2011.01.18
19:26HST
Barna, A
R/V Kilo Moana

Conditions

  • Lat: 16 54.800 N
  • Lon: 168 36.222 W
  • Speed: 0 Kts
  • Heading: Holding Station
  • Sal: 34.426 PSU
  • SST: 26.40 °C
  • Pres: 1010 mbar
  • Air Temp: 24 °C

Weather and Sea State Observations

A clear day. Swell height perhaps 2-3 meters. Cloud cover is 25% or less.

Journal Entry

It has not been getting easier to wake up in the morning. As with before my watch started at 0400. After some waiting while still in transit, we arrived on station around 0500. Shortly after, we deployed the CTD package. Going back to the lab, it was discovered that the steep topography was going to make finding the bottom a bit more difficult (but nothing we couldn’t handle). The shallowness of the cast also meant that I was still on watch when we recovered, a first for me. Usually the casts take so long, that the people who put the CTD in the water haven’t been taking it out.

After my watch was over, I stuck around a bit to download the ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) data. Then I went back to bed to get some sleep. After about a 2 hour nap I grabbed some lunch, today was build your own sandwich day consisting of freshly cooked meats for the filling. I had roast beef and bacon in my sandwich.

I forgot to mention my breakfast, rice is available at every meal so today I simply had rice, egg and bacon. It feels like I could have bacon at every meal if I wanted.

After lunch I went to the bridge to watch how they position the ship when they arrive on station. This ship has a rather amazing dynamic position system that, once we are stopped, can hold the ship in one geographic location to within 2 meters.

After they got on station I went to take another nap (was sleepy today for some reason). Then got up again for my afternoon watch. Which I arrived at just in time for a CTD recovery. Almost as soon as the recovery was complete the ship started the recovery of the last mooring.

Having little involvement in the mooring operation, I had dinner. Today dinner was tri-tip and stuffed mushrooms. Again, I am a sucker for mushroom and had several. There was also a dinner roll (bread) that tasted like a bagel. The cooks (steward is their official title) are very lively group of people, especially the dishwasher dude (don’t know names). Everyone is almost always cracking jokes during meal times.

Noticing that the science party and the ships crew don’t really every sit together, I made a point to sit with some of the crew during dinner tonight. Tonight I sat with the first and second mates.

The VMP (vertical microstructure profiler) was disassembled today at some point while I was sleeping. After reassembly the instrument had to be moved from the assembly platform to the deployment platform. Usually this is done with a chain lift, but that decided to break. So, as one of the ABs put it, we had to lift it “caveman style.”

We will be on the current station for the next 24 hours doing constant CTD casts (yo-yo casts I think they are called).