2230 local time
Hello!
This post is coming to you a bit later than usual and after a very eventful transit from the Scripps dock in San Diego to the OSU dock in Newport, Oregon. We left Tuesday morning with a full complement of ship crew members and 6 visiting researchers from the University of Minnesota. Their reason for being on board was unique in that they were studying human responses to ship motion and how this motion affects the motor functions of people who work at sea. Their study consisted of walking blindfolded in place with weights on your ankles, followed by several back-and-forth, 30-pace walks within a narrow, taped-off expanse of deck.
On the first day at sea, I gave the safety and ship orientation presentation for the first time followed by a survival suit tutorial. It went very well! Unfortunately, this would be the last day I would see all of the researchers in one room until we got close to port. This was due to some of the worst, pitching seas I have experienced. For a couple of days, we were reduced to 4-5 knots of speed as the bow was assaulted by one violent wave after another. This meant that the motion studies were put on hold as motion sickness abounded.
In the meantime, I busied myself with several projects. One project was to secure this plastic, tabletop material called starboard to an existing, stainless steel counter top. I was worried that bolting through the starboard would permanently damage the pristine stainless steel and could also allow for seawater seepage into the wooden counter underneath. My proposed solution was to make clamps that would prevent the starboard from moving while maintaining the existing counter. I also trimmed and sanded the starboard edges and placed rubber caps on all clamps. Now that the cleverly named MEZCAL cruise science members are on board, it’s nice to see this new surface in use.
Newport, Oregon is quite a lovely, seaside town. There are beautiful views all around, and the wonderful scent of spruce and cedar and salt spray. For all the horrid weather we experienced on the journey up, coming through the channel into Yaquina Bay was quite pleasant. A nice bonus was that the Roger Revelle was tied up on the NOAA dock just next door! It gave me the chance to see more of the town and reunite with some delightful people before they set sail the next day.
The last two days have been incredibly busy learning a brand new termination for 0.680 EM and loading for the upcoming cruise, including the largest piece of equipment I will be putting over the side to date. This is a MOCNESS, which I have seen before, but you will note the slight difference in scale below. You will note that the smaller model fits on a pallet, whereas the one for this cruise barely fits between the A-Frame.
I will also be taking back my familiar 0000-1200 shift again, and the science team will be standing 3-3 watches, so I will get the chance to meet and work with all the science team members. This also means taking command of deck operations using the A-Frame for the MOCNESS monster as well as the ISIIS plankton imager, the CTD, and a couple of vertical nets. Oh my! We will be out for the next 9 days and I imagine I will have a lot to update you with next week, toward the end of our cruise.
Happy 4th of July, and see you next Sunday!
– Emily