Blogs from Pacific, Oceans and Seas - page 18

An OBS Swan Song Sunday, 22 July. Day 15! After all the watches have been stood, all the proper instruments have been collected and deployed, bathymetry data compiled, there remains only one last thing to do… write about our bittersweet last day at sea. The 0000-0400 found John and I with a lot of spare time. Part of it I wrote the blog, but then we settled into The Life Aquatic with Bill Murray. It was appropriate for a couple sailors at sea, funny, but really strange. We ate some snacks and just generally chilled out while a vast majority of the crew slept. The watchstanding goals were to survey on our watch and the 0400-0800 watch and when the Jason team and ship’s crew were up and at ‘em, we would do a favor for ... read more

….And we’re back! Days 11 and 12 (18 and 19 July) are in the books with plenty of excitement, trials, and tribulations. When we last left each other, we had a line snap and a TRM crashing back to the seafloor. Jason and Medea were called into action and they were hot on the trail of retrieval. Well, Jason clipped on and the collection process began until a series of large swells got the best of our line again…. You guessed it…. SNAP! It’s an old sailor’s tale that the Pacific doesn’t give up her TRM’s when the skies of July turn gloomy. I guess that is Lake Superior not the Pacific, lives not TRM’s, and November not July, but you get the idea, she wasn’t letting go of FN09A quite yet. It would be another ... read more

Day 8. Sunday, 15 July 2012. Upon original thought, I supposed that today was halfway day, but then I realized that Sunday (the day we arrived) minus Tuesday (the day we are finished) divided by 2(for average) = Monday. So I guess that means halfway day is tomorrow, right? I guess the cigars and brandy will have to wait… When Caitlin last left us off, we were getting ready to deploy the TRM with almost everything on the ship that floated (with the exception of lifejackets and humans treading water) the purpose of increasing positive buoyancy and easing it to the bottom. When John and I relieved the midnight watch, everyone knew what time it was…. Jason time. The plan was to deploy Jason and take a look at our TRM, pick it up, and carefully ... read more

Day 6. First things first, to clear up any confusion… I’m putting in photo numbers with the blog for my posterity so that when I have the bandwidth and capabilities to upload, I will do so. Unfortunately, that probably will not be until I get back, so you can read now and check back for photos later (it will especially be worth the time because I was able to get my paws on the HD photos from the Jason control van, so there are some SAWEEEET shots of yesterday and today’s excitement). Alright, so when I last left you, we had recovered a TRM that was lost overboard with Jason. The new day would see new opportunities for John and I to excel on watch (or so we like to think, but in actuality it has ... read more

Counting your sleeps till departure??... read more