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Dispatch 32: Packing and puzzles

Jennifer Kosty (Yale University)

October 20, 2025

14:00 local, 70.08◦N, 118.15◦W

Conditions:

  • Cloudy
  • 0% sea ice cover
  • -3◦C
  • Sunrise: 20-Oct-2025 9:30
  • Sunset: 20-Oct-2025 17:43
  • Day length: 8 hours, 13 minutes

Now that we have finished the CTD rosette work on this year’s cruise, the night and day watches are shifting back to normal work schedules. This means that the day watch finally gets to enjoy the incredible breakfasts served on board! Today’s menu included eggs, hashbrown patties, sausage, and French toast with blueberry sauce and whipped cream.

After breakfast, we began tackling the colossal task of organizing and packing all the equipment and samples on board. After we disembark in Cambridge Bay, samples are being sent all over the world to be analyzed. For example, Annabel Payne and Marguerite Larriere are sending their CFC12/SF6 samples to Germany, while their iodine/uranium samples will be analyzed in Switzerland at ETH Zürich. Céline Guéguen and Magali Pucet are shipping samples of dissolved organic matter, bacteria, and barium to the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada, and Dominique Baker is shipping her DNA/RNA samples to Concordia University. Some of the ice observing and lab equipment will remain on board for next year’s cruise, while the rest will be shipped back to Tokyo/Kitami and the Institute of Ocean Sciences in British Columbia, Canada, respectively. We anticipate that the samples/equipment will arrive at their final destinations around mid-December, although we are keeping our fingers crossed that they arrive earlier.

In between packing and writing our cruise reports, we are still finding time for fun aboard the Louis! A favorite activity on this year’s cruise has been working on puzzles in the boardroom. We’ve managed to complete 4-5 puzzles over the past 5 weeks! We are also hoping to squeeze a few more hacky sack sessions and movie nights in our final few days on the Louis. Only 2 days left before 2025 BGOS/JOIS expedition officially comes to an end!

Figure 1: The most recent sea ice concentration map for the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas (Source: https://data.seaice.uni-bremen.de/databrowser/).
Figure 1: The most recent sea ice concentration map for the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas (Source: https://data.seaice.uni-bremen.de/databrowser/).
Figure 2: Map showing our current location en route to Cambridge Bay.
Figure 2: Map showing our current location en route to Cambridge Bay.
Figure 3: Locations where samples/equipment are being shipped (blue markers) after we arrive in Cambridge Bay (yellow marker).
Figure 3: Locations where samples/equipment are being shipped (blue markers) after we arrive in Cambridge Bay (yellow marker).
Photo 1: Chris Clarke (left) and Paige Hagel (right) organizing equipment boxes that will remain on the Louis.
Photo 1: Chris Clarke (left) and Paige Hagel (right) organizing equipment boxes that will remain on the Louis.
Photo 2: Annabel Payne (left) and Marguerite Larriere (right) posing with the iodine/uranium sample storage container (lovingly referred to as “the rabbit hutch”) built for them by carpenter Robert Butt.
Photo 2: Annabel Payne (left) and Marguerite Larriere (right) posing with the iodine/uranium sample storage container (lovingly referred to as “the rabbit hutch”) built for them by carpenter Robert Butt.
Photo 3: (left to right) Shotaro Muraoka, Michiharu Shibata, and Takuji Waseda packing their ice observing equipment.
Photo 3: (left to right) Shotaro Muraoka, Michiharu Shibata, and Takuji Waseda packing their ice observing equipment.
Photo 4: Some of the puzzles completed on this year’s cruise. Photos by Sarah Zimmermann, Jennifer Kosty, and Dominique Baker.
Photo 4: Some of the puzzles completed on this year’s cruise. Photos by Sarah Zimmermann, Jennifer Kosty, and Dominique Baker.