Meet Reggie, one of three winch operators on the R/V Brown. He was on shift during my first recovery of the rosette and made it all seem easy. It takes 2 hours for the rosette to reach the bottom in these deep areas of the ocean (depths around 5400m) going at a rate of 60m/min. Reggie and I check in via the radio every so often to ensure things are looking good. Once we reach the bottom we begin the ascent, during which I stop him at various depths to ‘fire bottles’ that capture our samples. We keep commands simple: I give him a “winch standby” about 20 meters from our target depth, and then a “winch all stop” at the target depth. Each winch operator has their own way of doing things: some respond with reading their line-out meter to you, others just with a simple ‘roger that’. Reggie responds with an “aiiiiiiight”, or my favorite, “okie dokie”. Really puts a smile on your face during a long shift.
After my shift was done I went up to the deck to enjoy some sunshine and noticed that they were about the deploy a rosette. Reggie was in the winch room so I had him tell me a little bit about what happens on this side of the radio. He told me about having to ensure that there are no kinks in the coil as it comes up and about having to “grease the worm” which just helps things run smoothly.
After my shift was done I went up to the deck to enjoy some sunshine and noticed that they were about the deploy a rosette. Reggie was in the winch room so I had him tell me a little bit about what happens on this side of the radio. He told me about having to ensure that there are no kinks in the coil as it comes up and about having to “grease the worm” which just helps things run smoothly.
There are about 60 people on the ship and I have had the pleasure of meeting nearly all of them. They come from diverse backgrounds and share fun stories during meal times. It’s definitely been a highlight of the trip so far and there is more fun to come. We are planning a ship spelling bee for next weekend (because we missed it last night). Remember those spelling bee parties we had at the cathouse? Good times. |