Last week’s schedule was really hectic, but I had a nice chance to relax as the storm began to hit. This storm was not as severe as the first, but there was definitely lots of wind and some pretty big waves. I spent the first weather day reading and watched Get Out with the crew when I finished my book. The following day, I slept in and caught up on some much-needed rest before meeting the team outside for a deck test. The lead mechanic had used his free time to put a Wario face on Sentry with electrical tape, so that was quite a shock to see as I was waking up. He did a really good job and it made the final deployments all the more exciting.
On our final weather day, I was getting a bit restless, so I cleaned and organized our mechanical van. We performed yet another deck test, but I asked to watch from inside this time so I could get a better understanding of the reasoning behind the order of operations of the test.
We decided to move the 24-hour dives from noon and midnight to 9am and 9pm, so we got up early the next day to prepare for a morning dive and did the deck test and pre-dive as the sun rose. Even though we changed the dive schedule, we kept the same watch schedule, so instead of being on watch for the last four hours of each dive, my shift was now the first 3 hours and then the ascent the next day. I asked to watch launch from inside for this dive and learned a lot from that experience. I actually had to leave my watch early this day to register for my fall classes, so I offered to cover some of someone else’s shift instead and started at 6am instead of 8am the next morning.
I had been watching the software engineer execute the post-dive commands, but I was able to run them myself after my watch that day. We recovered at 9am and planned to launch our last dive of the cruise at 9pm the same day. I was outside for launch and then went back in for another watch shift. The sky was clear for the first time in a very long time, so when I was off at midnight, I went out on the bow to look at the stars before heading to bed.
Because Sentry was in the water, I got to sleep in again. There was a merch sale in the main lab and I bought an Atlantis sweatshirt (to support the great cause of course) and was given a Sentry T-shirt and some stickers for my first Sentry Team cruise! I relaxed until my night watch and executed the inside post-dive once again. I found myself getting a bit sentimental sending the final commands, but we played some music to celebrate as I recovered the data.
Today was a very exciting day on the Atlantis, not only because we began our transit back to Astoria, but because a WHOI engineer that many people had worked with on the ship was off to the International Space Station! There was a streaming party for the launch, but I couldn’t participate because we had a lot to do to reconfigure the vehicle for its next cruise. We started the process of removing all of the instruments specific to this cruise, replacing them with what will be needed for the next, and preparing it for shipping. I took off the wings, propellers, and SUPR saddle before cleaning the oil off of the wings and the deck. I also organized the hardware for the saddle once I had disassembled it. Finally, I removed the strobes, beacons, and iridiums, took out the batteries I had put in them the very first day, disassembled the poles I had also put together, and secured the spares van for our transit. It was funny doing things like this in reverse because it made me realize how much I have learned while I’ve been here. These were the very first tasks I was given and I remember feeling so intimidated, but now I know my way around all of the different components of the vehicle.
We ended the day by taking a group picture on the bow to commemorate all of the great work that has been done this cruise.
Aside from my Work Plan goals, I committed to the Sentry Team that I would be able to do a push-up when the cruise was over. After moving countless weight stacks and pulling myself up the steep stairs when my legs were too tired, my skills were finally put to the test. Not only can I now perform vehicle maintenance and data recovery and stand watch during dives, but I can also officially do a push-up. One could say I have achieved maximum personal growth on this trip.
We will arrive back in Astoria tomorrow and spend the day packing up the lab and storage vans before heading out for drinks to celebrate all of our hard work. I am very nervous I’ll have bad dock rock after four long weeks at sea. We’re actually going to spend one last night on the boat so that we can oversee the crane picks on Sunday before driving down to Portland. I’ll stay at the airport hotel again and fly back to Santa Barbara on Monday!
I have learned so much about the different career paths I can take in this field and where my interests lie, and I am very thankful to have had this experience before I begin to apply to jobs and grad schools in the coming months. Living on a research vessel can feel a little exhausting and isolating at times, but I am beyond grateful to have been able to take part in this cruise and am very excited for my future in ocean engineering. See you all so soon and thank you so much for reading my blog posts, it meant the world to me!
