Final Post

We're wrapping up the cruise here on R/V Roger Revelle, almost back to Honolulu. Which wasn't our original end port, but French Polynesia closed its borders less than 2 weeks before we were supposed to go there and fly home. So instead we had to wrap up operations a few days early and head back to the Northern Hemisphere. We have had nearly 12 days to finish working up on our data, pack our gear, and enjoy socializing in our COVID-free bubble. I am taking advantage of the latter and, for once after a long cruise, not particularly looking forward to leaving the ship. 

This is also going to be my last cruise, I am taking a new job at UC San Diego and won't be going to sea anymore. Writing these blogs has helped me realized how much I enjoy communicating science though, and that's the career I am pursuing! It's bittersweet and there is much I will miss, as listed below. 

Tournaments. The ping pong table is now cleared off and hosting many competitive matches. The acronym machine is at work, with this one being called the "Shellback Championship: Roger's International Ping-Pong Slam" or SCRIPPS. Love it. The cribbage tournament was "Barney's Antarctic fLoating Cribbage Hurrah" or BALCH (the name of our beloved chief scientist). 

Sunsets. We had some lovely ones on this cruise. My favorite was a foggy day where the orange and pink coloration was bouncing off everything. Just look at this screenshot of the external cameras!

The people. This is what has kept me coming out to sea for as long as I have. I love meeting new people and spending time with them. I always make friends with the people on my watch, might as well since you spend 12 hours a day with them, every day! And then there are other people I almost never see, sometimes good friends from previous trips. On this trip in particular, social time has been my favorite part of every day. It's something I will never take for granted again after this pandemic year of limited interactions.

The random ways we amuse ourselves. For example, the ship's electrician Shaun made an air-powered trident capable of launching lemon slices. Everyone who wanted to go to launch one off the fantail as we crossed back in to the Northern Hemisphere. What a life!

Thanks for following along with this cruise. I hope you've enjoyed seeing the adventures we had in our COVID-free bubble in the Southern Ocean. And maybe even learned some things along the way.

Check out the Reddit AMA I helped with this week. It was fun to answer questions in real time and we got some great ones! 

And science writer / journalist Giuliana Viglione wrote many great blog posts as well, check those out!

Off to the Races!

This evening we held the Balch Invitational and "raced" our DIY cars in the main lab. Restech Matt had given the directive a few weeks ago: make a car 1) out of found materials (ie trash) 2) smaller than a coffee mug 3) without using any power tools. Those rules turned into more like guidelines and some were ignored entirely by the time the big event came around. 

Bigelow scientist Dave Drapeau squares off against
WHOI grad student Julia Middleton.

An unused table top propped on a milk crate served as a ramp. Heats of two cars each made the daring descent. Some cars drove straight and far, while others twirled and stalled. 

Everyone ended up with a ribbon, ranging from "First Place" (The Balchmobile) to "You Tried So Hard" (my foam creation that scooted about 5 inches before grinding to a halt. 

I'll post some video footage once I have the bandwidth. A good time was had by all contenders and viewers. What should our next project be?

Upcycling

What do SOCCOM float boxes and cribbage board have in common? 

The trophy board made for the cribbage tournament by ship's bosun Elysia.

The SOCCOM floats are shipped from the University of Washington to research vessels throughout the world. They're secured into wooden boxes designed to keep them safe during shipping and have stickers on them that show if they've been mishandled. These crates are not usually reused or shipped back to UW after a cruise. On this cruise, the ship's bosun was eyeing the crates very early on and was delighted when I said they were up for grabs.

The red indicates rough handling - in this case
being hit with a wrench in order to test the sticker.

She and her team have disassembled a few already, a process that takes a few hours since they're put together with nails and glue. They are making improvements around the ship using the scrap wood. There are still 8 float boxes left between SOCCOM and the NOAA floats we deployed on this cruise. 

Sid, the ship's OS (ordinary seaman) made a rack for the ship's grease guns and a custom cabinet to hold tools in the bosun locker. I can't wait to see what else the deck crew makes out of the float boxes!

Keeping Busy

Since deploying the last of the SOCCOM floats, we've still been busy doing CTD and other science. But we also get down time, thanks to the VPR (video plankton recorder) - more details in this blog post. Our restech Matt has come up with creative assignments to keep us busy and bonding as a team. We wrote haiku and limericks and played other rhyming games. 

Scientists congregate in the main lab to read their limericks.

This week our assignment was to build a car out of discarded materials. We'll be holding a race in the next few days. There's also a cribbage tournament underway, so card games are happening all over the ship. The preferred time and place is the library just after dinner. It's a great excuse to hang out with someone you maybe haven't spent one on one time with. We're definitely enjoying our COVID-free bubble!

Boys vs girls: scientists and crew members face off in three different cribbage games as part of the tournament.

I'll update with the results of the cribbage tournament and car races soon!