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“Where did the anchor go?”

What’s up, guys?! Today we went sampling for our in-the-field measurements and I must say, it was an eventful morning. The initial plan was to take half of our team and a teacher to go to our sampling site near the camping, and perform at least 4 measurements. Just when we were about to leave, we heard one of our precious team members was feeling sick and wasn’t able to join us in the field. Since we needed an extra pair of hands, the ‘Rockers’ team was so sweet to lend us one of their team members for half a day.


We left the marine station shortly after nine and quickly approached the first sampling site. The aim was to drop the anchor, perform a few measurements (surface current direction and speed, temperature, pH etc.) and then lift the anchor to get to the next location and repeat. It was only at our third location we had a little issue with our anchor. As I tried to lift it (as I did the two times before), I felt it getting heavier. It felt like something was pulling the anchor down as I tried to get in in the boat. Gauthier also tried to get the anchor up, but soon we concluded the anchor was stuck and at a depth of at least ten meters, it was impossible to jump in the water to get it loose. New plan: we cut the rope of the anchor and attach a buoy to it. We left the anchor there and as we still needed to measure at least one more time, we went back to the marine station to get a new anchor.


As I walk into the boat house, I soon realize that they don’t really have spare anchors laying around. Luckily, a guy from the workshop walked by and quickly fixed us a new anchor. We resumed the measurements and finished just in time to get to lunch. Happy with our data we called it a day in the field. Just one thing…. Who is willing to retrieve an anchor for us?


Sampling quote of the day: “It feels like fishing, only now we are sure to always get something in the end!” – G.
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