OUTPACE 2015 done!

We have just finished packing all our equipment, attached the proper labels and sealed them with zip ties. Science-wise OUTPACE 2015 is officially over. Being my first cruise it has been so many new impressions and I've learned a lot, but it has also been challenging and with quite a few ups and downs. All in all, I'm happy with it and I'm satisfied with what I've accomplished on board these past 6 weeks. The language difficulties on board have of course not made things easy, but at least I'm one experience and many confirmed stereotypes richer for it.

At this very moment we are in transit for Papeete, Tahiti, and will arrive in harbour tomorrow morning, local time. Being a foreign lab on board we have to disembark first thing when we arrive and get all our boxes to the storage facility awaiting shipping back to Sweden after the Easter holiday.
This means we have to be extra mindful of our samples which will be stored on the ship during this time and then shipped back to Sweden in a dry-shipper and on ice-packs (styrofoam box).
We started preparing our dry-shipper yesterday so hopefully it will be nice and cold once it's time for shipping, otherwise we have to refill it in Papetee, and I rather avoid that hassle.

I litterally did science until the very end of the last day of science. I ran a final qPCR just to see what we had in the water column at this third desert-like station. My hopes were to find a pattern which could further support my planned presentation at the SAME conference in Uppsala.
What I found was basically nothing, which in itself is a result, and in this case I suppose is neither good or bad for my findings so far.
Below you will see a picture of the results of the qPCR as they are displayed upon the completion of the run. This is just an example, but it is what I have to analyze afterwards to procure the final abundances of my targets. The picture is divided into an amplification plot (left side) and the plate layout (right side).

Finally, we had a small party on front deck tonight, I suppose our PI's wanted to get rid of any excess beer and wine that they don't want to take care of once we reach Papeete, haha.
Either way it was nice, and it was also a nice end of the concluding day of the OUTPACE where we finished our cruise report and held a short presentation on our work on board (and our findings so far) for the rest of the team (and crew).