Oceanic scientists in need

4/3
So the first long duration station (LD) is officially over and we are well on our way to the next short duration station (SD). We have just rounded the southern tip of Vanatu waters and are heading in a northeasterly direction to get back on route towards Tahiti.
We are estimated to reach the SD at 18.00 local time and me and my colleague will as usual be the first ones to sample of the CTD and get to work on finding any of the UCYN targets using our qPCR. I have a feeling it will be a late workday since our lab procedure usually takes 3,5 hours.
Before that however, we will have to do a test run on our reagents and standards just to make sure they are fine sitting in the freezer for a week. The freezer has proven to be less than reliable regarding the intended temperature of -20 degrees celsius. A higher storage temperature or frequent thawing and freezing will degrade the reagents and standards making them inefficient at best.
After conferring with our supervisor we moved all of it into the -80 degrees celsius freezer instead, but that was no sooner than yesterday.

Apparently a vital instrument called a Winkler for measuring oxygen concentration in the water broke a couple of days ago, so since we are still relatively close to New Caledonia, responsible personnel decided to bring a new one from Nouméa using a helicopter.
This was a procedure which had never been done before so there was a lot of commotion prior to its arrival. Fire fighters were stationed all over the ship in full gear and everyone else, scientists and crew alike (captain excepted), was gathered at back deck for safety reasons. All this just in case anything would go wrong. I know for a fact that the pilot was asked if he was skilled. The answer he gave was that at least he is experienced, meaning that there are no good pilots, they are just either young or old (he being old), which was good enough for everyone involved. I really liked the humble simplicity of that answer.

Anyway, the helicopter arrived and everyone on board started taking pictures of it while it circulated fairly close around the ship. We also realised that they were actually taking pictures of us too. I suppose there was a mutual feeling of respect and awe. I thought it was really cool. The crew in the helicopter was sitting on the edge of the open side door ready to lower down a large crate on deck.
It was all very professional and the actual deliverance was done in less than 10 seconds (the ship was actually still moving too). This was followed by a few more circles around the ship and a wave of goodbye before they disappeared in the horizon, heading south, back to New Caledonia.