I awoke at 0700, with very little hesitation. I know not what got into
me, because usually I would rather die than wake up before 0800. I have
been relatively good about getting up early the last few days, though.
I went wide awake to the mess after a shower, ate, and went to the dry-lab
to catch up on some log work. At about nine-thirty, there was the pipe:
"Polar Bear, Starboard Bow." I
immediately grabbed for my camera, groping for it behind my laptop. I
dashed outside where I ran along the port side of the ship, sprinting
up and down the various stairs, and leaping over the obstacles the were
preventing me from reaching my destiny as a bear-watcher.
I made it soon enough, and saw the bear. It was out aways on the ice, walking around, yawning, and doing polar bear things just as if there wasn't a 400 ft long boat pulling up beside it. Its behaviors were much more elaborate then any of the others -- it wandered around a little, and then started rubbing itself on the pressure ridges, rolling around on its back, and drinking from a melt-pond. It wasn't a bad-sized bear, but I would doubt that it was full grown. My sixth polar bear siting -- not bad.
After the bear, I went back to the dry-lab, and awaited the next ice-station. When that moment finally arrived, we were summoned to the helo deck, and were told that we were to be going to the ice "by boat." They lowered a big boat, almost square-shaped, into the water, and we loaded our gear and ourselves into it
I was very impressed by the station, and by how all of us ice-folk (Bill
Bosworth, Terry Tucker, Tim Buckley, Pete Tilney, and I) were able to
coordinate our efforts to be most efficient. The
group has really evolved over the trip, and I have become more aware of
what the significance of everything is... I now know why they take three
ice cores, and what the terms that they use mean, and pretty much everything
else. By looking at the ice, I will come up with a decent transect in
my mind without even realizing it. Maybe they have just programmed me,
but I can see when we are going to hit some different ice, I can predict
where the thickness of the ice will increase and decrease, and I can basically
understand the main reasons and fundamentals of this project. This trip
has taught me an incredible amount, and I am now beginning to piece all
of the parts together -- aside from the ice projects. For instance, the
significance of the trawls, box-cores, CDT's, and ROV's. It is becoming
apparent how they all tie into ice algae, and how they all tie into each
other to model the arctic ocean's biological structure -- going from the
non-living fundamentals (carbon -- CTD and Water Core), to producers (Ice
Algae -- us ice-core folks), to the animals that eat the producers (box-cores,
and trawls -- because algae sinks to the bottom, before it is eaten by
a lot of critters), to our studies of the entire process (the ROV being
able to study Ice Algae on the bottom of the ice, to the animals that
eat it in the depths of the ocean).
After we got off station, I went and did fluorometer stuff with Mr. Buckley. He went to get a cup of coffee, so I ended up doing most of them. I am starting to get a better feel for the fluorometer. As inhospitable as it can be, you can still be quite efficient on it. I think Mr. Buckley clocked us at eighteen samples an hour, which isn't too bad. The things that slow us down are recalibrating for higher amounts of UV light, and diluting the solution.
It was dinner, and I was scheduled to eat up in the captain's private
dining room. This
was a pretty big deal, so luckily Mr. Buckley and a few other scientist
were there to share the experience. The food was excellent -- a multi-course
dinner served by incredibly polite cooks, with nice silverware and dishes.
The captain was very soft-spoken, and had a very reserved and peaceful
look about him. We had many conversations, and apparently he has been
operating ice-breakers for most of his life.
After dinner, I had about a half hour to prepare for my "lecture" on chaos. I made some transparencies, thought out what I was going to say, so it'd go smoothly, and then headed off to see whether the preparation was worthwhile or not. When it was all over, I'd say that it went fine. I wasn't as fluent as I wanted to be, and didn't elaborate on the topics I was meaning to. When I introduced the part of my lecture focusing on evolution, I was afraid that I might offend someone, but I now realize that I should just state the facts with no malice, and let people take them any way they want. A lot of people complemented me at the end, and Mr. Buckley seemed particularly pleased. I wasn't really sure of the effectiveness of the presentation until Mr. Buckley told me what he thought. That put the cap on it being a success.