Friday, November 2, 2007

Transit time


We finally left our first long station last night after a final MOCNESS tow sampling the lower portion of the oxycline. There is rest to come for some of us as we make our way towards several intermediate (short) stations, but the work continues for many others. The past 3 nights have been excellent for star gazing and with no manmade lights for hundreds of miles around, the Milky Way shown clear across the night’s sky. Transit time means catching up on a good night’s sleep, entering data, cleaning up, and preparing for the next station. But it also provides time to catch a movie in the lounge, continue dart tournaments which began earlier in our transit days (have you ever tried throwing a dart in rough seas?), and keep watch for dolphins as they ride the bow waves created by the moving ship. Check out Dr. Brad Seibel and his Ph D. student Amy Maas jamming on their guitars during some down time. They're really good!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Greetings from Rhode Island! Just thought you might like to know someone is reading. :) Also, tell Dawn I am waiting for a photo of her to show up. ;)
How's the weather out there?

The Eastern Tropical Pacific Project said...

The weather is warm! We hit 105 the other day and it is routinely 90 degrees in the shade. Phew! We just got into some rougher seas yesterday but the sun continues to shine down upon us, which is in stark contrast to our original transit. Stay tuned for Dawn images! We have been trying in vain to post one of her, but the computer is giving us some grief about it. We'll keep trying!!!