Onboard the Langseth (round 2)

Life on the boat

We are on day 4 of our 33 day mapping survey, and everything has gone mostly smoothly so far.  I'm still in the process of adjusting to life on the boat, although I am no longer on any seasickness meds, and hopefully won't need any more unless we hit rough seas.  A few of the University of Iceland students had some difficulties with seasickness, but everyone seems to be adjusting by now.  The sleeping adjustment is not going so well, however.  I got maybe 4-5 hours of sleep total over the first 3 nights.  Last night I took 1 1/4 ambien pills, which got me ~4-5 hours of actual sleep but also made it difficult to get out of bed, and I've felt pretty groggy and exhausted most of the day. Basically, I'm pretty much screwed no matter what I do.  One would think that once I am exhausted enough, my body would just give up the fight and let me sleep like a normal human being, but insomnia does not care about logic or reason and it is always victorious.  If I could just find a reliable way to get 4-5 hours of sleep every night, the whole cruise experience would be so much better.  I'm not looking forward to struggling with this for the next 29 days, it is by far the worst part of being on a cruise for me, and it has a negative impact on everything else.  Despite the hardships, I have a much easier-going, positive attitude than I did on my first cruise, and it gets easier each time I do it.  I've enjoyed talking to the younger U. of Iceland students and telling them stories from my past cruise experiences, it's odd feeling like one of the experienced senior scientists, but also really cool.  Plus, I get senior scientist accommodations, my room is at least 4 times the size of my room the first time I was on the Langseth (although the bed is the same tiny size). I'm just trying to see it all as a challenge and an adventure (as Calvin's dad in Calvin & Hobbes would say, I'm "building character"), and sticking with the cliche of taking it one day at a time.

The Food

The food has been better than I remember from my first time on this ship, but still pales in comparison to the Kilo Moana (I guess I shouldn't be surprised, the food on that boat is ridiculously good).  The quality of the ingredients, the variety of types of food, and the ability of the cooks just are not comparable.  For instance, tonight we had grilled ahi, which should have been amazing, but instead it was extremely overcooked and I could definitely tell that it was not very fresh (although I do admit that coming from Hawaii, I am spoiled as far as fresh seafood, so I have to give the cooks a little bit of a break). Only 4 days in, the quality and quantity of fresh fruits and veggies is already looking pretty grim, so that does not bode well for the next 29 days. I also have to factor in that the cooks can only work with what they can procure at the port, so some of the quality and quantity issues can be chalked up to what was available in Reykjavik. Overall, the food has been pretty decent and I certainly can't complain about not having to buy food, cook, or do dishes for a month.  

The People

As far as cruises go, we have a pretty small number of both scientists and crew onboard.  There are 36 total people, 16 scientists and 20 crew.  This ship is normally used for seismic experiments, which require more people: techs for the ocean-bottom seismometers that receive and record the seismic energy, crew to operate the airguns, and marine mammal observers to make sure no whales or dolphins are nearby that could be negatively affected by the loud noise generated by the airguns.  For this cruise, we are just doing sonar mapping as well as collecting gravity and magnetics data, so no specialized scientists or crew are required (more details on that in my next post).  My first cruise in 2009 (see old blog entries) was a seismic experiment, so there were many more people onboard, and the other two cruises had multiple science teams for dredging, towed camera mapping, and AUV mapping. I recognize a few of the crew members, particularly the tech that I shared a watch with on my first cruise and who is the main person working with the science party.  He's a pretty awesome guy and definitely helps improve the experience for everyone in the main computer lab.  The science party consists of me, my advisor, and a post-doc student from UH, two Icelandic scientists, six grad students (most have just started or are just about to start their grad program) from the University of Iceland, and two students who are part of the MATE program, which basically provides internship experience at sea for those who may wish to pursue a seagoing career. Only one of them has seagoing experience, and his experience was limited to mapping in the great lakes, so they are all pretty much newbies.  Like every other cruise I've been on, some of the crew are friendly and some seem to want nothing to do with the scientists, this seems to be a consistent theme on every boat.

The North Atlantic

My previous three cruises were all in the tropical Pacific, which, as I have found, has a very different personality than the North Atlantic.  The warm, humid air, blue skies, and beautiful deep blue water have been replaced by cold air, icy winds, gray skies, and menacing dark gray water.  In the past I was able to break up the monotony of staring at computer screens by enjoying beautiful sunrises/sunsets, stargazing, or just simply staring off into the vast never-ending blue of the ocean, watching the ocean breathe and feeling the exhilarating fresh ocean breeze.  None of those experiences have been possible here, I've probably spent a total of 30-40 minutes on deck since I've been onboard.  I haven't seen a single sunrise, sunset, or star, and the weather has been consistently gray, wet, and gloomy.  I haven't given up all hope that we might get a few days of clear skies, but I'm certainly not counting on it. I guess the bright side is that we haven't hit any serious storms and the seas have been reasonably calm and cooperative, but I'll be surprised if it stays this calm for the entirety of the cruise.  If I ever get to the point of writing my own proposals for research cruises, I'll be sure to stick to warmer waters in the Pacific.  Thankfully that is where most of the world's subduction zones are anyway, so it shouldn't be too difficult to avoid places like this for my own future research.  As I finished writing this, I looked at one of the monitors in the computer lab and saw a sliver of sunlight, there is hope yet!