This past week has been busy and awesome. We traversed through the chilly Gulf of Alaska, crossed (and sampled) the Aleutian trench, and moved onto the warm and foggy Alaskan shelf. We have officially completed the P16N line, a feat we are especially proud of as it has never been done before!
The last few stations as we moved onto the shelf near Alaska were quite shallow (less than 1000m) and close together, making our cast and steaming time much shorter than we are accustomed. This caused a backlog in analysis because there were just more bottles to process than there was time! In one of my 12 hour shifts we completed 4 stations (usually we do 3 in a day)! It was busy busy busy! After completing our last station of the line (a whopping 37m deep) we enjoyed a 12 hour steam to our next section. We are now completing extra stations along P17, a west to east line across the Gulf, around 54N latitude. These stations are 40 nautical miles apart which means a little more free time throughout the shift. Note, we never actually got to see land despite being within 15 miles. The fog this week has been intense and the ships horn provides a constant melody we get to enjoy throughout the days.
The last few stations as we moved onto the shelf near Alaska were quite shallow (less than 1000m) and close together, making our cast and steaming time much shorter than we are accustomed. This caused a backlog in analysis because there were just more bottles to process than there was time! In one of my 12 hour shifts we completed 4 stations (usually we do 3 in a day)! It was busy busy busy! After completing our last station of the line (a whopping 37m deep) we enjoyed a 12 hour steam to our next section. We are now completing extra stations along P17, a west to east line across the Gulf, around 54N latitude. These stations are 40 nautical miles apart which means a little more free time throughout the shift. Note, we never actually got to see land despite being within 15 miles. The fog this week has been intense and the ships horn provides a constant melody we get to enjoy throughout the days.
Mentionables from this week: - We lost the use of a generator on the ship so we are now down to only 1 working generator onboard. As a gale is sweeping east across the North Pacific we are waiting on the edge of our seats to see what the next couple days have in store for us! Could get interesting out here. - The Styrofoam cups went down to 5000m and look so cool! A little piece of memorabilia to take home with us, this has been one of the favorite parts of the week. Everyone is frantically decorating cups for one last cup-cast tomorrow. - Summer solstice is tomorrow and here at 55N latitude we will enjoy 17 hours and 22 minutes of sunshine (read: light gray skies when I wake up and light gray skies when I go to sleep. The sunshine is long gone.) - We are getting close to our workout goal of burning 150,000 calories during our trip! I have reached the 5,000 calorie club and have been told if I step up my game, can surpass 10,000 calories by the end! - I got to recover a rosette! We have designated people who were trained to do this for our cruise but since the seas are calm and things in the computer lab are under control, I got to go out and do one! It involves being roped into the ship (safety first!) and using a 12 foot pole with a rope and a large carabiner at the end. As the rosette comes out of the water, you have to reach out with the pole and clip the rosette so that you can control it with the rope as it comes onboard. Quite a task! It requires balance, precision, and forearm strength. | We are all excited for our last week aboard as there is so much still to accomplish and enjoy. However, I know we are all looking forward to some warmer weather and a little more free time (and a beer!) when we return. We are set to arrive in Seattle on Saturday, June 27th around noon. Last but not least, Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! |