ONE YEAR UNDER SAILS!

Today we celebrate the anniversary of our Sail for Science expedition – exactly one year ago we sailed from Ottawa and during this time we traveled a long way to the Caribbean Windward Islands. Much has been achieved, but much remains to be done – our family crew of two retired Oceanologists has survived two post-hurricane storms, engine breakdowns and overcame many other challenges associated with the invaluable experience of cruising and life on a sailboat. Carrying out CTD measurements along the route of our voyage was the main priority of the expedition – if there is no data, then there is nothing to talk about; we were able to make more than 165 CTD profilings at depths of down to 120 m. There is still a lot of work to be done to prepare data for transfer to the Ocean Databases, to work out methodological issues of quality control and calibration.

We also consider one of our main achievements to be the launch of the Argo Float in the Caribbean Sea – an assignment that we received at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax, Canada. Now this float helps scientists collect oceanographic data in the area of ​​possible hurricane passages and better predict these natural disasters. This is especially felt, being now at the epicenter of Hurricane Beryl’s passage in the Grenadines. Our thoughts and good wishes for a speedy recovery to the residents of the affected islands.

A huge thank you to our sponsors and supporters, especially Frank Johnson and Steve Brindamour, who made our dream come true!