Today started out rather hum-drum, and ended in one of the most awesome fashions possible.
I woke up and found we were on our way for another 12-hour commute to the next transect line, just north of San Fransisco Bay. The weather was beautiful, and as a result a couple of us spent some time reading on deck in order to soak up some well-deserved vitamin D. I spent the rest of the time running my flow through samples every hour, as usual.
In the afternoon, we reached the coastline, and I was able to see the Point Arena lighthouse- a little speck in the distance. The coast also had lots of beautiful cliffs which I got a few nice photos of.
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| Central California Coast |
Then, around 10 pm our marine tech came in the lab and shut some of the overhead lights off, saying something before he disappeared around the corner. I asked Anne what he said. There was bioluminescent plankton in the water! I quickly shut off the other light, and made my way to the bridge, where all of the cruising and cabin lights were off as well.
When I looked over the side and let my eyes adjust I saw a phenomenon that I had heard about, but never thought I would get to see. The water was literally glowing. Wherever the boat plowed through the water, or when a wave capped in the distance, there was a shimmer of teal green that lit up the water. It was absolutely surreal. The sky was perfectly clear as well, with no moon. We had a perfectly clear sky above us, milky way and all, and an inky black sea with dots of green below- it almost looked like we were floating amidst the stars.
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| Glowing Ocean |
In fact, we were all lucky to see one burning orange shooting star beam across the sky at just the right moment. I just don't think life gets more idealic than that.
I'll leave you with a link with information on bioluminescent plankton, since it is probably unfamiliar to my readers :) Bioluminescence Blurb
Good night,
Shea
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