Today was my first day of life on the ship. The boat was still anchored
outside of Nome -- the choppers bringing in more supplies. We were scheduled
to start moving in the afternoon, but never really got started till around
seven or eight o'clock. After I awoke (about 7:50 -- a record for me I
think), I took a quick sea shower (by constantly turning off the shower
to conserve water), and got breakfast which was very good. I helped moving
boxes out of the cargo hold. Pretty soon lunch rolled around and I had
spaghetti -- the only spaghetti I have ever tasted that even comes close
to the way my mom makes it. I am very impressed with the cooks on this
boat. After
lunch, I hung around until 1300 (1:30 -- trying to instill this military
time in my brain), and then went to a gathering on the helo deck to introduce
the scientists and new crew members. It was quite intriguing -- all of
the crewmembers lined up in a very orderly fashion, and the captain was
greeted by those one step below him in a ritualistic fashion. Once they
all saluted each other, the captain gave everyone the "at-ease" command
(or the equivalent -- I didn't quite catch it), and beckoned everyone
to gather 'round as he introduced us all.
I went to my birth and got my trusty powerbook, and headed up to the wardroom lounge to do a little journal work, and get a comfortable seat for the scientist meeting that was scheduled for 1330. I got up there and had a short chat with Dave -- one of the folks digging mud from the bottom of the Arctic. He was commenting on acclimating to the ship, and I then realized that I was finding my way around quite nicely.
I got a lot of info from all of the crew dealing with scientists' needs. I was glad to get that info, and one piece of it struck me as a little suspicious. They mentioned an initiation, and I am assuming it will be a fun, embarrassing little thing that most people do whether you are just entering high school, a fraternity, or, in this case, a boat. Sounds like it will coincide with tomorrow's first ice-station at Point Hope. It is optional, but I said I'd do it. I have nothing to lose, and looking at how many safety-freaks there are on this ship, I can't imagine it would be dangerous. Probably just make me look stupid, but there are a bunch of other people doing it -- we will all look stupid together.
After
the science meeting, I went to my birth and collected all my electrical
equipment to get checked by the electricians. With this much steel on
top of this much water, electricity is a scary thing. So I brought it
up, and Mr. Buckley ran me through the basics of chlorophyll analysis.
Turns out there is data taking, and that means graphs, which means I can
put them up in my high-tech computer journal. Looks like fun.
Mr. Buckley and I finished with the process of chlorophyll analysis, and we headed down to get changed for the weight room.
Dinner soon came about, which was very good and plentiful. I had a nice conversation with the lead-scientist, Lisa. She is known as "the Mudlady," because she heads up the group responsible for collecting data on diatomaceous shells on the ocean floor. It turns out that her work is much more related to what I'll be doing than I thought. The silica shells that she collects from the sediment are the remnants of dead algae cells that had plummeted from the bottom of the ice to the ocean floor. I was very glad to have that talk, since I hadn't really interfaced with her at all, and she is the lead-scientist.
After dinner I went to check out the famous ROV. The ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) is a robot designed to swim under the ice and collect chlorophyll samples from the bottom. Lance -- the operator who "came" with the robot showed me the vehicle, which is really cool. It has four props on it, two 250W halogen light bulbs, a color video camera, and a camera designed to be used under poor lighting which has much better resolution, but is black and white. Apparently it has an arm that can scrape bacteria off of the ice, but I didn't see it. After he showed me the vehicle, he took me off the deck and showed me the console. It was very practical -- two joystick types of controls, both variable-based and controlling the different movements the robot can make in the water. The console contained a television screen, fairly small, and a larger separate TV was hooked up. He also had it set up so you could record the video taken from the robot.
I heard the call to haul up the anchors, and I knew that they were ready to depart Nome. I was glad since I hadn't seen it in action. I went to the ship store to buy a coffee mug and a coffee card, and then headed up to the bridge with Terry to check it out. We were definitely moving along. I am not sure how fast, but it was nice to see some new scenery.
That pretty much wrapped up my first day. I am now fairly confident in finding my way about the ship. I just figured out that eventually, if you are on the right floor, you can find your way by process of elimination. I am looking forward to tomorrow -- we should hit the ice pack by then, or tonight maybe. Our first ice work will commence tomorrow, and I am definitely looking forward to it.