National Oceanography Center

Had our orientation today at the National Oceanography Center (NOC). The University of Southampton (Soton) won a bid years ago to consolidate all of the UKs marine research at one location. Thus the NOC is a hybrid university/government building, much like Woodshole in the US. It's housed at Soton's Waterfront, where the Solent River meets the waterway between the UK mainland and the Isle of Wight.

The NOC is at Dockgate 4, the secure area for large shipping vessels. Many of them are importing cars to the UK (above). Also, Dockgate 4 is the home berth for the cruise ship, the Queen Elizabeth II. When we walked through the dockgate, we missed the turn for the NOC and accidently ended up by the cargo vessels, with gigantic trucks buzzing past us carrying cars, other trucks, trains, and huge pieces of "kit" (equipment).

The NOC is a really cool building, but it's huge and like a maze. There are 6 levels, but 3 of them are for utilities and vent systems. Most students in the School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) study at the NOC. We had a mostly useless safety orientation and library orientation, and a tour of the building. There's a gym, cafe, lounge, library, and aquarium in addition to the lecture halls, offices, and labspace.

The NOC is home to most of the UK's oceanographic research vessels, including the RSS John Cook. She's apparantly the largest in the UK, but costs 100s of thousands of pounds/day just to berth. If I'm lucky she'll be in port and I'll get to see her while I'm here.

We got our bus passes, but they aren't activated yet. It's about a 35 minute walk from Romero to the NOC.