Three days ago I said good-bye to the R/V Hugh R Sharp and returned home. I’ve been looking back on my six weeks onboard the ship and reflecting on everything I experienced and learned. It was an absolutely incredible experience, which I will never forget!
The back half of leg 3 saw us return to George’s Bank one more time for four days of HABCAM work. We deployed it a few miles off of Cape Cod and proceeded to run transects for nearly four days before we pulled it to deploy four dredges. It went by far to quickly and before I knew it we were headed back to Woods Hole! We got an amazing farewell from George’s Bank. Soon after pulling out last dredge and turning for Woods Hole we steamed straight into a feeding frenzy of 3-4 dozen whales. We all marveled as we watch them feed and breach at sunset accompanied by countless dolphins.
Upon returning to Woods Hole the following morning, we had a rapid 4 hour turn around where we offloaded all of the NOAA scientists gear including: three dredges, the HABCAM, and all of the computer equipment located in the dry lab. By 9:30 we were off the dock and headed back for Lewes, Delaware. After a 30 hour steam, during which we cleaned the entire ship, we arrived there and spent the next two days reconfiguring the ship for its next research cruise. It is truly amazing how modular the Sharp is. In only a few hours we had completely reconfigured the entire aft deck removing the sorting table, HABCAM ramp, UNOLS lab van, and inserting a two ton steel wedge into the space where the sorting table ramp lay. The result, a totally open aft deck ready for a new lab van and a new mission!
I’d like to thank the techs, scientists, and crew of the Sharp that I lived and worked with these past few weeks. I learned so much from you all and I sincerely appreciate your kindness and all you taught me! Being on the Sharp was a dream experience and I cannot wait to continue to peruse my dream of working as a Marine Tech and get back out there as soon as possible!
Thank-you for following along with my trip and I’ve uploaded images to all of my previous posts which was not possible during my cruise due to poor internet.
Cheers!
Charlie Brooks