Author: Avery Wilson

And just like that, we have docked up in Nouméa, New Caledonia. In this final week aboard the R/V Thompson, we transited across Vanuatu waters, completed the last OBS deployments off New Caledonia, experienced slightly larger swells (~10ft), and got to celebrate World Oceans Day at sea!

During some of the final deployments, I was entrusted with the OBS release line. This is the high-stress job of ensuring the instrument is not released from the crane until it is in the water and all other tag lines have been released. Luckily, all of my deployments went smoothly!

Once at the dock and the ship cleared customs, demobilization began. This primarily consisted of preparing the magnetometer gear for storage and eventual shipment from Guam. We retrieved the magnetometer, rinsed both the cable and instrument with freshwater, and level-wound the cable neatly onto the winch drum. The winch was then unbolted from the deck and placed inside its storage box with the rest of the gear.

The ship’s crew planned to perform maintenance on the safety boats while in port. Flying boats do exist! They also created a makeshift cradle with fenders—sometimes you have to get creative out here.

My favorite meal this week consisted of crab cakes and homemade clam chowder. A big thank you to Gabriel, Juanita, and Caleb for all the amazing grub!

This week, I had the realization that I was actively living out my childhood dreams. What an amazing experience for a landlocked girl from Colorado to travel the world and spend three weeks at sea assisting with marine research! I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to set sail as a MATE intern, especially with the amazing crew aboard the Thompson. I gained a lot of experience and knowledge, but the people onboard are what made this experience so valuable. I am already hoping to get back out to sea as soon as possible.

Until next time!

-Avery

Another week down. This one was even calmer than the last, with only a few OBS deployments. The magnetometer continues to function as we “mow the lawn” southwest of Fiji, collecting bathymetric mapping data.

With the extra downtime, we’ve continued lessons and hands-on challenges to learn as much as possible from the onboard marine technicians. So far, that coursework has included networking challenges, cable management and termination, serial data communication, CTD setup, and a variety of other technical skills.

I presented some of my past research experience which was a fun opportunity to bring some physical oceanography and ecology topics to the onboard science team which largely consists of seismologists and geophysicists.

I am also learning an important lesson about the dangers of having auto updates enabled on a computer actively being used for data collection. Not only did we lose data during the update, but a driver had to be manually updated before we could resume data collection. Learn from our mistakes.

The menu onboard continues to impress. My favorite meal this week was a Rueben wrap, tuna steaks, and salad with Italian dressing.

The weather has been fantastic, with swell between two and five feet and many sunny days. I’m trying to enjoy the calm before the storm as we brace for a schedule packed full of deployments, larger swell, and rough weather in a few days.

Please enjoy this amazing sunset, which included a visit from some red-footed boobies!

-Avery