About 45 min ago, (4 am on 2/25 our time) we officially shot the last point of the seismic experiment. This is definitely a nice milestone and it feels good to be done with that part. We are in the process of bringing the airgun strings back on board, and then over the next 4-5 days we will be retrieving the OBS's from the seafloor. The end is in sight, but we still have over 10 days to go. The remaining time after retrieving the OBS's will be used to fill in gaps in the bathymetry data for my advisor, and then the transit to Fiji.
1. OBS retrieval: the OBS's are retrieved by sending an acoustic signal from the ship (basically an unlock code) which triggers the instrument to be released from its anchor that is keeping at the seafloor and then it floats up to the surface over the next 30-45 min. It is visible by a flashing light (for nighttime retrievals) and an orange flag (for daytime). We pull the ship up next to it and use a long pole with a hook on the end to grab it as it passes by, then hook a rope onto it and pull it onboard with a winch. Many things can go wrong in this process: the OBS not receiving the signal, drifting as it floats upward, missing the OBS with the hooked pole, etc., but for the previous ones we retrieved we didn't have any problems.
2. I was having a rough time over the last day or two, but I definitely was cheered up by the show that nature put on for me earlier tonight at about 1:30-2:30 am. I went out on deck like I usually do to get some fresh air, hoping that it wasn't raining. It was about 75 degrees and the wind was blowing pretty hard (there are thunderstorms in the vicinity). The horizon was obscured with thick black clouds 360 degrees around the boat. However, the sky above the boat was completely clear and there was no moon to obstruct the stars. I got the best view of the stars and the milky way that I've seen since being on the boat (although still not as good as being out in the mountains, due to the few lights that were on on the ship). To top it off, I was treated to a lightning show the whole time I was out there, which was pretty awesome. So, it was another little bright moment amidst the monotony which I thought I would share.
3. We are in the final round of the second ping pong tournament, this time we're playing doubles. I was fortunately paired up with the winner of the singles tourney, so we were definitely the favorites going into it. We're down to the final 3 teams now, but I'm not sure when we're going to get to play the final matches because we will all be busy when we start retrieving OBS's. I'll keep you posted on the results, since I'm sure you're dying to know what happens :)
4. At the request of my mom, I will provide some more details on the meals. "Breakfast" for me, is usually around 11:30 pm, and always consists of cereal (usually honey nut cheerios) and before we ran out I would have yogurt as well, nothing exciting. The regular breakfast meal is 7:15-8:15 am, and as I have described in detail in a previous post, always consists of eggs, bacon/sausage, and hash browns, and varies from day to day between pancakes, french toast, waffles, and cream of wheat. We used to have watermelons and pineapples as well, but the fresh fruit is pretty much gone by now. Lunch (dinner) is at 11:15 am-12:15 pm and is much more variable than breakfast. We almost always have french fries and rice, and there is always a few different options for a main entree. We've had lasagna, stroganoff, fried cod, fried clams, clam chowder, grilled cheese, grilled turkey/roast beef sandwiches, burritos, tortilla soup, fried rice with teriyaki beef (only once unfortunately), and other similar types of food. None of it is fantastic or particularly high quality, but for the most part it's pretty good, especially given that the food budget per person/ per day is $3. I know, that's pretty ridiculous, I would have gladly thrown in $50-100 of my own money to get better quality food. They always have some kind of desert, usually cake of some kind, sometimes pie, and almost always some kind of cookies (many of the deserts are cooked at dinnertime too). They have made some peanut butter cookies that were absolutely fantastic, probably the best single thing I've tasted on the boat, even rivaling and probably topping my mother's own pb cookies (sorry mom, but it's true). In terms of beverages, they have an assortment of long-life (i.e. lots of preservatives) juices and milk in a fridge, as well as water, gatorade (which tastes terrible), and another fruit drink (not juice) : lemonade, grape drink, or fruit punch which are in those clear plastic dispensers with the tap that constantly circulate the liquid. I think that's about it for the food. I can't tell you anything about dinner because I've never had it once on the boat.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
2 weeks to go...
Well, there's actually 13 days to go, but since the day just started for me (it's 1 am right now), 2 weeks is a good estimate. There is not much exciting to report at this point, except that we are 2 days away from finishing shooting the airguns. We should have been done with that yesterday by the original plan, but the chief scientist added a number of extra lines at the last minute. In his defense, we have saved a significant amount of time compared to the original plan, as it contains contigency time for bad weather and/or airgun issues. We will be picking up all of the instruments after shooting stops, and will probably be done with that about a week from now. That will leave us with 4-5 days to collect bathymetry, sonar, magnetic, and gravity data in the portion of the basin west of where we are, which is what my advisor is interested in. Then we have a ~33-36 hour transit to Fiji and we are done. It seems like it will go so fast when I write it like that, but 13 days still seems like a long time to me right now.
1. We are keeping a close watch on the weather, there is another low pressure system south of us right now, which could stay out of our way or could develop into something bigger. The last week or so, the waves, wind, and ship motion have noticeably increased, but it hasn't been nearly as bad as the cyclone. There actually was a second cyclone last week, I think it was named Innini (sp?), but it stayed well west of us and we only felt marginal effects and it has dissipated by now. If the weather kicks up while we are retrieving OBS's, it could be a significant issue, so we're hoping it doesn't get worse.
2. There has been some marine mammal-related drama developing as well. We got an email forwarded to us from a guy who was in a conference in Hawaii. He is a marine biologist who has worked with some of the people on this boat in the past, I think in a MMO capacity. Apparently, he even shut down a previous cruise due to whale activity. A woman from Tonga who was at the conference mentioned to him that 6 pilot whales had washed up in Tonga over a ~2 week period from mid-January to the very beginning of Feb. The email said that this is an "extremely rare" event, but then proceeds to say that 10 pilot whales washed up in a similar fashion just 6 years ago (more like somewhat uncommon then extremely rare if you ask me). She said she is "aware" of our cruise and our schedule and along with others in Tonga, including some in the government, is trying to blame our activities for these deaths. There are a few huge holes in this theory however. 4 of the 6 whales washed up before we were even in the water, proving not only that they had nothing to do with our airguns, but that this person was not "aware" of our schedule at all. The 5th whale washed up I think 2-3 days after we were in the water, before the airguns were even turned on. The 6th whale is the only one that could even marginally be connected to our activities, but given that the other 5 clearly had nothing to do with us, it's reasonable to conclude the 6th didn't either. Unfortunately, logic and reason will probably not suffice to convince these people, especially when politicians get involved who want to show that they "care" about the environment (i.e. reelection). It's unlikely that this will affect us, but it's possible there may be some protests or something like that when we reach Fiji.
The real drama will begin when the boat gets to Taiwan, where some similar research will be done around the island (thankfully I'll be long gone by then). I don't know a whole lot about this issue, except for the few things I've heard here and there, so I don't have many details, but I imagine the whales washing up in Tonga will only add fuel to the fire. The crew is expecting to be greeted by angry protests when they arrive. There is apparently a growing number of people who have become convinced that seismic research with airguns is harmful to all kinds of sea life and want to shut it down permanently. Many of these people are fanatics that aren't really concerned with petty things like evidence and reason, and simply will believe what they want to believe. However, there certainly could be some truth to what they are saying. The airguns produce an extremely loud sound (>200 dB) which certainly could have a negative effect on sea life and marine mammals and/or disrupt the communication of whales. They used to use dynamite, so I think it's safe to say that airguns are at least an improvement. These potential negative effects are exactly why we have marine mammal observers (MMO's) on the boat monitoring 24/7. They constantly monitor with an acoustic device that allows them to listen for any sign of whale activities and during the day this is combined with visual inspections from the MMO tower. If whales are anywhere within a range that could be harmful to them, the airguns are shut down. It seems logical to me that any fish or other animals that may be harmed by this would hear the guns from a long distance and stay away. The sonar-based devices, as well as the engines, also produce a much quieter and more frequent sound that would likely scare away anything within a dangerous distance of the ship. This is most likely why we haven't seen much sea life on the cruise. I don't claim to know the solution to this issue, but as of yet there really isn't any clear-cut evidence that any of the ships activities harm sea life in anyway. If I find out some more info on this I'll post it, but I've been writing way too long, so I'm going to stop.
1. We are keeping a close watch on the weather, there is another low pressure system south of us right now, which could stay out of our way or could develop into something bigger. The last week or so, the waves, wind, and ship motion have noticeably increased, but it hasn't been nearly as bad as the cyclone. There actually was a second cyclone last week, I think it was named Innini (sp?), but it stayed well west of us and we only felt marginal effects and it has dissipated by now. If the weather kicks up while we are retrieving OBS's, it could be a significant issue, so we're hoping it doesn't get worse.
2. There has been some marine mammal-related drama developing as well. We got an email forwarded to us from a guy who was in a conference in Hawaii. He is a marine biologist who has worked with some of the people on this boat in the past, I think in a MMO capacity. Apparently, he even shut down a previous cruise due to whale activity. A woman from Tonga who was at the conference mentioned to him that 6 pilot whales had washed up in Tonga over a ~2 week period from mid-January to the very beginning of Feb. The email said that this is an "extremely rare" event, but then proceeds to say that 10 pilot whales washed up in a similar fashion just 6 years ago (more like somewhat uncommon then extremely rare if you ask me). She said she is "aware" of our cruise and our schedule and along with others in Tonga, including some in the government, is trying to blame our activities for these deaths. There are a few huge holes in this theory however. 4 of the 6 whales washed up before we were even in the water, proving not only that they had nothing to do with our airguns, but that this person was not "aware" of our schedule at all. The 5th whale washed up I think 2-3 days after we were in the water, before the airguns were even turned on. The 6th whale is the only one that could even marginally be connected to our activities, but given that the other 5 clearly had nothing to do with us, it's reasonable to conclude the 6th didn't either. Unfortunately, logic and reason will probably not suffice to convince these people, especially when politicians get involved who want to show that they "care" about the environment (i.e. reelection). It's unlikely that this will affect us, but it's possible there may be some protests or something like that when we reach Fiji.
The real drama will begin when the boat gets to Taiwan, where some similar research will be done around the island (thankfully I'll be long gone by then). I don't know a whole lot about this issue, except for the few things I've heard here and there, so I don't have many details, but I imagine the whales washing up in Tonga will only add fuel to the fire. The crew is expecting to be greeted by angry protests when they arrive. There is apparently a growing number of people who have become convinced that seismic research with airguns is harmful to all kinds of sea life and want to shut it down permanently. Many of these people are fanatics that aren't really concerned with petty things like evidence and reason, and simply will believe what they want to believe. However, there certainly could be some truth to what they are saying. The airguns produce an extremely loud sound (>200 dB) which certainly could have a negative effect on sea life and marine mammals and/or disrupt the communication of whales. They used to use dynamite, so I think it's safe to say that airguns are at least an improvement. These potential negative effects are exactly why we have marine mammal observers (MMO's) on the boat monitoring 24/7. They constantly monitor with an acoustic device that allows them to listen for any sign of whale activities and during the day this is combined with visual inspections from the MMO tower. If whales are anywhere within a range that could be harmful to them, the airguns are shut down. It seems logical to me that any fish or other animals that may be harmed by this would hear the guns from a long distance and stay away. The sonar-based devices, as well as the engines, also produce a much quieter and more frequent sound that would likely scare away anything within a dangerous distance of the ship. This is most likely why we haven't seen much sea life on the cruise. I don't claim to know the solution to this issue, but as of yet there really isn't any clear-cut evidence that any of the ships activities harm sea life in anyway. If I find out some more info on this I'll post it, but I've been writing way too long, so I'm going to stop.
Friday, February 13, 2009
More thoughts...
It is Valentine's Day on the boat (tomorrow for all of you), and we have officially crossed the halfway point of the cruise. On the one hand, it's a nice milestone and it feels good to have gotten this far, and on the other hand, that means we still have over 3 weeks left (~22 days). It feels like we've been on the boat for months already, I can't believe that we have that much longer to go. We are in the last phase of shooting the airguns over the northern area, which is ~1/2 the size of the first area. After we're done shooting, we will go back and pick up all of the instruments and the experiment will be done. Any extra time will probably be used for mapping between here and Fiji using the multibeam echosounder, the other two sonar-like devices, the gravimeter, and the magnetometer, which is the data that my advisor is most interested in and the only data that may have some relevance to my thesis. Unfortunately, even though it looks like we will be done at least a few days early (assuming the shooting and instrument recovery goes well), it doesn't seem like there's any chance of arriving in Fiji early.
1. A nice thing that I realized a while ago is that we don't have any bugs on the boat. No cockroaches, no ants, no mosquitoes, no spiders, none of the usual pests that annoy land-dwellers. You can leave food out and uncovered and it doesn't get mobbed by roaches (I guess that's more of a Hawaiian problem), but it is one positive point that I thought was worth mentioning. I've got to hold on to all of the positives I can, because there aren't too many.
2. I at least partially understand why people are actually willingly choose to work on a boat as a career. I learned this from talking to the guy (Bern) who is a watch leader and spends most of his time in the lab with us. For one, they make very good wages. Bern said that he makes ~$400 a day (7 days a week), meaning if he worked a full year, it would be over $100k. I imagine his income is on the high end for the normal crew members, but the captain and 3 mates (guys that actually pilot the boat) probably make even more than he does. Also, they only work about half the year on average, anything from 4 to 11 months, based on what I've heard. I guess that would be about the only way you could convince anyone to do this job, so it makes sense.
3. For the last week and a half, we have been experiencing tropical summer weather, which is pretty brutal. It's in the 90's every day, and is extremely humid. It's noticeably worse than anything I have experienced in Hawaii as of yet. I only go outside at night or in the early morning, it's just not comfortable during the afternoon.
4. Despite the sleep schedule, I am actually happy that I got the night shift, which surprises me to say. I don't think I would sleep that well on a normal schedule anyway, so that's somewhat of a moot point. First of all, we have 3 students on the night shift vs. 2 during the day, so we actually get more free time because we can split up the watch duties. Also, it is quieter and there are less people around, so we get a little more freedom in our activities. They have a surround sound system in the main lab which I always plug my Zen mp3 player into, which I'm not sure I could do as much during the day. Also, we get to play cards and yahtzee during our shift, another thing that I don't think would be as acceptable during the day.
5. We had a ping-pong tournament which 22 people participated in. I made it to the second round, but had to face the captain, who I predict is going to be the winner of the tournament (he's in the final 3 right now). I could have made it to the semi-finals at least if I hadn't faced him. Oh well, it was a fun distraction, and we even have a camera set up so we can watch the games in the main lab.
6. After a 5 or 6 year hiatus, I actually started drawing again. I'm happy to say that (at least with graphite) I haven't lost my abilities. I did a drawing of the view from the Hopi granaries in the Grand Canyon (see photo below). I think I need to pick something a little less complex for my next attempt. I'm not the kind of person that can just gloss over details, so it was a pretty difficult drawing for my first attempt in a long time. I tried a watercolor painting earlier today, but it was pretty much a disaster. I've only done one watercolor before in high school (which turned out pretty good), but it really doesn't suit my artistic style. I'm a very slow and careful artist (some might say a perfectionist), and watercolor forces you to go fast because you can't blend it very well once the paint dries. Acrylic is my favorite kind of paint, very easy to blend, easy to make fine details, and you can actually paint over mistakes, which is virtually impossible with watercolor (tempera is pretty good too). I then tried a colored pencil drawing, but the pencils I brought are not very good for blending and they have a limited color range; I failed pretty miserably on that too. I should have brought the prismacolors, which are definitely the best ones out there. I thought these ones might be good too; it turns out they weren't, oh well. I've also been volunteered to do a t-shirt design for the cruise, so we'll see how that turns out.
7. Lastly, this photo is a correction from the previous photo of the color of the ocean that I posted earlier. After looking at that, I realized that it did not represent the color of the deep ocean well at all. It's way too bright and turqouise colored, either an effect of the camera, or because it was taken near Tonga in shallow water. Here is a photo that more closely matches the color of the water (which of course varies based on the time of day and weather).
1. A nice thing that I realized a while ago is that we don't have any bugs on the boat. No cockroaches, no ants, no mosquitoes, no spiders, none of the usual pests that annoy land-dwellers. You can leave food out and uncovered and it doesn't get mobbed by roaches (I guess that's more of a Hawaiian problem), but it is one positive point that I thought was worth mentioning. I've got to hold on to all of the positives I can, because there aren't too many.
2. I at least partially understand why people are actually willingly choose to work on a boat as a career. I learned this from talking to the guy (Bern) who is a watch leader and spends most of his time in the lab with us. For one, they make very good wages. Bern said that he makes ~$400 a day (7 days a week), meaning if he worked a full year, it would be over $100k. I imagine his income is on the high end for the normal crew members, but the captain and 3 mates (guys that actually pilot the boat) probably make even more than he does. Also, they only work about half the year on average, anything from 4 to 11 months, based on what I've heard. I guess that would be about the only way you could convince anyone to do this job, so it makes sense.
3. For the last week and a half, we have been experiencing tropical summer weather, which is pretty brutal. It's in the 90's every day, and is extremely humid. It's noticeably worse than anything I have experienced in Hawaii as of yet. I only go outside at night or in the early morning, it's just not comfortable during the afternoon.
4. Despite the sleep schedule, I am actually happy that I got the night shift, which surprises me to say. I don't think I would sleep that well on a normal schedule anyway, so that's somewhat of a moot point. First of all, we have 3 students on the night shift vs. 2 during the day, so we actually get more free time because we can split up the watch duties. Also, it is quieter and there are less people around, so we get a little more freedom in our activities. They have a surround sound system in the main lab which I always plug my Zen mp3 player into, which I'm not sure I could do as much during the day. Also, we get to play cards and yahtzee during our shift, another thing that I don't think would be as acceptable during the day.
5. We had a ping-pong tournament which 22 people participated in. I made it to the second round, but had to face the captain, who I predict is going to be the winner of the tournament (he's in the final 3 right now). I could have made it to the semi-finals at least if I hadn't faced him. Oh well, it was a fun distraction, and we even have a camera set up so we can watch the games in the main lab.
6. After a 5 or 6 year hiatus, I actually started drawing again. I'm happy to say that (at least with graphite) I haven't lost my abilities. I did a drawing of the view from the Hopi granaries in the Grand Canyon (see photo below). I think I need to pick something a little less complex for my next attempt. I'm not the kind of person that can just gloss over details, so it was a pretty difficult drawing for my first attempt in a long time. I tried a watercolor painting earlier today, but it was pretty much a disaster. I've only done one watercolor before in high school (which turned out pretty good), but it really doesn't suit my artistic style. I'm a very slow and careful artist (some might say a perfectionist), and watercolor forces you to go fast because you can't blend it very well once the paint dries. Acrylic is my favorite kind of paint, very easy to blend, easy to make fine details, and you can actually paint over mistakes, which is virtually impossible with watercolor (tempera is pretty good too). I then tried a colored pencil drawing, but the pencils I brought are not very good for blending and they have a limited color range; I failed pretty miserably on that too. I should have brought the prismacolors, which are definitely the best ones out there. I thought these ones might be good too; it turns out they weren't, oh well. I've also been volunteered to do a t-shirt design for the cruise, so we'll see how that turns out.
7. Lastly, this photo is a correction from the previous photo of the color of the ocean that I posted earlier. After looking at that, I realized that it did not represent the color of the deep ocean well at all. It's way too bright and turqouise colored, either an effect of the camera, or because it was taken near Tonga in shallow water. Here is a photo that more closely matches the color of the water (which of course varies based on the time of day and weather).
Saturday, February 7, 2009
More Randomness
I've officially survived just over two weeks, and we have exactly 4 weeks to go. It's going to be a looooong 4 weeks.
1. It hit me a few days ago that silence does not exist on this boat. No matter where you go, you can always hear the engine, as well as a variety of other noises. I never thought I would miss silence so much, but that is probably the one thing I want the most right now.
2. On a related note, just being still and motionless is impossible on the boat. Even when the ocean is virtually flat, you are always moving. Just sitting in the chair at the computer, my hips and lower torso have to slowly but constantly adjust side to side to keep my upper torso straight. You do get accustomed to it, I definitely have my "sea legs," but I miss being able to just sit and be still.
3. I finally got to witness my first sunrise yesterday, and if I may say so, I think I picked an excellent day. The low cumulus clouds provided a great foreground, and the high cirrus clouds (correct me if I'm wrong mom) provided a nice canvas for the sun to paint on. I took over 90 pictures as the sun was rising. I realized that it's hard to keep the horizon level on a moving boat, and I also realized I wish I had an SLR. Here's 5 of the best shots, I couldn't decide on one:
I'll add to this post later...
1. It hit me a few days ago that silence does not exist on this boat. No matter where you go, you can always hear the engine, as well as a variety of other noises. I never thought I would miss silence so much, but that is probably the one thing I want the most right now.
2. On a related note, just being still and motionless is impossible on the boat. Even when the ocean is virtually flat, you are always moving. Just sitting in the chair at the computer, my hips and lower torso have to slowly but constantly adjust side to side to keep my upper torso straight. You do get accustomed to it, I definitely have my "sea legs," but I miss being able to just sit and be still.
3. I finally got to witness my first sunrise yesterday, and if I may say so, I think I picked an excellent day. The low cumulus clouds provided a great foreground, and the high cirrus clouds (correct me if I'm wrong mom) provided a nice canvas for the sun to paint on. I took over 90 pictures as the sun was rising. I realized that it's hard to keep the horizon level on a moving boat, and I also realized I wish I had an SLR. Here's 5 of the best shots, I couldn't decide on one:
I'll add to this post later...
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Random Thoughts
Since we are in a pretty constant routine for the next week and a half or so, there aren't too many new and exciting things to report that are going on. This post is just some random thoughts, rants, comments, and experiences that may or may not be interesting, in no particular order...
1. The shower design. Whatever idiot "designed" the shower "enclosures" needs to be smacked. It's basically a curtain around one corner of the bathroom, with an ~1" depression, that is somehow supposed to contain water sloshing around while the boat moves. It doesn't. There is an ~ 3" high metal wall running along the top edge of the depression, but this is not secured into the floor or sealed in any way, and there is a gap between the bottom of the metal and the floor. It's not like it was once sealed and now the seal is gone, it clearly was never sealed at all, I don't even know why they bothered putting it there. The first few showers I took (especially during the cyclone) resulted in the entire bathroom floor being covered with a layer of water. I have managed to contain the water by placing my beach towel around the edge of the metal piece, which does successfully soak up the water leaking under the metal. I haven't tested this method yet during a storm, but I imagine it will result in my towel getting completely soaked.
Another horrible piece of "design" is the lack of a ventilation fan. There is a very small vent in the ceiling (I think that's what it is), but it doesn't suck the steam out with any efficiency and is clearly not powered by a fan. This isn't a huge problem in and of itself, but when the rooms on either side are equipped with very sensitive smoke alarms, it means that I have to throw the door open, hop through it and shut it very quickly to avoid letting steam in the room and causing a ship-wide panic. I've gotten somewhat used to this, but it always makes me at least a little nervous when getting out of the shower.
2. On a lighter note. I've discovered that watching the ocean breathe in the morning (before it gets hot and humid) while listening to Bonobo (a band that Ryan introduced me to, thanks buddy) is quite a magical experience. It is the perfect theme music for floating in the ocean.
3. I've noticed that when the ship is rolling (side to side, rather than front to back) a substantial amount, going up stairs can actually almost feel like going down stairs, and vice versa. It's not that the ship is tilting so much that the stairs going up are actually pointing down (that would mean that we're sinking), but I guess it just has to do with mental perception, i.e. your brain is expecting it to be more difficult to go up the stairs and it's actually significantly easier, so it feels like you're going downstairs. See, I told you these were "random" thoughts, don't say I didn't warn you.
4. The only sea life we've seen since leaving Tonga is a school of tuna, and a possible jellyfish (could have been a plastic bag or something). The tuna were pretty cool to watch, there was about 20-30 of them jumping up and feeding on I guess some smaller fish we couldn't see, and they stayed by the boat for almost a half h0ur. They had backs that looked somewhere between purple and maroon, I'm not sure which specific kind they were. The only other animal life is seabirds (gulls, and maybe albatross?), of which at least a few are around almost constantly, even given our distance from land. I imagine the lack of other sea life has to do with our equipment. We not only have the air guns towed behind the boat, but we also have a multibeam echosounder (I think I said it shot light beams in my first entry, which is wrong and doesn't even make sense, because light can't penetrate 2000+ meters of water), and another type of echosounder constantly going, which apparently don't bother whales and larger animals (too high frequency), but can bother smaller creatures.
5. Breakfast. This one is fresh on my mind because I ate during the middle of this entry. Breakfast is my first big meal of the day because I always miss dinner and usually don't have much of an appetite right after I get up at 11 pm. It's definitely the most predictable meal. We always have eggs, bacon, hash browns, and some kind of sausage, accompanied on different days by either cream of wheat, pancakes, waffles, or french toast. I'm still at the point where this is a good thing, I love american-style breakfast, but I imagine it will get tiresome after another week or two. Thankfully, we also always have fresh fruit with breakfast, usually watermelon and pineapple, and sometimes a weird canteloupe-like tongan melon that's too sweet, kiwi, or grapefruit. There are usually apples and oranges available at all times in a bowl, but I have yet to find an apple that wasn't mealy, bruised, and gross, so I pretty much gave up on those. Also, there is yogurt and various kinds of juice (probably loaded with preservatives) that are always available. All of the yogurt that I've eaten has an expiration date in December, yet it seems to be perfectly fine, I don't know if they froze it or what, but as long as it tastes good, I'm not complaining.
6. This is a pretty gruesome story, you are forewarned. Before I left, a number of people asked whether we could get off the boat and swim, and I remember saying that I heard of people being attacked by sharks, but I couldn't really remember where I heard that or whether it was even that accurate. Well, one of the OBS guys from Scripps Institute of Oceanography (in San Diego) told me the story that I think I was referring to. Apparently, there was a Scripps-run cruise a number of years ago, somewhere in the Pacific (I forget where) and it was one of their traditions to have a "swim call" every so often, where they stopped the boat and a bunch of people would jump in to cool off. One of the crew had the terrible idea of throwing out the kitchen trash (food scraps, paper waste, etc) while people were in the water. So, as you might expect, the smell of food attracted sharks. Without warning, a shark grabbed one of the women's legs and pulled her under. The others quickly got out and tried to grab her and pull her on the boat. They ended up pulling her in and she survived, but the shark took her entire leg off. Needless to say, there are no more swim calls. I've heard that this incident was filmed and it was submitted to one of those extreme reality shows, so some of you may have seen it on TV or the internet. I also heard from the chief scientist that he used to shine a spotlight behind the boat at night on a previous cruise and the water would be teeming with sharks. Apparently they have learned to recognize boats as food sources (it is routine to throw food and biodegradable waste overboard). So it looks like I won't doing any swimming until Fiji.
That's all for now, more randomness to come whenever I get inspired (probably in a new post, since this one is ridiculously long already)...
1. The shower design. Whatever idiot "designed" the shower "enclosures" needs to be smacked. It's basically a curtain around one corner of the bathroom, with an ~1" depression, that is somehow supposed to contain water sloshing around while the boat moves. It doesn't. There is an ~ 3" high metal wall running along the top edge of the depression, but this is not secured into the floor or sealed in any way, and there is a gap between the bottom of the metal and the floor. It's not like it was once sealed and now the seal is gone, it clearly was never sealed at all, I don't even know why they bothered putting it there. The first few showers I took (especially during the cyclone) resulted in the entire bathroom floor being covered with a layer of water. I have managed to contain the water by placing my beach towel around the edge of the metal piece, which does successfully soak up the water leaking under the metal. I haven't tested this method yet during a storm, but I imagine it will result in my towel getting completely soaked.
Another horrible piece of "design" is the lack of a ventilation fan. There is a very small vent in the ceiling (I think that's what it is), but it doesn't suck the steam out with any efficiency and is clearly not powered by a fan. This isn't a huge problem in and of itself, but when the rooms on either side are equipped with very sensitive smoke alarms, it means that I have to throw the door open, hop through it and shut it very quickly to avoid letting steam in the room and causing a ship-wide panic. I've gotten somewhat used to this, but it always makes me at least a little nervous when getting out of the shower.
2. On a lighter note. I've discovered that watching the ocean breathe in the morning (before it gets hot and humid) while listening to Bonobo (a band that Ryan introduced me to, thanks buddy) is quite a magical experience. It is the perfect theme music for floating in the ocean.
3. I've noticed that when the ship is rolling (side to side, rather than front to back) a substantial amount, going up stairs can actually almost feel like going down stairs, and vice versa. It's not that the ship is tilting so much that the stairs going up are actually pointing down (that would mean that we're sinking), but I guess it just has to do with mental perception, i.e. your brain is expecting it to be more difficult to go up the stairs and it's actually significantly easier, so it feels like you're going downstairs. See, I told you these were "random" thoughts, don't say I didn't warn you.
4. The only sea life we've seen since leaving Tonga is a school of tuna, and a possible jellyfish (could have been a plastic bag or something). The tuna were pretty cool to watch, there was about 20-30 of them jumping up and feeding on I guess some smaller fish we couldn't see, and they stayed by the boat for almost a half h0ur. They had backs that looked somewhere between purple and maroon, I'm not sure which specific kind they were. The only other animal life is seabirds (gulls, and maybe albatross?), of which at least a few are around almost constantly, even given our distance from land. I imagine the lack of other sea life has to do with our equipment. We not only have the air guns towed behind the boat, but we also have a multibeam echosounder (I think I said it shot light beams in my first entry, which is wrong and doesn't even make sense, because light can't penetrate 2000+ meters of water), and another type of echosounder constantly going, which apparently don't bother whales and larger animals (too high frequency), but can bother smaller creatures.
5. Breakfast. This one is fresh on my mind because I ate during the middle of this entry. Breakfast is my first big meal of the day because I always miss dinner and usually don't have much of an appetite right after I get up at 11 pm. It's definitely the most predictable meal. We always have eggs, bacon, hash browns, and some kind of sausage, accompanied on different days by either cream of wheat, pancakes, waffles, or french toast. I'm still at the point where this is a good thing, I love american-style breakfast, but I imagine it will get tiresome after another week or two. Thankfully, we also always have fresh fruit with breakfast, usually watermelon and pineapple, and sometimes a weird canteloupe-like tongan melon that's too sweet, kiwi, or grapefruit. There are usually apples and oranges available at all times in a bowl, but I have yet to find an apple that wasn't mealy, bruised, and gross, so I pretty much gave up on those. Also, there is yogurt and various kinds of juice (probably loaded with preservatives) that are always available. All of the yogurt that I've eaten has an expiration date in December, yet it seems to be perfectly fine, I don't know if they froze it or what, but as long as it tastes good, I'm not complaining.
6. This is a pretty gruesome story, you are forewarned. Before I left, a number of people asked whether we could get off the boat and swim, and I remember saying that I heard of people being attacked by sharks, but I couldn't really remember where I heard that or whether it was even that accurate. Well, one of the OBS guys from Scripps Institute of Oceanography (in San Diego) told me the story that I think I was referring to. Apparently, there was a Scripps-run cruise a number of years ago, somewhere in the Pacific (I forget where) and it was one of their traditions to have a "swim call" every so often, where they stopped the boat and a bunch of people would jump in to cool off. One of the crew had the terrible idea of throwing out the kitchen trash (food scraps, paper waste, etc) while people were in the water. So, as you might expect, the smell of food attracted sharks. Without warning, a shark grabbed one of the women's legs and pulled her under. The others quickly got out and tried to grab her and pull her on the boat. They ended up pulling her in and she survived, but the shark took her entire leg off. Needless to say, there are no more swim calls. I've heard that this incident was filmed and it was submitted to one of those extreme reality shows, so some of you may have seen it on TV or the internet. I also heard from the chief scientist that he used to shine a spotlight behind the boat at night on a previous cruise and the water would be teeming with sharks. Apparently they have learned to recognize boats as food sources (it is routine to throw food and biodegradable waste overboard). So it looks like I won't doing any swimming until Fiji.
That's all for now, more randomness to come whenever I get inspired (probably in a new post, since this one is ridiculously long already)...
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