Florida State University : Research in Review

Day 3 - Monday, 09/15/08

9 p.m. local: Position: N42 52.655 W129 05.937

What made sliding out of our bunks at 7 a.m. this morning was the reappearance of the sun! Sometime during the night we slid from under the blanket of cloud cover we’d been under since last Friday. The sparkling, deep-blue sea buoyed everyone’s spirits—even those among us still suffering from seasickness.

Seas picked up today somewhat, pushed along by winds that kicked up to 16 knots. But the worst we encountered were 6-to-8-footers, and still almost bow on which makes for a comfy ride. We’ve still got another 200 miles or so to get to our first stop—but the captain says if all goes well, we should be there by 8 or so in the morning. The marine forecast calls for a fine tomorrow with seas running two to three feet all day—and more sun!

Today was event-filled. The boat’s crewmen held a fire drill, which was interesting to watch, mainly because of the teamwork required, and seeing all the fire-fighting gear stowed on board. Comforting to know we’re ready for such an emergency.

But the main event today was practicing our own technical skills for the first big day of collecting samples—which everyone knows is officially scheduled to begin at 0700 hours. Chief Scientist Thistle had everyone practice various techniques we’ll be using to carefully retrieve samples we hope to be getting from the multi-coring apparatus—that is, if we are successful in placing it in an upright position on the seafloor 1.6 miles down!

The 10-foot-tall, A-framed corer resembles a lunar module straight from NASA’s Apollo missions. Its steel skeleton carries eight special, spring-loaded Plexiglas tubes about 5 inches in diameter that get pushed down into the mud from the weight of hundreds of pounds of lead weights. All in all, it’s an ingenuous machine, if somewhat Rube Goldberg-like in design. Hitting the bottom triggers a series of spring-loaded covers to snap shut over the bottoms of the tubes, capturing the sediment. It will be our job not to lose the precious samples once they’re aboard, lest we trigger the wrath of Chief Scientist Thistle!

The veteran crewmen aboard strictly use hand lines again, all tied to the stern rail, and baited with plastic squid jigs. Within minutes, Jack Lavariega, an able-bodied seaman, put up a yell, grabbed a line with his bare hands and began pulling with all his might. After a ferocious battle, Jack soon pulled aboard an albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) in the 35-lb range! Fresh tuna steaks tomorrow night, Chef Karen promises, along with sushi! Jack went on to catch about six more, but none the size of the first one. Through all this action, your humble correspondent, even though armed with an actual rod and reel that he, by odd coincidence, had available, caught—a nice suntan.

Around 8 this evening, the Point Sur slipped from beneath the footprint of our Internet “star”—whatever satellite was keeping us linked to e-mail and the world. Except for the ship’s single-sideband radio, and an Iridium satellite phone, which is expensive to use, we’re out of touch with civilization for awhile. The gadget I rented and brought along just for this contingency—an Inmarsat BGAN Wideye Sabre I, to be precise—proved useless. On a trial yesterday, the device managed to find a strong satellite signal but would not lock in. Tonight from the fantail, the machine futilely searched the skies for a signal and found nothing. Our humble contribution to the blogosphere would have to wait!

Mañana!

« PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE »