few of them. It was 4 am and I looked out the window and all I could see was water and white spray. Back to bed and lying flat for the rest of the morning. To be honest I was pretty scared, I was really hoping for Stornaway to show itself soon…

Day 6

First day on the job and I’m first on the video tow. I have to say it isn’t as easy as it sounds, collecting the data. My substrate is very silty and making sure you get the time delay on the camera correct has to be pretty tight! I feel I did well for a first timer on a deep sea camera tow and I have to say it is really awesome indeed. Jaime, can I come back again? Beth (JNCC) is up next and performs well also, so I hope Jaime was pleased. The next step is the long tow over the ridge and seeing how the winch is controlled, it’s my turn to head to the bridge and be the comms. person with the winch driver. It’s a double shift between Jenny and then Martin. I have to say this was difficult (I did sweat a lot) but Jaime did advise well and we had incredible footage of some of the fauna. We couldn’t land the camera as we were on steep flanks and we did rise up slope a few times. We cannot see the altimeter on the bridge, so when you do not know how far you are off the seabed and can only see the video screen, it is very technical and one has to be careful. I enjoyed this a lot, and a subsequent muchio high 5 between Martin, el Capitano Christer and I was due!
Ok, now for a cup of tea as we organise the remaining tows and it is nearly time to finish the shift and the others to start theirs.
A good day I feel and you know, this work is definitely a highlight in the life of Maria Campbell. Give me more, more deep sea tows … It’s not just the work that is fab but the staff of MMT, they rock!
Some of the ships crew, Patrick chief engineer, el capitano Christer and Olaf Chief officer! hi Guys!

Day 5

Early to rise again, now that I will be on duty at 8 am until 8 pm, I can begin my regular sleep and wake pattern and I am glad I am on the day shift. Its like being at home, getting up just before 7 am, exercise and then breakfast, in fact its even better than home I guess. Doing your morning downward dog (for those of yoga you will understand, for those who are yet to find yoga… look it up) with nothing but the sea around you, a light breeze and the sun on your face is pretty something. Exercise on the front deck, we actually set up a circuit training centre, evidence is of course here! Complete with exercise mat, skipping rope, exercise ball, weights and the like. So here it is we have set up an exercise area on the front deck and when the sun is shining on it, it retains the heat and is oh so lovely! So I’ll be getting fit here…fab! Later Anders finds an exercise challenge on the web, 200 squats, push-ups and sit-ups over our 3 weeks (or 4 for some). So the game has started and I have done 15 sit-ups…17 push-ups (girly ones)… hey not bad, I’m taking it slowly. Real slow, I have no want to be the female Arnie… It is the birthday of Helena, one of the chief MMT scientists to day. Graatis to Helena! The chef has baked the most amazing cake which we all devour, although I think I am last to actually know about the cake… I have now found my Swedish word site, http://www.listology.com/list/swedish-words-and-phrases-day-how-learn-swedish-1000-difficult-lessons I surprise capture the offline ladies again... and catch M\rtin and cajse excercising outside... I take a look at the evening sunset…

Day 4

Well it was full steam ahead to the first destination, the southeast area of Anton Dohrn seamount. Breakfast consisted of pancake and syrup and roobios tea, quickly followed by walking back into my bed. The Galley is located to the front of the ship and it is not a good place for me. A Qwell tablet was ingested at speed and I lay back down to read Advice for a young scientist, by P.B Medawar. Thanks Prof Burkill, it’s a great read.
However, sleep called and I have to say under the influence of Qwells, I am having some whacky dreams. I also fell asleep with my binoculars around my neck, ahhhh, the eternal scientist. Jaime looked after me with clementines and water and I had my lunch alone outside to keep my eyes on the horizon; burger and salad at the back of the deck with gannets and fulmars to keep me company.
So back to bed for a little while until we stop at the chosen destination. In the Galley I can hear the sound of jumping or something, I go to investigate and it’s exercise time. I find, Emma, Therese and Beth in the middle of stretching.
Neil and I took some time wandering around the decks looking for wildlife and I did laugh when Neil did say that he found what looked like a finch. To my surprise, it actually was a member of the finch family. It was male and either a Scottish Crossbill or a Common Crossbill as I know these species are hard to separate, but what the hell was it doing out here! If it was a Scottish Crossbill, then these are not known to migrate……..Even if it was a Common Crossbill, they also would not migrate across the Atlantic, yes I feel we had a little stowaway!
It was such an exciting find, since the Scottish Crossbill and Tony John you can correct me if I am wrong, is unique to the British Isles. It is described as unique due to its distinctive bird song. The poor thing was exhausted, so we tried to give him water and bread. We named him MJ, after the King of Pop, or maybe it was the King if Pop! Aoidhin Gallen, you were right he is taking a break after all, well don’t worry we have him on board M/V Franklin……somewhere……..
Back then to work and a full biological data gathering brief, as Jaime heads the group and gives us the complete low-down on how to acquire our data. As Biologist On Shift (BOS), we have a lot of responsibility during the camera/video tow. On this first mission, the camera will be taken down to approx 1700 m, down the south-east flank of Anton Dohrn, then 500 m tows will take place on the deep areas and then back up to about 1000 m in the shallows (yes this is shallow in the context of deep sea video/camera analysis). Everything has to be synchronised (overlay time on video, USBL, CTD) and everything recorded including the regular 20 m photographs and other interesting photographs of choice. It will mean that I work in a pairwise motion with someone from JNCC with close input from the MMT guys and careful communication with the winch driver.

La fin de jour...

Just after film time, as I was stealing another biscuit, and admiring the sunset I am sure I seen a fin the size and shape of an orca (killer whale), two moving in total sync, then one breaching slightly just so the fin was almost at 180 degrees. Takes your breath away every time and makes me feel lucky that I am a part of this. Helena, one of the engineers kindly showed me some footage of orcas in the waters toward Norway, man they were good.
It is 11.15 am and I am raiding the sweet store post cheesy film.

Day 3 ...ominous sky

I’m sitting here listening to Belle and Sebastian, Dear Catastrophe waitress and looking at a flat calm sea surface, its approx. 19 degrees and I can see the Orkneys to my left and somewhere in the distance the Shetlands to the right. Jaime and Neil hard at work changing the position of the flash for the camera. We have just had the most delicious spicy fish soup and I am happy. I am bird watching today also and cetacean watching: Today I observed, lesser black-backed gulls, kittiwakes (I think), fulmars, gannets, guillemots, Juvenile commorants and flying like the wind an auk, it’s a wee auk! For those interested in seabirds go to http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/features/seabirds.asp For those interested in Marine mammals go to http://www.seawatch.org.uk Or contact the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), even better still, try and take photos of the animals you find and email them to MCS. I’ve got an even better idea, join them. Just as we were out on the aft deck post safety demonstration, a sinister cloud cover was looming in the distance and I can say that I have never seen anything like it. We were moving into a front, one second sun, the next, wind picking up and the hairs on the back of your neck standing up as the rain begins. I have never seen cloud formations like it… Just at that point, two fins are seen ploughing through the water… I think what we seen was maybe pilot whale, however, a white stripe was seen on one, this would orca or white sided dolphin, or perhaps it had an injury … who knows!

Day 3...safety time!

I woke with an early start, 7 am to be exact, however after last nights late night camera tweeking and transponder problems with the CTD I went back to sleep. It was my first night and I wanted to learn as much as possible and the camera had to be calibrated at various depths and just right for the water test.
I woke at 10 am again, entered the galley and began our first safety tour. With work books at hand Niklas led us to the bridge in order to introduce us to Captain (Master) Christer. We got a grand tour of ship including the engine room, the Poop deck, CO2 room…
At 3pm, we would have an emergency practical. So we got ready for the call… unfortunately we were bird watching on the side deck and near the vents and didn’t hear the alarm. However, we proceeded to gather on deck and try out the floatation suits… It was difficult and I feel that the outfit really did suit me, this cannot be said for Beth’s suit though…absolutely hilarious!