An apocalyptic day for the crew. It wasn't bad for me, but the events that transpired today were quite discouraging for the crew members that were looking forward to the end in a week.
It all started off today when I woke up to the pipe: "There will be a scientist meeting in the wardroom lounge at 12:10."
I got up, ate some lunch, and went to the meeting. The captain was there, and he told us basically that the Canadian coast guard has declared an MOU (Mission of Understanding), and that they were in need of transportation other than the twin otters, so their science/crew rotation could take place. Apparently their runway had deteriorated, and they needed Polar Sea to come to their rescue. Basically, Polar Sea needed to break ice up to 77 degrees latitude so it was a hundred miles away from SHEBA, enough for the helos to make their rounds.
What
this meant for the crew was: another ten days aboard. What this meant
for me was: getting off in Barrow with a lot of other scientists. For
us it threw a wrench into the works as far as plane tickets go -- my destination
was Fairbanks, since I was moving from Barrow at exactly the time I were
to get back from the Polar Sea
Anyway, all in all, for me, I am glad. I would like to see Barrow one last time -- see the green tundra, the open water, smell the lagoon water... I am also intent on getting my polar bear patch from Fran Tate -- the owner of Pepe's. In order to do that I have to jump into the Arctic Ocean -- submerge myself, and then get back out. Another touristy wonder from Barrow.
Following the meeting, I noticed many mixed reactions coming from the coasties. Some of them indifferent, some of them had smoke coming out of their ears. All of this, and Polar SBC was not around for me to get a decent caffeine fix. Luckily we went out on the ice soon, to get away from the confinement of the boat.
The ice-station took very little time. We got off by crane, and quickly
ran a 60 meter transect away from the boat. We
took three cores within the five to ten meter range, and found algae on
the bottom of all three. All of that was done, so we went back onto the
boat to watch the ROV do its magic. The bottom was relatively flat, except
for the ridge that went down about fifteen feet. The algae was scattered
throughout, but it wasn't dramatic.
After the ROV, I made it a point to color another cup for going down with the box core. Earlier I had colored one for my brother, Ian, and decided to throw another one in for good measure. I recalled the fact that I might have a good chance to getting backstage passes for the Phish concert in Maine, since I knew the man that was organizing the whole thing. So I drew one for the members of the band Phish. It has a big Phish "maze" on the front of it, and a polar bear on the ice behind it. The midnight sun is spilling warm, bright light over everything, and the typical "WAGB 11 USCGC Polar Sea AWS 98" with the latitude, longitude, and depth written on it. I hope I get to give it to them, since I think it will be a very unique addition to their "interesting stuff" collection.