I arose to a beautiful calm morning on the North Atlantic with the Hebrides to the east of the ship.  We are moving at quite a fast clip up to our sampling area, cruising at around 14 knots.  We have a southerly wind behind us adding to our speed and the calm seas are helping us along. 

Because today we are steaming (transiting), the chief scientists gathered all hands to talk about the sampling plan.  It seems we are going to begin sampling just below 68° N where the concentration of post-smolt salmon should be high as they funnel along the western side of the Voering Plateau.  We are anticipating a high catch in this area on our way to the more northerly sampling grounds. 

The rest of the day was spent exploring the ship to find good places and interesting angles to shoot photos and video of the net coming in.   And of course, enjoying the sunshine!  It was quite warm and very beautiful as we traveled up north, with gannets and other sea birds flying all around the ship. 

We have another day steaming tomorrow and should reach our first sampling area on Friday morning.  Because we are heading pretty far north, we may lose internet signal for a few days so the posts will be logged when we are back online.

We are now above 61 degrees North…The science should start soon…I am looking forward to seeing some post-smolts and whatever other species we capture in the nets!