Hello everyone! I’m Katie Wade, a recent Ocean Engineering graduate from the Florida Institute of Technology. Soon I’ll be heading to Oregon to join the WHOI Alvin Team on the RV Atlantis for a research cruise along the Juan de Fuca Ridge, where I’ll be working as a Mechanical Engineering Intern.
I grew up in Merritt Island, Florida, which fostered a deep love, respect, and curiosity for the ocean. For me, nothing beats a day on the water, so I’ve always hoped to blend fieldwork into my career. I never expected that pursuit would lead to such an incredible adventure—I’m deeply grateful to the Alvin Team and the MATE Program for this opportunity.
During my undergrad, I spent two years at the Center for Corrosion and Biofouling Control (CCBC), where I worked in a multidisciplinary environment that deepened my understanding of how marine life intersects with engineering. I also helped design and build an ROV as part of a team project, which inspired me to pursue underwater robotics. So, I’m excited to continue growing both my ecological knowledge and technical skills on this cruise to become a better engineer!
Here are some pictures of me with other students from the CCBC and working on deck the RV Hogarth during a marine field project last summer.
Hello from the Bering Sea! I’m breaking from my weekly update plan to monologue a little bit about the quiet beauty of the ocean and the little things that make being at sea an experience like no other.
I’m in the process of waking up earlier and earlier to adjust to my 6 AM – 6 PM shift, and this is the first morning I wake up and start my shift before breakfast. I haven’t quite figured out a direct indoor route from the stateroom I share with Cora to the STARC computer lab, so I usually step out on deck and descend a stairway that feels more like a ladder to the correct deck. This early in the morning, the sun hasn’t risen yet, and it’s completely dark. The Healy goes dark at night, which means no outdoor floodlights or illuminated walkways save for dim red lamps, which are so subtle it feels like my approach to the lab relies more on muscle memory. The ship is enveloped in fog, blocking any moon or starlight or reflection from the seawater, and as I descend the staircase, the inky blackness might as well be space. And I, my center of gravity rising and falling as the ship heaves through the waves, could be floating out there in the vacuum.
An animation I made on a previous cruise.
Even in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness or Arizona desert, the darkest night is a cramped storage closet, full of leaves or sand or small creatures or just life compared to the sense of pure emptiness you get in the sea at night. It’s a feeling of complete aloneness, utter freedom, where it feels like the borders of reality are a little bit fuzzy, and maybe we’ve accidentally traveled a millennia and become a ghost ship in some distant future.
Descending the steep stairway, I near the water level, and from here the splashing of the waves dominates any lingering engine/exhaust/fan noise from higher decks. I try to discern a rhythm in the splashing, but though the rise and fall of the ship is uniform, every contact, every wave, every splash is unique, and the task is fruitless. Further aft, away from the prow of the ship, the splashing turns to hissing, as the roiling water churned up by the prow surfaces, fizzing like the Healy is a giant Alka-Seltzer tablet, bubbling away in the sea. This sound is consistent, waiting to encompass you the moment you get close enough, and it’s comforting, like holding a seashell up to your ear. I wish I could record this sound to fall asleep to every night, but the moment I leave the ship I know I’ll forget that ephemeral hissing, just strong enough for ears but too subtle, too blurry for an iPhone.
My first cruise, that planted the seed that led me to the UNOLS-MATE internship, was in the Bering. As my first watery love, something about it feels like home. I know halibut and cod drift tens of meters below us, crabs and brittle stars sifting through silty sediment. People on the coast are chasing the salmon runs, stocking chest freezers to feed themselves through the winter, and I’m sure we’re passing distant commercial fishing vessels, manned by college students and drifters and seasoned hands. This sea is cold, merciless, and unforgiving, and I know that will only intensify as we continue our journey north, to seas new to me. I know I’m just another speck in this sea, here just a moment in its aquatic eons. But the hissing bubbles whisper welcome home, and the dark, depthless night wraps me in its embrace.
I hit the deck, and am getting a little spooked by my inability to distinguish shadows from structures. On that first cruise we pulled up massive, 30+ foot jellyfish tendrils, and I’m not quite convinced there isn’t a gigantic, gelatinous leviathan waiting to pluck me from the ship as vengeance: This is for the sea nettles and moon jellies you keep yanking up on your multicore, punk! I fling myself through a door and spin into the lab, where my people, others who grasp the sea in its infinity, await, who also welcome me home.
Hi! My name is Aidan Lee, and I am one of the interns working with the electrical team of the HOV Alvin through Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on the R/V Atlantis in early September. I’ll be boarding in Newport, Oregon after meeting with the team in Portland, and I’m excited to get to meet everyone there! I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, and joined a remotely operated vehicles robotics team competing in the MATE ROV Competition during my time as an undergraduate. I’m looking forward to seeing what ways my technical skills from developing ROVs can apply to the HOV Alvin at sea!
Below I’ve included a few pictures of me, some of which are during the 2025 MATE ROV Competition in Alpena, Michigan. I’ve got friends on the team who have previously been MATE interns who speak very highly of the program, so I want to make the most of my experience here.
I will be back with another update in approximately another week or so. See you guys then!
And we’re off! The Healy set sail (can I say that?) Thursday, chugging down the Aleutian Chain for science tests and drills before we start cruising up north to the Arctic for our stations.
The view as we tug-boated out of port. Fun fact, Kodiak’s powered by renewable energy, mainly from these wind turbines.My very excited, blurry picture of Alaska’s only electric crane shrouded in fog. It was made possible by Kodiak’s unique grid.
But before that: I got into Kodiak Monday night, and met up with the STARC (Ship-based Technical Support in the Arctic) team mid-transition. I met Maya, Emily, and Christina as they were leaving, and Cora, Brandon, Bowman, and Brendon, my mentor, who are on the STARC team for this cruise. We got dinner, something we’d do every night in Kodiak before leaving, along with exploring different spots of coastline- getting our fix of restaurant food, nature, and solid ground before heading off for six weeks. I’ve been thinking about doing a critter count, inspired by Kaleigh’s bear count, but within five minutes of the first beach my starfish, sorry, sea star count was already astronomical.
Sights of Kodiak!Scientists recently identified a bacterium responsible for sea star wasting disease, which I think this red sea star has.
My rough wildlife count for this week, on land, was: two kingfishers, one bald eagle, endless sea stars, one dead rockfish, many sculpin, even more anemones, and a few chitons. Zero bears but I’m fine with that (I’m Alaskan, I’ve had enough!). I am hoping to see a polar bear from a very respectful distance, but Kodiak grizzlies can stay away. Please. I’m now resetting the critter count for being at sea, though I can already add four puffins and a guillemot that Cora ID’ed.
Anyway, the moment I got situated on board, work began, with me lending a novice hand as we replaced a damaged GPS cable. But the real mission of the last few days has been final repairs on some imploded CTD niskins, and equipment setup for the new science party. Most of the damaged ones have been fixed or replaced, but we had a couple that needed gaskets replaced or springs re-tensioned. On a previous cruise I’ve collected CTD water samples, so this wasn’t too unfamiliar, but then we moved to setting up a new flourometer. I’m new to sensor setup, but Brandon walked me through the CTD configuration and installed the new sensor. And then, our first CTD test cast! One niskin didn’t deploy, but other than that it went well.
So much more has happened at such a lightning speed that I can’t quite put it on paper- tours of the ship, winches, water wall, sonar, etc. I’ll go in depth on these aspects as I work with them in the upcoming weeks.
Replacing a gasket / Brandon D’Andrea
The next few days we’ll be transiting north, working on setting up all our sensors ands making sure things are running smoothly. I will be tagging along and familiarizing myself with the STARC duties onboard, and working on outlining my goals for the internship. Additionally, hoping to establish a gym routine- the gyms here (yes, plural) are well-stocked and calling my name. I brought hang board holds, and Cora and I have been trying to do pull-ups and push-ups on the hour to stay energized. On a previous cruise I trained for a half marathon. Maybe my goal this time will be a couple pull-ups.
Looking forward to everything I have to learn and share with y’all.
Boom! Smash! Crash! They had to get one more drill out of the way before we disembarked, and the straight-faced reading of those onomatopoeias over the pipes really set the scene for that last collision and flooding drill. Make-believe obstacles aside, the rest of the transit home was pretty smooth. At the last all-hands meeting, I was surprised and delighted to learn I had received a “Coast Guard Arctic Service Medal,” which will definitely be going on my LinkedIn accomplishments. Another highlight was the second “science talk” of the voyage, featuring a member of the Finnish Border Guard. The previous talk was from our other international guest from the French Navy. They were both a joy to listen to, and it was fascinating hearing about marine operations in other parts of the world.
Collision-free view, labelled for your convenience!Learning all about Rajavartiolaitos!
The morning we were set to arrive in Kodiak, Tyler and I woke up early to meet Maya and Micah to turn off the science systems (and hopefully to start aligning our sleep schedules a little more). Our first step was shutting off the water walls, and simply enough involved closing off the main flow valves, running a freshwater flush, and powering down the system. Of course, overachievers that we are, we also decided to take off and wash each instrument one by one so they would be squeaky clean for the next cruise. Next, we headed back to the computer lab to shut off the sonars with a simple click of a few buttons. The science data logging was officially complete!
The multibeam was showing off at the last minute…And the EK80 fish finder gave us a nice rainbow as our final screen.
Data collection wrapped, Micah and I quickly pivoted to more artistic endeavors. Within the next two days, we had wound up with some 3D prints, an unofficial logo for STARC in the spirit of a Coast Guard request, and a sticker design featuring an adorably wonderful sketch that Micah drew and I digitized. I feel really lucky that I was paired with such an artistic and incredibly fun buddy for this trip, and will forever treasure Micah’s daily motivational drawings of Bing Bong the cat (and my favorite, his snarky antagonist, Ding Dong), our scrappy but ever-growing intern baton, and the polar bear journal she painted me! Good luck on the next voyages, Micah, I’ll be keeping posted!
While mindlessly staring out the window as one does, unaware there was anything other than the typical expanse of ocean to see, an IT guy informed me that I was looking in the wrong direction to see Kodiak. Land ho! Having just finished reading Endurance, a novel about Shackleton’s famous Antarctic escape, I had a special appreciation for the awe of seeing land and a new cast of characters for the first time. While not so dramatic after our monthlong, penguin-meat-free voyage, imagining the wonder in their return narratives really makes you appreciate the little things, like trees and a store that sells cashews. Unfortunately, I ate all of mine in the first three days of the trip.
For real, where did that come from?Hi Kodiak!
We were carefully bumped into the dock by two tug boats, which was a perk of being on such a huge ship and a new experience for me. And what better sight to greet us in port than a NOAA logo! Oscar Dyson was docked nearby. Time for liberty! We spent our time in Kodiak exploring town, getting fro-yo every day, visiting Walmart (I did secure cashews), hiking around the beaches, eating delicious and wildly affordable sushi, watching zombie salmon, and looking for bears. Before we knew it, we were saying our goodbyes and headed home from our Arctic adventure.
Of course we went right back to looking at the ocean.Green things exist again!
Some big thank yous are due to everyone who supported me along the way! Thank you to Micah for the excellent camaraderie and constant supply of intriguing tidbits. Thank you to Tyler and Maya, our mentors, who not only taught us so much about the work of marine techs, but also kept things fun, light, and full of shenanigans. Thank you to Christina, Brendon, Emily, and the rest of the STARC team for giving us this opportunity in the first place and for keeping Kodiak exciting. Thank you to the Coast Guard for having us and giving us shiny certificates, and to AMOS for indulging my impromptu TED Talk requests. And, finally, thank you to all of you for reading this blog! I’ve truly grown an unexpected level of fondness for writing it, and I’m so happy it’s been a source of science and silliness for many of you.
Polar bear count: 2!*
*Folks, it came down to the wire, but I’m ecstatic to report that we finally have two real bears to report this week! Shoutout to Brendon for surrendering our dinner table to let us go check out these two adorable Kodiak bears, who were playing, fishing, standing, and generally enamoring us. Kodiak bears are a type of brown bear that only live in this area of Alaska, and are bigger than grizzlies but smaller than polar bears. It counts!
With the ice floes far out of our sight, we began the transit into port. Our days were spent waving the ice goodbye, cleaning up our work stations and preparing for seas. The weather was predicted to pick up and become quite sporty as we headed in, so we began securing gear.
On the day we came into port, I awoke to the familiar feeling of a tug pushing along the hull of the ship. The Healy always has the aide of a tug or two to help guide them into port, as often times a novice is behind the controls up in the bridge. A little bit of help never hurts! Our team stood above on the flight deck, to watch the masters of their craft navigate. A tug boat is something akin to a glorified floating engine, with the sole purpose to push and shove other vessels around. Even so, there can be no understating the importance of their work! They are responsible for helping an endless amount of ships safely navigate water ways, and assist them to avoid running aground.
Hello NOAA ship Oscar Dyson!USCG helo!Healy!
As we docked in the small marina of Kodiak, Alaska, I was taken aback by how beautiful it truly is. The mountains stand tall and imposing over the bay. From over the hills, helicopters and planes soar above in the clouds. Kodiak is a “Coast Guard City”, and has one of the largest coast guard bases in our nation. Once we docked, we finally got our first good look at the outside of the ship! When we boarded, it was via small boat shuttle, so there was no time for gawking at the sheer size of the Healy. Now, looking up from the pier, holy moly! As the largest cutter in the fleet, she is Big Red, large and in charge! She dominates the pier space, and comes uncomfortably close to the fishing ship astern to her. It was a treat to share dock space with the NOAA ship Oscar Dyson, though we sadly had no time for tours. As a NOAA nerd and lover, it is always very exciting to see them out and about! Oscar, if you ever see this, hit me up. We’ll tour and swap CTD horror stories or something.
Truly we were blessed with an awesome group of people. HUGEST shoutout to Tyler and Maya, the coolest mentors around! As they were both previously UNOLS Mate interns, it feels very full circle. From mentee to mentors, they stepped up to the plate in huge ways. Kaleigh is the coolest kat on the west coast, and it was a pleasure to sail with her! Best of luck to all three of y’all, and I am certain we will cross paths again as ships in the night (or rather, on ships in the night. It’s a small world after all).
With a spare day in port, everyone on board was given liberty. Time to explore! The town is bustling with a surprising amount of energy. We ate at local restaurants, walked by the fishing piers, and enjoyed the wild sights of mountains meeting ocean. Though we saw no polar bears, we were extremely excited to see bears on shore! They were out for a stroll, enjoying easy meals out of the dying salmon. Salmon are mostly anadromous and semelparous, which sounds fancy, but simply means two things: they begin and end their lives in fresh water, and die after spawning just one time. During the summer, they return to the river they were born in to repeat the cycle over again. After they spawn, they die, providing abundant nutrients for the next generation of salmon. It is a truly striking cycle that I have always been deeply stirred by, and witnessing it firsthand was touching. The bears and birds take advantage of the weakened salmon by scooping up some easy meals.
Though our time onboard the Healy is done, the memories made and work completed will remain. Invaluable lessons learned and lifelong friends made, I head home. Alaska, wild and enchanting, streams 30,000 feet below me. I’m sure to return.
Special thanks to the Healy, for facilitating us interns to sail with you! The crew, for dealing with our shenanigans and endless questions. To Maria and the entire UNOLS team for helping us each step of the way. To our mentors Tyler and Maya, for sharing their knowledge and encouraging our learning environment always. We are grateful beyond words.
Thank you to my family, for supporting my crazy dreams and believing in my abilities. Without their undying love and unconditional support, I would never make it to this point. Mom, Zak; I love y’all, and work everyday to make you proud! Kayla and Joyce, thank you for encouraging me so I could believe in myself. Love y’all always, my voices of reason.
Howdy! I’m Wil, and I’ll be joining STARC aboard the USCGC Healy for its final cruise of the year this fall. I’m a senior at the University of Alaska Fairbanks majoring in geophysics, which is a fancy way of saying I like rocks. I’m originally from Southern Arizona, but moved up to Alaska four years ago for college, and despite going from 110 to -30 degree days, I love it up here, and all the chances to explore rugged and remote places through fieldwork.
In 2023, after pestering a professor for almost two years (and building up a good skill set), I got the opportunity to join the research team on the R/V Sikuliaq for a month as we took sediment cores in the Bering Sea- me, a former desert rat, who had never been on a boat in my life! It was an extremely difficult and rewarding trip, and I left with my eyes open to a new career path… boats?
UAF/GI, photo by JR Ancheta. Make sure your hat fits before setting sail.
I used this experience to join a Sikuliaq NGA LTER cruise- twins, Kaleigh! It must be a gateway cruise to marine technician work, because I’ve fallen in love with working at sea, supporting the science and helping collect data while always being in the field. My background is science-heavy, but low-tech, and I hope this upcoming internship will help bridge the gap between those and build a wider skill set for marine technician work. I look forward to sharing this journey!
This week was all about gliders! Underwater gliders are torpedo-looking instruments that glide up and down across the water column while autonomously collecting data similar to that of the CTD and moorings. When I did an REU internship with the Northern Gulf of Alaska Long-Term Ecological Research program, I worked with data from Slocum gliders, so I had a little experience going into this. While the University of Washington Seagliders used here are fairly similar, I’ve been blown away by how much there is to learn!
One of the most interesting things about underwater gliders is the simple principle of how they zigzag through the ocean. Rather than using a traditional engine or propeller to dive up and down, they instead rely on buoyancy by changing pumping oil in and out of an external bladder. To rise, they pump oil into the bladder, increasing their volume and making them more buoyant. To descend, they pump the oil back into an internal reservoir, decreasing their volume and making them less buoyant. Little wings on the side of the body help turn this vertical motion into horizontal propulsion.
Workshopping post recovery!Ready for deployment!
In tandem with this, the gliders also utilize gravity. The heaviest part is the battery, which powers them to travel through seas until recovery a year (or sometimes accidentally two!) later. The scientists use this to their advantage by placing the battery on a track, allowing the weight to slide from one side to the other, causing the glider’s path to tilt or bank in the same direction. Typically, scientists can communicate with the gliders while deployed to adjust their path, but out in the sea ice, it’s more of a “godspeed and hope to see ya next year!” In the meantime, the gliders will communicate with the moorings to check their position and with satellites if they can find an open patch of water to come up to. This can be tricky with so much ice coverage, so the glider first checks for freezing temperatures above before trying to surface.
With the hide-and-seek of glider recoveries also came small boat operations, which were fun to watch as the Coast Guard cruised around. After two recoveries and three more deployments of fresh gliders, science for the cruise was officially concluded. Onto the transit home!
Can you spot an antenna peeking out?A small boat, indeed.
Tyler and I have been continuing our organization and documentation projects. Now that we’ve retired from the cable factory, we’ve moved on to organizing other parts related to the CTD and water walls, including instruments, mounts, hardware, and tubing. I was, of course, stoked to be printing more labels on everything. I also finished up more diagrams, including ones showing the setup of the water walls themselves. Turns out, you can even make them into GIFs! At turnover, Micah has been teaching new knots, while Maya and Tyler have been assigning skills to both of us, such as making our own Ethernet cables or learning to successfully drill and tap like pros.
You can never have too many dividers.If only we could print the GIF.
Just as quickly as we came, we’ve now left both the sea ice and the Arctic Circle behind. While it’s a bummer we didn’t have a polar bear encounter, the open waters have brought the spouts and graceful breaches of whales aplenty! The transit through the Bering Sea has also brought us into the motion of the ocean that the ice secluded us from. Storm days have always been a part of being on a ship that I love, as I’ve never been seasick before. But as I’ve often heard in oceanography, “it’s not if, it’s when,” or as Christina said, “everyone has their frequency.” Turns out, big boat, little waves is just the right combo to chip away at my hubris. But nothing a power nap, whole wheat Goldfish, and some Bonine couldn’t solve! Now that we’ve moved onto some bigger 9- to 11-foot waves, I’m back to having a grand time sliding around the computer lab on my rolling chair.
It’s also been totally bizarre to experience the pitch black of night again as we head south. The first night, a beautiful full moon kindly welcomed us back to growing darkness. Now that science is complete and the changing sky makes our late shift end extra apparent, we’ve been using our spare time to take on some goofier tasks. This week’s non-exhaustive list includes: watching The Princess Bride while diagramming, testing all the sports equipment in the hangar, reading Endurance, darning an office chair, and teaching Tyler foosball (a feature that inexplicably exists in the forward machinery room). Until next week!
You’re telling me this is normal?The flight deck is for photoshoots…and also helicopters.
Polar bear count: In the Coast Guard, if you spend 21 days or more above the Arctic Circle, you unlock “polar bear” status and are allowed to wear the highly coveted and fashionable red gear. This week, Micah and I joined Maya and Tyler in achieving that! So, you could say there are four polar bears pictured below. And Micah drew me an exceptionally wonderful polar bear on a snow day, so let’s call that 4.5 for this week…
Finally, some polar bears!This is worth AT LEAST half of a point!
This week was one of the best yet – testing. With many weeks of work done on the vehicle by the highly skilled Sentry team, Sentry is almost ready to exit its overhaul period and get back to sea. The last step in the overhaul, as is traditionally the last step in any engineering implementation, is testing. Sentry can be tested in a number of ways, but for this testing period it was privy to all of them.
Sentry all ready for deck testing, in the vehicle bay
First was deck testing, which is exactly what it sounds like. Out of water, the general functionality of Sentry is tested. This includes engaging thrusters, moving servos, checking battery diagnostics, flashing strobes, beeping acoustic transmitters, and more. This is the first all-vehicle check to ensure that things are working after the extensive take-apart of the vehicle. During this iteration of testing, the team discovered some issues with the response time of the multibeam’s transmitting transducer, or its TX unit. We troubleshooted by changing the TX unit (a heavy–40lb–ceramic red rectangle that houses the necessary components and is bolted to the bottom of the vehicle) out for a spare. To do this, we didn’t actually change anything about the vehicle–a technician simply propped up the spare unit on a wooden block, so that the cable which connected the TX to the rest of the vehicle could reach the spare instead. This is an important bit of experienced/insider knowledge, because often the problem isn’t where you “think” it is, and if you were to actually switch out the whole TX unit and then discover it wasn’t the problem, you would have wasted at least an hour and a lot of nerves! It was discovered that the spare didn’t work either–so likely the issue wasn’t the spare, but really another component. Because the multibeam is a non-critical sensor, although a very important one, the team decided to defer the issue until well testing when more data could be gathered which would help troubleshoot the cause of the issue.
After deck testing–numerous times–comes well testing. Well testing is a lot more explanatory than I initially thought–it is essentially, sticking the robot in a well, and seeing how it does in water. This serves the same purpose as deck testing, as well as checking that all parts have been sealed properly (to prevent leaking of oil, which is annoying at surface but fatal under pressure) and the ability to actually gather data from the sensors and check that they are truly operating properly. Because most of the sensors rely upon acoustic data, and some even rely upon flushing ocean water through themselves, it is important that they are submerged to really understand how they are functioning.
That’s all for this week–hope you enjoyed! I sure did :).
It is currently day 24 aboard the USCG cutter Healy! We have successfully recovered and deployed all of the moorings that the science crew had set out to accomplish. What an achievement! The moorings we deployed will remain deep under the arctic ice floes, until the ship once again returns to repeat the process. The instruments attached will collect water column profiles, which, long term, can show trends and patterns in data. This enables scientists to predict future changes, as well as observe any changes over time. That’s a big deal!
We have officially passed the halfway point in our mission. With all of the moorings out of the way, we are shifting our focus to sea gliders! With a shift in mission comes a turnover of gear. The lab spaces on board are surprisingly small for such a large ship, and can get rather… crowded. The scientists are often awake into the wee hours of the night, tinkering away with their mechanical treasures. It’s difficult and precise work, but thankfully the Healy is very steady in all this ice. This may be the only ship where people set their things on a desk ledge with no worries of it tumbling off with each roll of the waves! Look’s as though the science crew has some cleaning up to do…
We have become quite accustomed to doing donuts out here in order to clear the ice, but the sight of it is always very interesting. We are still fairly far north, so finding open patches of water is a bit touch and go. When we can’t find one, we just have to make it ourselves! While watching the ice parting, and the patch widening, it is clear to see if someone with more experience is driving the boat, or if perhaps it is one of the greenhorns. Our experienced captains definitely hit the “circle” target bullseye, every time. The greenhorns however… well, they make some funky ovals, puddles, and other fun shapes, which I tend to appreciate more than the boring old circle. It’s art. Call that Picasso!
Everyone’s cups!My cups before…My cups after!
As the classic science nerds we are, we decided to make some shrunken cups! This is a relatively easy project, if you just so happen to have a way to get your simple styrofoam cup a couple thousand meters below the surface of the ocean. Easy peasy, right?!
Using markers, alcohol based such as Sharpies tend to work the best, decorate your cup to your hearts content. There are some astounding artists on board, and it seems as if every member of the crew made one! Once your cup is decorated, stuff it with a paper towel to keep it from collapsing in on itself. Place your stuffed cup into some sort of permeable bag, such as a mesh laundry bag or pillow cases (we filled two entire bags!), and attach it to something that will dive deep into the water. The obvious choice on a research vessel is the CTD rosette! Ziptied securely on for the ride of a lifetime, down down down they went. Into the inky abyss, all of the air within the styrofoam was compressed out, thus shrinking the cups. As an example, here are the cups I made, next to an example of what they looked like before. So teeny tiny! One of my turned out a bit wonky, but it’s all the more reason to love it. Peep the octopus! Cutting the cups before sending them down can make some really interesting shapes. Try it out if you get the chance!
From the same CTD cast, we decided to keep some personal water samples. Using empty hot sauce bottles we scavenged from the mess, the five of us are now the proud owners of arctic deep sea water. Though it may seem like a rather odd souvenir, it is a small sip of history as we know it. This water, while in the ocean, is extremely slow moving, and has probably been within the ocean basin for many, many years. Now, captured in water tight bottles, it wont enter back into the water cycle until the bottles are either emptied, or broken. How incredible it is, to have an encapsulated piece of the environment, and suspend this element in time. Of course, as all good oceanographers do, we simply just had to taste the water. Put your head under the rosette, and open up a spigot! The absolutely frigid water is extremely salty, and might even burn your mouth a bit. So, so worth it.
The floats are larger than I initially realized!There she goes…Just swim, bro!!
We have also deployed the remainder of our ARGO floats, chunking them out into the ocean to do their thang, solo style. To have the name ARGO float, they sure do sink pretty quickly… But don’t worry, once they wake up and get a little motivation, they begin their eternal journey of vertical migrations. They gently bob up and down the water column, until they eventually either fail or run out of batteries. Sigh, such is the sad, sad, life of an ARGO float. Their righteous self sacrificial mission is not in vain, as the researchers cherish the data that the floats have slaved over for so long. Once they have fulfilled their life mission, they aimlessly drift through the ocean. This cycle reminds me much of the mars rover, Opportunity. When the rover eventually ran out of battery, its final transmission amounted to: “My batteries are low and it’s getting dark”. I imagine the ARGO floats think much the same thing near their end.
Anywho, back to the lab! One of the laborious tasks the whole team has been pitching in on is inventory… dun dun dunnnn! This means enumerating, labelling, and testing just about everything on board. Maya and I spent all of one morning trouble shooting Adam modules, which is essentially a fancy signal converter for different devices. What should have been a quick, easy little project turned into hours of frustration and blatant confusion. The software used for trouble shooting was not interested in telling us anything, so we ultimately learned nothing about the current state of our spare modules. Are they still in usable condition? Who knows, but we’ve got ’em inventoried and put away in their proper place!
Go Kaleigh!Well hello there Maya!!
Happy birthday to the coast guard! In the spirit of Coast Guard day, Tyler and Kaleigh participated in a ship wide cornhole tournament, featuring our tech team lead Christina as DJ Oceans! It was right around bedtime for Maya and I, so sleepy as we were, Kaleigh and Tyler had the most monotone and unenergized cheerleaders you could ever want. Or I guess, not want? Unclear if I’m honest. This trivia crushing duo crushed cornhole only slightly less. But, if I do say so myself, they were the most spirited team on the flight deck! Read more about it over in Kaleigh’s blog! https://mateblog.unols.org/author/kaleigh/
One early morning, we were delightfully gifted with a pile of soft snow! Though it was rather chilly, we of course took our time to play and have a snow day. I mean, how couldn’t we? I made short work of snow angels and some little doodles in the powder, at the risk of freezing my fingers off. I may have even dared to throw a snowball at my mentor. Who knows! 😉
Look at her go!!Comin’ up!
Even through the snow, science must go on! We made it to our first glider operation, which was a recovery. The gliders are the same as the ones that I helped to deploy and recover in Thailand aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson. Shout out to Jen and Liz for all they taught me, I am seriously missing the tropical sun with you both right now!
This recovery was a bit different than how we ran things on the Thompson. Once we were ready to recover, the scientists communicated with the glider via software, telling it to come to the surface. Unfortunately, because of the ice, it is exceptionally hard to spot. The antenna is only 18″ long, and even though it is bright orange amidst calm water, it is nearly invisible. Once the glider surfaced, the bridge was bustling with spotters wielding binoculars, scanning the horizon for our little friend. This took considerable time!
Finally, after several ascents to the surface and constant searching, we had the glider in sight. Instead of driving the ship right next to the glider to make an approach, and reaching over the gunwale with a noose to snatch the glider as we did on the Thompson, the coasties actually deployed a small rib with science member Justin on board. They drove right up to the glider and hauled it out of the water like a prize tuna had just been caught. A short little ditty bop back over to the Healy, and they tied the glider to the A-frame wire. A simple little elevator ride up and the glider was back on board! So easy!
While we transit to our next stop, and dream of sea gliders soaring through the deep, we were gifted by the sight of one of the wonders of creation: a fog-bow! A sight I have always wanted to witness, and I am so blessed to have seen such an incredible display of God’s hard work of nature, physics, and light. Though this may seem insignificant to some, it has been on my techie bucket list since day one! Another one checked off. With time to go still, how many more can I mark off?! Stay tuned to find out!
