According to the so-called Murphy’s law “If something can go wrong, it will. And usually at the worst time.”
Text and images: Benedicte Férré
We left Longyearbyen on Monday 22 June from Tromsø, happy that the cruise was back on. It was initially canceled, like many, due to Covid19. We were excited to retrieve our lander and see what amazing data it had collected from the past year. The lander was deployed in July 2019 and was supposed to continuously record and monitor methane release in the area. After about 30 minutes, we managed to persuade the lander to rise up from the seafloor and resurface. It was time to come home.
The recovery went very smoothly as the crew is now experienced in this performance.
It is when we all went down to look at it that we discover with great fear and disappointment that the DPU (Data Processing Unit), was wide open, exposing all the cables and the precious hard drive where all the data are stored. All types of lifeforms had made the DPU their home, and everything within was eroded. The hard drive was in pieces.
This was a rough start of the cruise, but we need to keep our spirit up and think about the great water samples we are collecting and the new areas we are going to explore.
