Been out to sea for almost a week now. We are in the North Atlantic where we are deploying gliders, recovering gliders and doing three types of CTDs. The food is amazing and I’ve tried a few new Filipino desserts that were unexpectedly really good. One was a coconut and rice bar and the other a corn and pineapple jello like cake.
May 23
We were still in transit to our first station and so I worked on a task Rory gave us. It’s a cyber security type task, where I’m gathering information on all the apps and what versions are on all the computers. Around 330/4pm we were at our first station where we were recovering a spray glider that was in trouble. I helped search for it on the bridge and then mostly watched the recovery with a few of the science crew. After dinner I worked with Oban on building a holder for the acoustic device that needed to be taken on and off the CTD frame for short 300m cast. We had to get creative and try a few things and by the time 930 rolled around I was a hour and a half over my shift and decided to head to bed. In the morning I saw that they had stuck with the original idea but instead of using hose clamps to hold it to the CTD they used ratchet straps.
May 24
Got on shift at 8am to a 2000m CTD cast and recovery. After that we moved to the Underway CTD. A Underway CTD is put off the back of the boat and is dragged on a long line behind the boat while going at a speed of 3-4 knots. It collects the same time of data the CTD collects but it gets horizontal data and not vertical data. Then we tried to do a 300m acoustic CTD every hour on the hour if possible where I got to do tag lines and help deploy and recover. The weather was getting a little iffy and rainy and Lydia and the ABs were working on a hydrological issue so I was given a radio to be the marine tech on deck for the next UCTD cast which was cool. The weather started to get bad after lunch and all further science was put on hold. I worked some more on the cyber security task and then Oban said I was free for the night. I watched two movies with the science crew, the Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Insidious chapter 3.
May 25
Woke up and the weather was better and there was some blue sky and the sun was out! Although it went back to overcast a few hours later. We did more 300m acoustic CTDs and some 2000m water profile CTDs. After lunch we launched two gliders which took all afternoon. The scientist had to make sure they were communicating with shore operations. After dinner we planned to launch another one and it ended up taking a while so I got off at 8 before it was deployed. I have been reading a lot during meal times and when I am off and finished two books already!
May 26
Finally Friday and all we had on the docket was 2000m CTD casts going into the Gulf Stream. These 2000m CTD cast take around 2 hours deployment to recovery. After deploying we go up to the bridge to fill out a CTD sheet. We write down time, location, air temp, wind speed, wind direction, rainfall, humidity, barometric pressure, sea state, swell height, wind wave height and the name of the station and what number cast it is. Then we sit and wait while it goes down 2000m. In that time a few of us read and watch the screen that’s showing real time data as it goes down. We are keeping an eye out for spikes that may indicate a sensor error. After lunch during one of the 2000m CTDs we started noticing a few of these spikes and Lydia went and fiddled with the sensors and after she went to bed at 3pm Oban and I still saw a few spikes so we replaced the sensor and it seams to be working better now. We did these 2000m casts all day long. I got off around 8pm and went straight to bed.
May 27
Another long day of 2000m CTDs! I have been mostly having a good time! It’s always hard being the odd one out, the science party all knows each-other and then the crew is all close and I’m in the middle. I’ve been spending a lot of time between talking to the Rutgers/VIMS students and Oban(marien tech) and Eli(chief mate). Got another long week ahead of us before we head into WHOI June 3rd for a quick port call before we head back out!