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Ünlüata Cruises: The Greek Cruise SESAME GR2 
Day 8
Aris Karageorgis-Chief scientist,
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Aris reminscing the cruise
We arrived in Kavala in the early hours of Saturday, thus completing the third leg of our cruise, with the exception of one incomplete primary production experiment which had started at station A03 and lasted 48 hours. In the city of Kavala, some of us left the boat and headed home, while a new team is getting ready to board RV Aegaeo when we reach the island of Limnos.
While we were in Kavala, the vessel got refuelled, and then set off for Limnos around 11. Arrival time in Limnos was late afternoon, around 17.30, and the new team was immediately welcomed onboard. Our experiments continued until about 9 in the evening, which signalled the official close of the Ünlüata cruises experiments for us before the new team takes over!
Looking back on this trip, I cannot overlook the dedication and hard work shown by researchers, technicians, and the vessel crew. It is true to say that we worked under some vary unfavorable weather conditions at times, sleepless and worn out! As a researcher, and the chief scientist on this mission, I want to thank each and everyone for their valuable contribution to the successful completion of this cruise. Despite our adventures, mishaps and…tiredness, us nine that got off in Kavala, couldn’t help but get a bit sentimental…I am wishing and hoping for fine weather and successful work for the team that continues as well as a safe return to Athens on 11 April.
Aris Karageorgis
Chief scientist
Day 7
Aris Karageorgis-Chief scientist, Haris Kontoyiannis-Researcher,
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- The incubation experiments continue....
We arrived at station A02 at 00.30 and carried out the planned activities for 2nd priority stations. We then headed to our last station, A01, which is only a 3rd priority station, arriving there around 06.15 in the morning....The sky was cloudy, the atmosphere was wet and humid, but the wind had calmed own by then and didn’t cause us any further trouble...Besides, we are used to working under much worse weather conditions by now! Similar sampling activities as those in station A10 were completed successfully, and we were done by 19.45 in the evening....At that point, we headed off to the city of Kavala, to refuel the vessel. We are expected to arrive there by early morning on Saturday...
Aris Karageorgis
Chief scientist
R/V AEGAEO, SESAME Cruise, April 4, 2008
… some thoughts:
… having participated as a physical oceanographer in numerous multidisciplinary research cruises since the early 90’s, I have observed biologists and chemists to be employing their standard techniques to collect and prepare field samples for later analysis.
Well, … this time I see a plethora of new things, much beyond the above mentioned ‘standard techniques’, which make me think that this time something else is going on and being realized by my HCMR colleagues.
… what are they really doing with so many water samples and all these real-time bio-experiments in all these pools on the deck? I guess this is all about penetrating into the mysteries of LIFE and MARINE LIFE in particular … how can one ignore such a promising research target? … GO FOR IT GUYS … have fun!
… apart from that, a joke that circulates these days on board the ship (which actually is a question of one of the sailors addressed to someone of us two days ago) is this:
‘Have you seen the lady with the bottles?’ (There is almost a dozen of different ladies, scientists or technicians, and all of them somehow carry, handle or use some kind of a bottle).
… schedule is being followed satisfactorily … food is good … sleeping hours are scattered here and there around the clock, i.e., we have being on the routine of a successful research cruise.
Haris Kontoyiannis-Researcher-Institute of Oceanography-HCMR
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- Working hard through the night
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- Bottles, bottles, bottles! Everywhere!
Day 6
Aris Karageorgis-Chief scientist,Theodoros Kanellopoulos-Geologist,Stelios Iliakis-Chemical Engineer,
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- Having fun, are we??
We arrived at station A06 at 3.30 in the morning and the planned activities were successfully carried out. We then set sail for our next station, A05, and later headed to station A03, managing to stick to our schedule! We can see the end coming, as we approach the last leg of our cruise. Still, before that happens, we must work solid for 12-13 hours at station A01, so we need to be patient!
Aris Karageorgis
Chief scientist
The mental images that spring to mind just while you prepare yourself for a trip out in the open sea are mostly made up of descriptions from people that have experienced something like this. Adventures, travelling out in the open sea, stormy seas, and just the sea in general…
The prospect of a research cruise creates even stronger imagery in one’s head. A trip at sea, for the sea…
On this SESAME cruise I met some fascinating people. Evi, Ioanna, Anna, Thanasis, Dimitris, are just some of them. Their last names don’t’ matter, even though they may be famous oceanographers one day! It’s always refreshing to see their passion, strong will, perseverance to reach their target. You can see it in their eyes- I call it the ‘look of the young researcher’. If only looks could…speak, these people would say ‘I will succeed, no matter what difficulties or obstacles come my way’. That look is ever so familiar…
Theodoros Kanellopoulos, Geologist, HCMR
Stelios Iliakis, Chemical Engineer, HCMR
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- Some of the...'young' reasearchers working hard
Day 5
Aris Karageorgis-Chief scientist, Evi Tsougiopoulou-marine biologist,
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- Approaching the island of Kithira
We arrived at our next station, A08, around 00.30 and carried out all the planned activities. At 05.45 in the morning we reached one of the most important stations in the Cretan Sea, station A10 and measured the temperature, salinity, oxygen concentration and the size distribution of suspended matter in the water, totally covering the water from the surface down to 1725 m. We also completed 5 primary production experiments, 5 light-meter casts and current meter measurements using the ADCP equipment. Some of the water samples will be further analysed in the lab for nutrients, microbes, carbon and suspended matter. The automated temperature, salinity and fluorescence measurements also continued with the permanently mounted salinograph, which collects water samples from 2-3 m depth. Around 18.30 we were ready to set sail for station A06, where we should be arriving around 03.30 in the early hours of tomorrow…
Aris Karageorgis
Chief scientist
My name is Evi Tsougiopoulou and I am a marine biologist. I am currently doing my PhD on marine mammals under SESAME’s activities. My mission on this cruise is to help out the ‘nutrients’ team.
So then….we set off from Piraeus port on 21 March and everything was running smoothly until we reached the Rio bridge…its been up and down ever since, literally!
As a result…things got lost. But the adventure has kept us on our toes, until we could smell the…sardines! Sure you all know by now…sardines are the remedy for sea-sickness apparently!
The bad weather forced us to seek shelter in one of Greece’s most beautiful islands, Kithira. I thought to myself ‘Great, I‘ve never been there’. I must be honest, we were all quite relieved to finally set foot on dry land! My next thought: ‘finally, we can get a cup of coffee that won’t…leave the table’! No, don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. I‘ve been onboard RV Aegaeo a few times now and the captain has always taken great care of us.
Where was I? Oh yes, the port. As I was getting ready for that coffee, and excited too, we got off RV Aegaeo, to see…nothing!!! The port was a very quiet town, almost empty! There goes the coffee I was looking forward to. Instead we decided to go for a nice walk.
Around 15.00 in the afternoon the next day we left the beautiful Kithira island and we are still going…
PS: No dolphins no whales…nothing again!
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- The quiet port at Kithira island
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- Finally on land! Kithira island...
Day 4
Aris Karageorgis-Chief scientist,Vasilis Papadopoulos-physical oceanographer,
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- Some water bottles...ready to get filled!
We arrived at station A09 at 17.45 in the evening, and all the planned activities were carried out. We later headed to station A08 where we shall be arriving tomorrow.
Aris Karageorgis
Chief scientist
My name is Vasilis Papadopoulos and I am a physical oceanographer. I am part of the physical oceanography team of SESAME, and I am here to collect information and data on physical parameters of the water column, such as temperature, salinity, as well as on water currents. My main aim onboard RV Aegaeo is to make observations on the percentage of cloud cover in the sky for the areas of south and north Aegean sea. Not so long ago, two buoys of the POSEIDON system were fitted with sensors that measure the incoming sun radiation and also the radiation that gets reflected off the sea’s surface. For the proper functioning of the sensors mentioned above, it is necessary, among other things, to check the cloud cover, which plays an important part in the overall heat balance (incoming and outgoing) between the sea and the atmosphere. Estimating this balance is necessary in order to understand the dynamics of sea water masses, feed the prediction models, as well as for recording the processes that lead to changes in our climate, especially seen in parts of the eastern Mediterranean.
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- Buoys on the water
Day 3
Aris Karageorgis-Chief scientist,Stamos Birsim-Videographer,
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- The view from the...rocking RV Aegaeo!
The sampling activities at station L03 started at 20.30 on Sunday 30 March and were complete in the early hours of Monday 31 March. The depth we reached this time was the deepest so far, at 4010 m.
We then headed back to Sitia, under unfavorable weather conditions, with strong winds. Just before arriving at Sitia, a huge wave pushed us to one side, and as a result, a few things fell on the floor and broke, including the distilled water bottle. Thankfully, this was easily repaired so that it can be used for the rest of the cruise, although it will have to be replaced upon return to the lab in Athens. The door of our new incubator also flew away, but that too was recovered! We finally entered the port of Sitia around 10 in the morning, and among other things, we were faced with the computer’s unsteadiness…this is the computer that records the weather, dare I say! It would seem that all the rocking around on the boat caused some sort of damage to the hard drive. We decided to replace it and after a few mishaps (the shops in the city of Sitia close at 2 in the afternoon!) we bought a new computer….it took us a good few hours to set up the weather forecast programme on the computer again, from scratch! Thankfully, it all works fine again and in Sitia, some of colleagues headed back to Athens, while we welcomed a new group of people who joined us for the rest of the cruise.
Aris Karageorgis
Chief scientist
I was anticipating boarding RV Aegaeo again, to film the Greek mission of the SESAME project, despite the not so promising weather forecasts!
Getting up at 4.30 in the morning to catch my flight, I somehow found myself filming the port of Heraklion, Crete, from the clouds. Just before 8 that morning, I was already onboard RV Aegaeo and chilling with the HCMR researchers.
The first chats we had were not about experiments, results or maths equation, but stories about the huge waves and the bad weather they had been faced with! Thunder and lighting, strong gusts, and storms were just some of the images that would come into mind while listening to the vivid descriptions of the team. What was even scarier was that the captain was saying he had never come across anything like it in his life!
As we left the Heraklion port, heading to north-eastern Crete, we got a taste of the storm’s left-overs…strong waves, rocking us to the point where we couldn’t even approach the dining room, let alone eat! That was also the day I got a small taster of the first ocean spray on my face and on the camera too. Before even attempting to clean my camera from the salty water, another big wave had reached my feet on the boat deck.
Most of the researchers had been sleepless for over a week. They were tired but they kept going hard and fast, keeping up their tempo and continuing their journey to the north-eastern Aegean Sea.
Stamos Birsim, Videographer
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- Relaxing in the evening
Day 2
Aris Karageorgis-Chief scientist,Spyros Stavrakakis-Geologist-Oceanographer,
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- Grey sky...grey sea...
We arrived at station L04 at 2 am on Sunday morning after a tough few hours and particularly bad weather conditions. Two efforts to lift up the rosette and throw it in the water were made, but they proved unfruitful as the vessel could not stay still and stable enough. To avoid further troubles, and given that this station only required basic measurements down to 1000m, we decided to move on to the next station, L02, which was the most northerly of all the stations and also one of the most important ones. At station L02 we started collecting zooplankton with the net at 8.15 in the morning, and the first deployment of the rosette (0-200m) was carried out after careful planning, especially as the winds and waves were still high (3 metres). The second rosette deployment (0-150m) was equally difficult but we then started preparing for our primary production experiments. At the same time, we used a light meter twice and 4 zooplankton samples were taken with different nets and at varying depths. Around 11, I noticed that the wind was getting stronger again, but we thankfully expected better weather in the afternoon. In the end, we managed to complete 2 more net deployments for zooplankton collection, and we set off for station L03 around 19.00 in the evening.
Aris Karageorgis
Chief scientist
Yesterday morning we pulled up the sediment traps which we had deployed last October. Unfortunately, the electrical mechanism of one of the sediment traps presented some problem, and it thus collected only one sample when it should have collected ten! We maintained all the equipment and I replaced the broken apparatus, and we then deployed the traps for another 6-month period. In the meantime, the weather was getting ‘angry’ again, so we decided to find shelter around the island of Kithira until the weather calms down.
My work was completed yesterday, with the last sediment trap cast. That means I can go home! Well, not home exactly, actually…I am getting ready for a road trip to Bulgaria, and then boarding the Bulgarian vessel ‘AKADEMIK’ for drawing up and re-casting sediment traps in the Black Sea, all under SESAME’ framework. And there is more: after the Black Sea trip, I shall return to Greece for some more sampling around the Peloponnese peninsula.
Heading home is one thing, but really, it might prove problematic, as RV Aegaeo cannot even reach the port, as priority is given to commercial ships. Thus my great ‘escape’ plan is to travel on a commercial boat to the Peloponnese and then hop on a bus to Athens. The plan sounds good. The only problem is putting it to practice, which, as it seems, is not in my powers!
Spyros Stavrakakis, Geologist-Oceanographer
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- RV Aegaeo chilling at Kithira island
Day 1
Aris Karageorgis - Chief scientist,Vicky Paraskeuopoulou - PhD student,
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- Deploying the good old CTD rosette!
On Saturday morning, the project coordinator, Dr Vangelis Papathanassiou, visited us onboard RV Aegaeo, together with some other colleagues, and a film/documentary crew. We had a meeting in order to inform the coordinator of all the work that has been completed, and also stressed out the importance of the weather conditions. At Heraklion port, in Crete, some colleagues left us and headed back to Athens. With a new team composition, we set off for the second leg of the cruise, which includes 4 stations south of Crete, in the Libyan Sea. We arrived at station L01 at 21.40 in the evening, where only the basic parameters will be measured, down to 1000m. The weather was not great but it allowed us to carry out our work, despite the 2-3 m high waves. These waves, apart from resulting in my colleagues getting seasick, can also lead to problems in the deployment of the CTD rosette system.
We later moved on to the most southerly station, L04, and with a clear plan: to be at station L02 by early morning, a station with many requirements and plenty of sampling activities…
Aris Karageorgis
Chief scientist
Vicky Paraskeuopoulou
PhD student, Athens University, Chemistry Department, ΒΙΚΗ � ΑΡΑΣΚΕΥΟ� ΟΥΛΟΥ
Thoughts of an ‘honourary oceanographer’:
This trip had a bit of everything:
I got dizzy/rocked/wet, BUT!!!!!
- I escaped the tight schedules of daily Athenian life
- I got back in touch with my friends and colleagues from HCMR, plus making new friends!
- I found peace and quiet so that I could organize my work
- I lived BY THE SEA!!
The journey’s emotions:
‘If you can’t avoid the rain, at least enjoy it’!
‘Its cooler to be rocked out on the open Ionian Sea rather than at a small gulf near Athens’
I shall return for Leg 3 of this cruise (Limnos island- Athens) and I hope it won’t be the last time!
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- Finishing off some incubation work...
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- Glorious sunshine and the equipment ready to go!
