I have been assigned to work with the Lamont Doherty Observatory of Columbia University for this cruise. After many delays from Navy inspections we finally left port and headed to recover the scientific instruments from the sea. There was overcast throughout the first and half of the second week so it all looks the same whether it is 9AM or 9PM. The sun doesn’t fully until about 10PM so there’s a lot of daylight on the west coast. I was part of a team if 6 charged with retrieving 30 Ocean Bottom Seismometer or OBS for short. More than half of them were TRM which are Trawl Resistant versions of the OBS. Encased in a steel shell weighing about a ton each the TRMs were difficult to get on board. Operations were for 24hrs so we rest whenever we can in between each instrument. We were equipped with a winch which had a heave compensation system allowing it to adjust for the pitch and roll of the ship to maintain the stress of the line when hauling a TRM out of the water. We had the help of JASON from WHOI, a remote under water ROV to help us find some of the instruments that didn’t respond to our radio. The crew of the Thompson was a HUGE help of which I cannot emphasize enough, without them we probably would have taken at least twice as long. And also the student that came along also gave us a hand. Once on board we had to strip and clean the TRM of all its parts leaving but the steel shell to get refurbished for the next deployment. Before the previous deployment they used a lot of Aqua Shield which is some teal colored lithium based grease to help water proof some of the cables. It is terrible to deal with and it never gets off your clothes or your hands. Along with the TRM came many creatures of the deep and a lot of sea mud, which smelled terrible, made from organic waste it’s about the closest thing you can get to manure that isn’t excrement. There were many sea stars and other stranger creatures. On this cruise we were also able to see some whales, dolphins, and even a sunfish. Overall I had a great experience and met a lot of people. The MATE program had presented me the best opportunity I could ever ask for and following this I will continue to work with the Lamont group.