There will be no work in the Herald Canyon for us during this expedition. The weather allowed us no relief of the swell to put down equipment in the sea. Instead we have stayed in the ice and on the ice edge. The meteorologists are interested in the change of atmospheric composition and cloud formation around the ice edge. Open water and ice creates very different conditions for aerosol formation and thus how clouds are formed. Cloud formation is one of the more unknown or at least tricky bits to describe in climate science as far as I understand it.

We have now taken down the guard and are no longer stand-by for sampling new stations. Instead we have stopped our systems. Packed up all discrete sampling equipment. The only things up running still are the continuous measurements, like methane in air, the meteorology program and the multibeam acoustic team instruments. Though the latter is pretty passive during the time we have been standing still.

Yesterday we took apart the large GFF filtration units. The “extreme plumbing” setup that we had in the main lab for directing the water flow the many different ways we wanted to. It felt good, but also strange. We are now finishing this off! We took away boxes that were screwed into the benches of the lab. Unstrapped boxes that were secured under the tables, repacked boxes with material that had been out in the cupboards and equipment that has been used. Vacuum pumps, peristaltic pumps, impeller pumps, filtration units for GFF, plastic buckets, tweezers, containers of various sizes, tubing by the meter and metal valves, connections, clamps. Unscrewing barb hose wires. Cutting open tie raps. Clipping duct tape. Cleaning off all the metal parts in fresh water to get the salt away. Putting it up on large display for drying. Unhooking cables and tubing from their temporary mounts on the walls, disconnecting log computers.

Everything that went here in a box needed to go back in a box. Preferably in the same one! Therefore we would take our compilation of packing lists, cross check what was in which box and try to get them in the same ones. During the course of the expedition we have given away some boxes, and some boxes have been emptied. We have samples that were generated and need space. All items that were moved into new boxes were noted in the packing list log and denoted as moved to “box x”. The reason for keeping things in the same boxes is simple. When we get home we will have a very large set of boxes that need tending. You want to find the things when you come home without having to dig through most things before finding them. Well, I´ll correct myself. It is only important or good if we have updated packing lists for the boxes that were brought home.

We carried all the boxes out of the lab, moved it down the flight of steps and over the deck to the aft of the ship to where the storage container is located. Here we had crew assistance to rearrange the contents inside the container to get everything in in for storage during leg 2 in a secure way. We had the large crane lift things up to the container entrance. Heavy work, and a shower was very welcome afterwards.

This morning we cleaned the lab. Sorted out all glass, plastic, metal and combustible scrap. Unscrewing hooks, removing duct tape constructions. Scrubbing off the tables from dirt and salt. Mopping the floors.

When I went in there half hour ago it smelled nicely of soap.

We are having a meeting about organic geochemistry for next steps when we come back ashore. Delineating papers, and listing data types that we have.

Next on the agenda today is an EOCD... an end-of-cruise-dinner. After this, in the morning at 08:00 UTC time we will have breakfast, and eight hours later we will TURN BACK THE TIME to local time. This means that we will eat breakfast, sleep for 8 hours, and then have breakfast again! This is really cool. Anyone back home still complaining about changing one hour to summers day light savings time will have no pity from me any longer. ;)

We have gotten instructions on what will happen in Barrow, where we will stay. We are filling in forms for stepping onto US soil. Getting reminders of flights and ticket procedures. It is really here now. The end of the cruise. I am sad. I am happy. Looking forward to the dinner tonight, and two breakfasts.

Before dinner I will bring out my backpack and start packing my personal belongings. Then there will be cleaning of the cabins and what else. Having a last walk around the ship I guess?

Now – a short nap, so I will manage to stay awake during dinner. :)