Howdy all,
So this is my last *cry* post from the R/V Wecoma this cruise. How very sad!
We are currently down in Monterey Bay about a mile offshore, but we wouldn't know it because it is very foggy. I was picturing warm, sunny weather down here but it is quite the opposite! We have our fog horn going, and there is actually about zero visibility around the boat. I hope the weather is a bit nice for us onshore tomorrow.
This morning we had fun though. The water was very smooth, and somebody brought their laptop on deck with some nice swing music, and we had a mini dance party for about 20 minutes. At that point in the day it looked like the sun was really going to try and come out, but alas, it did not.
Today we have run five stations on the Monterey Bay transect line (well, we are at our fifth now), so at least I kept busy! I saw an albatross when I was out on deck earlier, but that is about all the excitement we have gotten. Apparently somebody saw a seal earlier today but I missed that.
So yes, it is sadly time that I have to go back to the 'real' world, and get off the ship in the morning. I believe we are going out on the zodiac, so that should be very interesting with all of our luggage! Then we will be going to Monterey and visiting the aquarium and having lunch. The plan is to hang around the Santa Cruz/Monterey area tomorrow, then drive to Eureka on Saturday, and from Eureka to Corvallis on Sunday. I should be back sometime Sunday evening.
I've made lots of good friends and had an amazing (but hopefully not once-in-a-lifetime) experience on this boat, and it has solidified my love for the ocean even more. I feel fortunate to have a career which affords such wonderful opportunities, and also that I enjoy it so much. I remember the first day on the ship when I was nervous even to be out on deck! I think this cruise will really be an important building block for my future.
I am also amazed how well everyone- crew, scientists, grad students, students - gets along so well. It made it a wonderful experience to be on the ship.
Thank you all for reading my blog while I was at sea! I will probably post some updates for the next couple of days as well.
Signing off,
Shea
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Day Fifteen
Hello there,
Another calm day at sea for me! However, right when I woke up this morning we were at a station, where there were probably about a hundred dolphins foraging. When we pulled up our nets, we found out what they were feeding on - we pulled up a bunch of squid beaks, and one tentacle! It seems as if they were eating the squid and spitting the beaks out. They were little tiny market squid (Loligo opalescens). I kept one of the beaks for a souvenir!
This afternoon we were just transiting between stations so I was able to finish my fifth book while running samples. But later in the evening when my shift was just about over I made some popcorn and started up the Breakfast Club which we are watching now.
It was a total bummer though because we finally figured out our plans for disembarking on Friday and now I realize that tomorrow is my last day on the ship :( We are doing our Monterey Bay transect line, and then steaming up to Santa Cruz where we will switch with Miguel and Lauren. They may have to drag me kicking and screaming off of the boat! However, I think we will have fun though as we plan to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, see some beaches, and then we plan on visiting the redwoods when we get to northern California.
So that's about it! Not much to report in the way of excitement for the day! Hopefully I will have more tomorrow. Unfortunately I don't have any good photos from today- I took a video of the dolphins this afternoon, but it would probably take hours to upload! I promise to show it to everyone when I get home :)
Peace,
Shea
Another calm day at sea for me! However, right when I woke up this morning we were at a station, where there were probably about a hundred dolphins foraging. When we pulled up our nets, we found out what they were feeding on - we pulled up a bunch of squid beaks, and one tentacle! It seems as if they were eating the squid and spitting the beaks out. They were little tiny market squid (Loligo opalescens). I kept one of the beaks for a souvenir!
This afternoon we were just transiting between stations so I was able to finish my fifth book while running samples. But later in the evening when my shift was just about over I made some popcorn and started up the Breakfast Club which we are watching now.
It was a total bummer though because we finally figured out our plans for disembarking on Friday and now I realize that tomorrow is my last day on the ship :( We are doing our Monterey Bay transect line, and then steaming up to Santa Cruz where we will switch with Miguel and Lauren. They may have to drag me kicking and screaming off of the boat! However, I think we will have fun though as we plan to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, see some beaches, and then we plan on visiting the redwoods when we get to northern California.
So that's about it! Not much to report in the way of excitement for the day! Hopefully I will have more tomorrow. Unfortunately I don't have any good photos from today- I took a video of the dolphins this afternoon, but it would probably take hours to upload! I promise to show it to everyone when I get home :)
Peace,
Shea
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Day Fourteen
Greetings,
Well today didn't hold quite the excitement of yesterday, but I don't think that's too much of a surprise. I talked to the captain today and he said he has never seen flourescence like we saw last night, at least to that degree. So cool.
We spent most of our day sitting at stations, in fact. The CTD needed to be repaired once we reach station #70, so we were about an hour behind. THEN at station 71, where we had a very deep deployment (3,000 meters), the CTD wasn't working so they had to re-deploy it at least once. So really, I didn't have much to do! I am about half way through a book one of the cooks lent me yesterday, and it looks like I'll probably finish it tomorrow at this rate.
 |
| Lots of free time! Dolphin pen art |
However, we did get to see dolphins again today! This was an altogether different scene than the last sighting, as it was very foggy and overcast out. The dolphins looked like they were foraging and so weren't as playful with the boat as last time. However, they were still very close and we got to watch them surf the breakers nearby. I think they were the same species as before, but it was very hard to tell! We also saw a few albatross as well, which was pretty neat.
 |
| Dolphin by starboard-side stern |
So yes, that was about my day! The cooks were nice enough to make us sirloins with mushrooms for dinner - it felt like I was back home!
I guess having steak for dinner and seeing dolphins up close doesn't make for too bad a day in my book :)
Now we are just about at the last station in this line and are about 14 miles offshore. Tomorrow will be another long transit south to Monterey Bay, so hopefully we will see some more fun creatures.
 |
| Dolphins in the mist - lower left corner |
Cheers,
Shea
Day Thirteen
Greetings from the California coast!
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.
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.
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
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.
 |
| 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.
 |
| 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
Monday, August 22, 2011
Day Twelve
Hi all,
Sorry it took so long to post yesterday's blog...our internet is not happy the last couple of days. Hopefully I can get this written and uploaded before tomorrow!
I woke up this morning to find the boat stopped, and went above deck to find that we were in Eureka Harbor, waiting to drop Jen off. We waved and hugged our goodbyes, and she was off at about noon, where somebody was meeting her to drive home. Lucky for us, she has a replacement, who is conveniently named Jennifer as well! Jennifer is from the same lab and also seems very nice. I'll be working with her on net tows as well.
It took about an hour to get out of Eureka Harbor, and in the meantime, some of us took up the sport of 'deck dancing'. They even brought out a laptop with old-timey swing and entertained us for about half an hour. It was very fun.
Next, we headed south again for our next transect line, north of San Francisco. A few miles out of the harbor, we were alerted to whales...everywhere. We watched them for almost an hour and probably saw at least 20. It looked like several family groups foraging. Some were clearly humpback whales, but we weren't sure about the others. The coolest part was when one was less than 50 feet away from the boat. For a huge whale, that is not a big distance! I unfortunately got a photo of him a second too early, and therefore he is just barely starting to raise his fluke in the image. Of course, someone else got a perfect photo!
It was a really neat morning, especially since the water was especially calm, and the sky was grey with fog setting over the water in the distance. It made for a very serene whalewatching scene. We even got to see one repeatedly slap his fin on the water, which is a common humpback activity. Nobody knows why they do it though!
The evening was very busy, with 3 CTD casts and collections in 3 hours, but very calm water so it was nice to be on deck. However, I am very tired between all of the work and excitement of the day! We are now headed to our last few stations on this line, and should be headed south for San Francisco by tomorrow morning. Should be pretty cool since we get fairly close to shore! We aren't going in the actual bay, but maybe I can see Alcatraz from a distance?
More tomorrow,
Shea
Sorry it took so long to post yesterday's blog...our internet is not happy the last couple of days. Hopefully I can get this written and uploaded before tomorrow!
I woke up this morning to find the boat stopped, and went above deck to find that we were in Eureka Harbor, waiting to drop Jen off. We waved and hugged our goodbyes, and she was off at about noon, where somebody was meeting her to drive home. Lucky for us, she has a replacement, who is conveniently named Jennifer as well! Jennifer is from the same lab and also seems very nice. I'll be working with her on net tows as well.
 |
| Eureka Harbor Coast Guard station |
It took about an hour to get out of Eureka Harbor, and in the meantime, some of us took up the sport of 'deck dancing'. They even brought out a laptop with old-timey swing and entertained us for about half an hour. It was very fun.
 |
| Deck Dancing |
Next, we headed south again for our next transect line, north of San Francisco. A few miles out of the harbor, we were alerted to whales...everywhere. We watched them for almost an hour and probably saw at least 20. It looked like several family groups foraging. Some were clearly humpback whales, but we weren't sure about the others. The coolest part was when one was less than 50 feet away from the boat. For a huge whale, that is not a big distance! I unfortunately got a photo of him a second too early, and therefore he is just barely starting to raise his fluke in the image. Of course, someone else got a perfect photo!
 |
| So close! |
It was a really neat morning, especially since the water was especially calm, and the sky was grey with fog setting over the water in the distance. It made for a very serene whalewatching scene. We even got to see one repeatedly slap his fin on the water, which is a common humpback activity. Nobody knows why they do it though!
 |
| Fluke from afar |
The evening was very busy, with 3 CTD casts and collections in 3 hours, but very calm water so it was nice to be on deck. However, I am very tired between all of the work and excitement of the day! We are now headed to our last few stations on this line, and should be headed south for San Francisco by tomorrow morning. Should be pretty cool since we get fairly close to shore! We aren't going in the actual bay, but maybe I can see Alcatraz from a distance?
 |
| Watching for whales |
More tomorrow,
Shea
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Day Eleven
Howdy all,
Well we were blessed with a much calmer waters today, and it looks like all of our seasick companions were much recovered. However, Jennifer is still pretty hurt and we are stopping in Eureka tomorrow to drop her off.
I got to do a CTD collection early this morning (it was really nice to be outside!) and then we didn't have another till later this evening. So guess what I did? Powered my way halfway through another 400 page book that I found in the library. This one's a historical non-fiction about pirates, which I deemed both appropriate and entertaining for the whole boat situation.
When I went in the kitchen to get some tea earlier, a couple of the crew members were discussing our location and asked me if I knew how many nautical miles we were from shore. I had no clue. Little did I know that conversation would lead into a really cool 20 minute discussion about astronomical navigation, which it did. Turns out, that's one thing I know nothing about. I was really impressed with the whole thing, and Patrick (one of the crew) showed me an awesome book they had in the library called Bowditch's American Practical Navigator. It's about 1,000 pages and known as the 'epitome of navigation'. It was originally published in 1801 (thanks Google) and our edition is the 1960 version. It has everything from how to use sextants, trigonometry, astronomical navigation, celestial body identification, and all other kinds of really neat things. Or at least neat for a nerd like me.
When I wasn't brushing up on my navigational abilities, we did a couple more CTD collections in the evening, and the nice weather held very well. The last collection there was a very sad and sick looking little bird on deck that took all my self-restraint not to try to rescue. But he really didn't look like he was going to make it long, and I figured handling him and bringing him inside with all the ship's noise wasn't going to do him any good. I hope he is okay!
Anyhow, we are heading for our next transect line right now - a little bit south of where we are. Hopefully the weather will pick up as it was rather gloomy today! However I will gladly take 'gloomy' over the rough water we had yesterday. I was looking over our map of transects earlier today, and noticed something peculiar about our transect line outside of San Francisco. See if you notice anything forboding:
Yes...the map reads 'CHEMICAL MUNITIONS DUMPING, AREA DISUSED' um, right on top of one of our stations. Nearby areas read 'EXPLOSIVES DUMPING, AREA DISUSED'. Lovely. Apparently 'disused' doesn't include deep-sea scientific collection?
Here's to not blowing up,
Shea
Weather: Gloomy, foggy
Ocean: Calm...yay!
Menu: Lunch: Shrimp fettucine, beef stroganoff, salad with smoked salmo
Dinner: Grilled garlic shrimp kabobs, sourdough bread, baked red potatoes, minestrone soup
Well we were blessed with a much calmer waters today, and it looks like all of our seasick companions were much recovered. However, Jennifer is still pretty hurt and we are stopping in Eureka tomorrow to drop her off.
I got to do a CTD collection early this morning (it was really nice to be outside!) and then we didn't have another till later this evening. So guess what I did? Powered my way halfway through another 400 page book that I found in the library. This one's a historical non-fiction about pirates, which I deemed both appropriate and entertaining for the whole boat situation.
When I went in the kitchen to get some tea earlier, a couple of the crew members were discussing our location and asked me if I knew how many nautical miles we were from shore. I had no clue. Little did I know that conversation would lead into a really cool 20 minute discussion about astronomical navigation, which it did. Turns out, that's one thing I know nothing about. I was really impressed with the whole thing, and Patrick (one of the crew) showed me an awesome book they had in the library called Bowditch's American Practical Navigator. It's about 1,000 pages and known as the 'epitome of navigation'. It was originally published in 1801 (thanks Google) and our edition is the 1960 version. It has everything from how to use sextants, trigonometry, astronomical navigation, celestial body identification, and all other kinds of really neat things. Or at least neat for a nerd like me.
When I wasn't brushing up on my navigational abilities, we did a couple more CTD collections in the evening, and the nice weather held very well. The last collection there was a very sad and sick looking little bird on deck that took all my self-restraint not to try to rescue. But he really didn't look like he was going to make it long, and I figured handling him and bringing him inside with all the ship's noise wasn't going to do him any good. I hope he is okay!
Anyhow, we are heading for our next transect line right now - a little bit south of where we are. Hopefully the weather will pick up as it was rather gloomy today! However I will gladly take 'gloomy' over the rough water we had yesterday. I was looking over our map of transects earlier today, and noticed something peculiar about our transect line outside of San Francisco. See if you notice anything forboding:
Yes...the map reads 'CHEMICAL MUNITIONS DUMPING, AREA DISUSED' um, right on top of one of our stations. Nearby areas read 'EXPLOSIVES DUMPING, AREA DISUSED'. Lovely. Apparently 'disused' doesn't include deep-sea scientific collection?
Here's to not blowing up,
Shea
Weather: Gloomy, foggy
Ocean: Calm...yay!
Menu: Lunch: Shrimp fettucine, beef stroganoff, salad with smoked salmo
Dinner: Grilled garlic shrimp kabobs, sourdough bread, baked red potatoes, minestrone soup
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Day Ten
Today was a bumpy ride!
So bumpy, in fact, that we rode on past 3 stations today because it was to rough for us to be on deck, or to deploy our CTD. Therefore, I managed to finish a book that I started yesterday!
The slow day was probably good considering that it was very difficult to sleep with the ship bouncing around so much last night. Those of you who know me know I can sleep through just about anything, but yesterday was definitely an exception! I woke up at about 6am and had to wedge myself between the wall and my sheets to keep from rolling around.
I woke up and had lunch (which is the meal that happens to be available before my shift starts), and just *had* to have those mozzarella sticks they put out. But soon after, I wasn't feeling so hot and experienced a bit of sea sickness (no, I didn't throw up- just nauseous). So I went and laid down for about 45 minutes and that seemed to fix things. I was fine the rest of the day, I'm happy to say!
I was luckier than some though - two of our crew were very seasick all day, and we had one scientist (the gal I am helping with net tows) fall out of her upper bunk, hit her head on the in-room sink, and hurt her arm. I feel so bad for her, and I hope she is okay- we didn't see her all day.
My roommate, Anna, got her hand stuck in a door and her fingers looked very swollen. Luckily, she didn't break them. Needless to say, we got a talk from the captain about safety first and to report any injuries. They even told us to stuff clothes or anything under the outer edge of our mattresses to keep from falling. Eeks! I'm very happy to be on a bottom bunk.
I ran surface flow-throughs, as per yesterday, with intermittent interruptions to re-right chairs, equipment, and everything that wasn't secured when we hit big waves. Our tech had to bolt the drawer shut by me because it kept slamming open. I even had to bungee my chair to our lab desk to keep from sliding around! After all the chaos though, I joined some of our group watching old TV shows later in the evening. So I guess it wasn't all bad!
We reached Station #46 just as I was finishing my shift, but Yvan took over since it usually takes about an hour to deploy the CTD and bring it back up for folks to sample.
Hope that wasn't too boring for you! I bet I will have more exciting things to write about (and take pictures of) once the weather calms down a bit!
Fingers crossed for calmer seas!
Shea
So bumpy, in fact, that we rode on past 3 stations today because it was to rough for us to be on deck, or to deploy our CTD. Therefore, I managed to finish a book that I started yesterday!
The slow day was probably good considering that it was very difficult to sleep with the ship bouncing around so much last night. Those of you who know me know I can sleep through just about anything, but yesterday was definitely an exception! I woke up at about 6am and had to wedge myself between the wall and my sheets to keep from rolling around.
I woke up and had lunch (which is the meal that happens to be available before my shift starts), and just *had* to have those mozzarella sticks they put out. But soon after, I wasn't feeling so hot and experienced a bit of sea sickness (no, I didn't throw up- just nauseous). So I went and laid down for about 45 minutes and that seemed to fix things. I was fine the rest of the day, I'm happy to say!
I was luckier than some though - two of our crew were very seasick all day, and we had one scientist (the gal I am helping with net tows) fall out of her upper bunk, hit her head on the in-room sink, and hurt her arm. I feel so bad for her, and I hope she is okay- we didn't see her all day.
My roommate, Anna, got her hand stuck in a door and her fingers looked very swollen. Luckily, she didn't break them. Needless to say, we got a talk from the captain about safety first and to report any injuries. They even told us to stuff clothes or anything under the outer edge of our mattresses to keep from falling. Eeks! I'm very happy to be on a bottom bunk.
I ran surface flow-throughs, as per yesterday, with intermittent interruptions to re-right chairs, equipment, and everything that wasn't secured when we hit big waves. Our tech had to bolt the drawer shut by me because it kept slamming open. I even had to bungee my chair to our lab desk to keep from sliding around! After all the chaos though, I joined some of our group watching old TV shows later in the evening. So I guess it wasn't all bad!
We reached Station #46 just as I was finishing my shift, but Yvan took over since it usually takes about an hour to deploy the CTD and bring it back up for folks to sample.
Hope that wasn't too boring for you! I bet I will have more exciting things to write about (and take pictures of) once the weather calms down a bit!
Fingers crossed for calmer seas!
Shea
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