–Underway from MAJ–

For the final week of this internship (May 1-9) we finalized our pending tasks of installing all the new phone lines in the portable labs along with several internet access points and a few more SOFAR Buoy deployments.

Before that however, we crossed the anti-meridian and successfully completed the “Order of the Golden Dragon” sailor’s merit, which just so happened to occur on May 4th and inspired Cody to create a commemorative print out (with some minor adjustments).

The first part of this task included setting out 6 sets of CAT5e cables, each measuring approximately 15 fathoms of length. After setting these cables and terminating both ends, we fed the lines into our port lab switch box before inserting 2 cables into each of the DICE portable lab transits.

After troubleshooting a faulty port in the main lab server rack, all lines responded well to our internet access point modems and phones which lead us to wrap up our work and close the transit. For our remaining work, we assessed a previous gravity tie and land tie in order to determine our delat and rate of change between previous readings, which as metadata could be used to determine if e would need to have the gravimeter recalibrated soon. We also had enough time before reaching Majuro to set up another CAT5e cable in a POE termination pattern for the aft IFR camera, which will serve as a useful tool for supervising seismic gun operations and ensuring no sealife are around high risk sections. Finally, I also had the opportunity to practice XBT launches, which will add a new incredibly relevant skill to my professional summary.

–Arriving to MAJ–

We arrived to Majuro a short while after finishing our work, and I was able to spend some time ashore speaking with the incoming technicians and science team, in fact, Theo (previous MATE intern and current field scientist aboard the R/V Langseth) and I got to meet up and talk about how much this program has changed our careers.

–Final Thoughts–

As this program comes to a close, I want to thank the R/V Marcus G. Langseth’s crew for being so welcoming, and I especially would like to thank Jacob Greenberg and Cody Bahlau’s tremendous guidance throughout this program. The UNOLS-MATE program has made me a much more confident scientist, oceanographer, and maritime technician, and will surely lead me to a successful career in the near future, for now however I say farewell and hope to have even more stories to tell some day, whether online or in person when we recognize each other in a remote part of the world.

Yet for now, fair winds and following seas!

-Conrado A.B.