Less than two weeks to go

Last week the dockside at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) was busy with preparations for the next expedition of the RRS James Cook.   As well as a ship's usual supplies tonnes of scientific instruments and miles of wire were stowed away ready to be deployed on the 'RAPID array' in the subtropical Atlantic.    On Tuesday the officers and crew set sail to Tenerife where the expedition will start at the end of February.   There 7 scientist and 8 technicians will join the ship to spend the next 6 weeks at sea gathering data from an array of over 200 instruments that span the Atlantic from Africa on the east to the Bahamas on the west.
We will be posting regular articles on this blog and hope that you will follow our progress.

The RRS James Cook docked at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton