As I finish my first week on the R/V Savannah I have quickly determined what I forgot while packing. In actuality I figured it out the first day on the ship while digging through my suitcase, but over the course of the week I quickly realized I could live without the majority of the stuff I brought with me. For some reason it is extremely nice to know I can live without the majority of the stuff I brought… though I wish I had discovered this sooner so I didn’t have to bring such a large bag. In this blog I am just going to go over some items that I have found extremely useful during my trip thus far as well as the ways I have kept myself entertained after my watches.
Clothing
-Extra Underwear
-Extra Socks
-Extra Shirts
-Boots and Sandals
When it comes to clothing I am very glad that I brought extras of socks and shirts. I knew that I would probably get wet while working on the deck but the smell of dried saltwater, plus the stench of sweat (doesn’t matter how much deodorant you use…by the end of the day you’ll smell like sweat…it’s Georgia)…or dirty feet depending on the article of clothing. It just sucks. By having extra shirts and socks you don’t have to worry about changing in the middle of the day if you get too dirty. As for extra underwear the purpose of that should go without saying…just bring it. When it comes to clothing most research vessels have laundry machines on board however the number of times they can be run depends on the water level (also it seems that the science party seems to hog the machines most of the time…) Keeping this in mind I generally like to pack a week and a half’s worth of shirts/socks. Personally I have no issue with re-wearing my work pants or shorts multiple times as long as they don’t smell so I generally pack less pants/shorts to save room.
In terms of boots/sandals I believe it is best to have one pair of work boots (generally steel toed even if its not necessary) and a pair of sandals that you can wear while in the shower…cause who wants Athletes foot…. ewww. I also brought a pair of running shoes with me for the times we are on shore or I’m on the plane. It’s interesting to see the range of footwear you see on the ship, especially amongst the crew. We currently have one crewmember on board who almost never wears shoes…he gets teased for it all the time but it’s still sort of amazing. I guess if you spend enough time running around shoeless you get used to it. Other than that it’s really common to see running shoes and while they are in the pilot house lots of sandals and Crocs.
Utility
-Thumb drive
-Lighter
-Knife
I must say the thumb drive, lighter, and knife has been some of my most asked to borrow/use items. All of them are extremely useful as most people forget to bring them. For some reason it seems like most people in the science party forget about thumb drives and believe that emailing or burning a CD is the best way to transfer data…. internet connection is horrible on the ship and burning a CD is in my opinion a waste (most people I know have external hard drives if they are planning on large data transfers, so much quicker). It’s also much easier to just use a thumb drive, especially if all they want are pictures that you’ve taken of their operations.
While most people might find a lighter useless unless they are a smoker it can be a great way of breaking the ice with other crew and/or science party. Since there are generally a few smokers on board it’s not that rare to be asked if you have a lighter and people generally remember if you were nice enough to let them borrow yours. A lighter can also be useful when splicing.
As a marine technician a knife can be extremely useful for multiple purposes. In my case I generally used it to cut lines or zip ties during our mooring recoveries.
Personal Stuff (Female Specific)
I personally don’t like to wear makeup while working with the exception of some lotion, but I did bring an eyeliner stick and mascara for use during the days I have at port. In my totally biased opinion it’s probably best to keep the amount of makeup you bring to a minimum.
Food
-Chocolate/Candy/Gum
This is another one of those icebreaker items. It’s always nice to be offered candy/gum and generally works as a decent conversation starter for people like me (I’m really bad at finding topics to talk about…especially when you are sitting on watch at 2am in the morning).
Recreation
-Laptop w/ music, videogames, books, movies
My suggestion when it comes to recreational items is to just bring a laptop and some thumb drives filled with music/games/books/movies/etc. It’s much more efficient then packing hard copies of all the books you want. Another good thing to remember is that most ships have their own DVD collections…I must say I am amazed at the current collection on the R/V Savannah, so many new movies which is awesome.
Free Time
So depending on your watch schedule you may sometimes be lucky enough to find a few minutes/hours to spend relaxing versus watching computer screens or operations going on. In my case I have had a decent amount of free time due to the type of transects that our science crew is doing. The chief scientist is essentially having us doing “triangle transects” which means the ship travels 200m, turns, goes another 200m, turns, and finally another 200m. At that last point the ship will stop and the CTD will be deployed. This repeats for 24+ hours…. you can imagine the excitement. During the whole operation the ADCP is also running, so essentially we are trying to collect a time series of the water mass movement in the area of the transect. I’m not really great at explaining the science that is being done so I apologize (Always fell asleep during my physical oceanography classes…oops).
Anyways, during my free time I have generally spent it learning about knots/rope work, marine navigation, Arduino microcontroller boards, and also all of the science that everyone is doing. I know this might not sound like free time to some people since you are still learning and generally getting schooled…by everyone…I lost count of how many times one of the crew made me redo my splice, tad bit frustrating to do it wrong and have him take it apart and then correctly do it in seconds. Or when I asked one of the scientists about his project over a game of cards (I essentially tried to regurgitate what he said to me about the triangle transects and I would say I miserably failed at conveying exactly what he is doing.)
I highly suggest that anyone who is interested or plans to work on a ship (scientist, crew, or otherwise) learns how to do the basic knots and splicing. Not only is it extremely useful but it can also be a good way to waste some time. So far I have relearned the bowline (most useful knot ever…. in my opinion) and also learned how to do a basic splice. I have also spent some time learning about marine navigation, mostly learning how to run the autopilot, use the radar, and proper radio communication. Lastly I brought an Arduino microcontroller board with me. Essentially I can write code and program it to do a whole bunch of different things (lots of people use Arduino boards for the ROVs or other small controlled robots) currently I have it set up so I can play an LED light game with it. The goal of the game is to stop the light when it flashes green and each time you get it correct the flashes will get faster.
Anyways, I have to get back to work. Next week I’ll probably discuss the biology of Georgia seeing that we have seen a lot of cool critters and will be starting a new fishery related cruise.
