Jennifer Kosty (Yale University)

October 16, 2025
18:00 local, 71.19◦N, 139.59◦W

Conditions:

• Cloudy
• 0% sea ice cover
• -4^◦C
• Sunrise: 16-Oct-2025 10:45
• Sunset: 16-Oct-2025 19:21
• Day length: 8 hours, 36 minutes

We are officially 4 weeks into the 2025 BGOS/JOIS expedition – only 1 week left! Remarkably, after many weeks at sea, we are still being served fresh salads every day at lunch. Cook Allison Lodge makes amazing, veggie-filled salads using lettuce that is grown on the Louis! A hydroponic tower (run by logistics officer Nathan Whiffen) is used to produce the lettuce that is served for the final few weeks of each cruise. We are thankful to have this system, as the fresh produce on board is incredibly limited after 4 weeks at sea.

Today was another busy day for the science team. Our work on the MK-line got slightly delayed, in part because we decided to transit between stations at a slower rate to conserve fuel. The night watch completed a CTD-only cast at MK-3’ and then full CTD rosette casts at MK-4 and CB-28b early this morning. The winds were gusting up to 30 knots, so we were unfortunately unable to collect plankton samples at these stations, as the Bongo sampling nets are unable to be safely deployed in high winds.

The day watch then completed a 2500 m CTD rosette cast at MK-6 around 1 pm, followed by a 2700 m cast at CB-29 around 6 pm. Moderate 1.5-2 m waves caused the Louis to rock back and forth during the station at MK-6. Thankfully, wave heights were diminished at CB-29 due to its proximity to the ice edge.

Tonight, we steam towards STN-A, with an anticipated arrival time of late tomorrow morning. We only have 2 more CTD rosette casts before the end of this year’s science program!