Day 10 - Senior Cruise 2013
I looked over the side of the ship and noticed lights in the distance. It was the first sign of civilization I had seen in a week.
01/07/2014
Watch 1- Kecen Zhou
It was dark when I got up for the morning shift.
The lights were on out on the deck. At 0600 the manta net was deployed out of the back and was kept in the water for 20 minutes at 2.0 knots. I looked over the side of the ship and noticed lights in the distance. It was the first sign of civilization I had seen in a week.
The net was then taken out of the water and hosed off. What was in the canister after rinsing were “water striders” and blue copepods. There was no detectable plastic in the contents of the net. The sun was beginning to rise when this was done.
There was no more scientific work after the manta net.
I had breakfast at the earliest time, and waited for it to become day.
At 1100, I heard the announcement for all science crew to report to the library. I was still in my sleep clothes when this happened. I looked outside the porthole to see tall, umbrella-shaped trees. The ship had reached Samoa. Some customs officers were checking our passports.
When I got on deck again, all the equipment was being put away. The box corer was lifted away, meaning that there would be no core taken in Samoa.
There were several vans parked outside. The one I got in was headed to lake Lanoto’o. The van drove through the island. There were feral dogs and wrinkly-necked cows everywhere, as well as flocks of chickens. Raised trash cages were set outside every residence, presumably to prevent wild animals from getting into the trash.
Nobody knew how to get to the lake exactly. It began to rain heavily as the van neared the end of the road that lead to the nature trail. There was no paving and there were puddles everywhere. The van got stuck in front of a house. A man who lived in the house was volunteered to hike with us to the lake.
The trail was very muddy and wet and had cow pies in places. Tropical plants such as red ginger and a type of tree fern grew in the forest. Instead of being hot, as expected, it was cold up on the mountain. The mountain was covered in a thick mist and the seeds of the “dippin dot plant” stuck to my legs. By the time I reached the lake, I was soaked.
The shore of the lake was muddy. It was raining heavily as everyone set down their things. I waded into the lake but did not swim very far. It was discovered that the lake was full of leeches, and everyone who was in the water was finding leeches in uncomfortable places. Water and mud samples were collected from the lake and it was determined to be 14 m deep at its deepest point.
I fell down a few times on the way back and found a few more leeches on my legs.
The cows in the field that we passed by before belonged to the family we met before. The cows were fond of a certain type of leaf.
When we got back to the van, we thanked the family for helping us.
I looked over the side of the ship and noticed lights in the distance. It was the first sign of civilization I had seen in a week.
