Day 3 - Senior Cruise 2013
The swells are getting to a point where everyone is starting to feel a little bit of that motion of the ocean.
Watch 2 Jake Dossett –
Today was a step in the right direction in terms of organization and communication between students, professors and crew. The only issue was having two watch chiefs at the same time. This caused some miscommunications but it was no big deal. The CTD was deployed and came back without all of the requested water samples, but everyone was able to get enough water to satisfy their needs. The wave buoy deployment was a little rough at first but it worked just fine in the end. Deployment of the manta nets and plankton tows have gone very smoothly. There was a little stress during the deployment of the ARGO float but that worked out well too. The Captain was happy and most of the crew were happy.
The food served today was quite tasty. Breakfast of potatoes, scrambled eggs and fresh mango was delicious. Dinner was also good. We had roast beef, gravy, mashed potatoes and salmon. Best thing I ate all day had to be the fresh mango though.
Now that our daily research is completed by about one in the afternoon, people are trying to find things to do in the afternoon. Eating, sleeping, and sun bathing fill up most of the afternoon. Once the sun goes down, the stars come out and they are magnificent but we could probably see them better if the ship didn’t have lights on right in our line of sight. For me personally, the night also brings upon a little bit of sea sickness but so far it’s not so bad so hopefully I will make it through the whole cruise without getting sick. I am confident that we as students will continue to increase our efficiency in accomplishing our research and by the end of the cruise, we will have no issues assuming the weather doesn’t get too bad.
Watch 3 -Tianna Simmons
On day three of data collection, we start station 1 of the open ocean, where we see nothing but ocean in all direction. Fortunately, we also get to see clear skies and experience this wonderful 80+ degree weather. I can gladly say that this has been a beautiful change of scenery from our typical Seattle dreary, cloudy, wet and cold weather. Now, because we are open ocean, we are seeing some rougher waters. The swells are getting to a point where everyone is starting to feel a little bit of that motion of the ocean. The science team seems to be keeping it together as best as possible, even our sea sick comrades are participating in the science (which is a lot to ask of someone who feels constantly nauseous). And on the down time when we are not doing our science, we are getting to know one another. Learning where each of us is from, our plans for the future, and even some talks about what we would do if we got lost at sea (would you rather be lost in tropical waters such as where we are here, or in cold frigid waters? We got pretty morbid on this topic).
And on to the science of the first open ocean station, station: Today’s open ocean station included a towyo, which is only being used once. Because the towyo would be starting on group ones watch and going through group two’s watch, we decided to try something a little different. We let group one be fully in charge of the CTD (which is used for the towyo). This way, no matter the time or watch switch over, there would be one watch chief handling this particular data collection. As the towyo was going (the ship traveling for 6 km at 1.5 kts) we were able to do the manta net tow (to collect microplastics) and a phytoplankton net tow. These were overseen by group two’s watch chief. After the CTD was back on ship we were able to deploy and recover the wave buoy, under the watch of group three’s watch chief, as well as deploy the first ARGO float. I being group three’s watch chief can safely say that the deployment and recovery of the wave buoy went well; Jake has become an expert at deploying and recovering his buoy. The deployment of the ARGO float went so quickly I almost missed recording the time, latitude and longitude. Overall, I would say today went smoothly, and it seems that our science party is getting the hang of things.
It looks like we are quite a bit ahead of schedule, so the next task for us is going to be to start moving things around and figuring out how we can use this extra time to our advantage. A new travel plan is underway and we will see where the rest of this cruise takes us.
P.S. Today’s dinner was fantastic!! There was a delicious blackened salmon with some great sides.
