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