Friday 28th January
Today's contributor: Jon Copley
This morning we arrived at our next target area: another volcanic outcrop, nicknamed Three Sisters, further along the Bransfield Strait.
Our first task was to map the seafloor using the ship's multibeam sonar, just as we did at Hook Ridge. But as we began our survey lines, we encountered thick fog in the still air of the morning. The ship has radar that can peer through the fog to detect icebergs, but radar cannot detect "growlers": smaller, almost completely submerged chunks of ice that can still cause damage. So we slowed down, to enable lookouts on to spot any growlers.
With our speed restricted, we switched to running a survey with the CTD probe, which involves moving the ship very slowly anyway. CTD survey was then the order for the rest of the day, hunting for signs of vents somewhere on the seafloor below. But none to report here so far.