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!

All Floats Deployed

Scripps technician Megan Roadman deploys 'Aquaty.'

Apologies for the time between posts, but it's been very busy onboard Roger Revelle! We deployed six more SOCCOM floats since my last post and did dozens of CTD casts. There won't be any more deployments on this trip, but we still have nearly a month left onboard and I will post more about life at sea during that time. 

There's also a science writer onboard who is posting blogs about the work going on and the quirks of life at sea, especially during a pandemic. Check that out here.

We've been experiencing good weather, with relatively calm seas. All ten of the SOCCOM floats were deployed successfully and have reported profiles of the water column.

There was about a week where we didn't see the sun though, and as someone who lives in Southern California, I missed it! I could tell my mood was off. The sun reemerged a day or two ago and it was so exciting. Though it's still quite chilly out.

Scripps technician Matt Durham deploys 'Lizzy.'

We also saw a humpback whale, which came very close to the ship and hung out for awhile. Someone pointed out later that it was hump day, halfway through our time at sea. A humpback whale on hump day! There have been a collection of birds - albatross, petrels, and prions - following the ship.

As we headed to our most southern point, 60 degrees South, the bridge saw a few icebergs on the radar. But we didn't see any in person due to the fog. The ship slowed down to make sure we transited safely.

Morale onboard is good, we are enjoying a life without masks and social distancing while we can. Everyone has friends and family back home that are doing their best to stay safe and healthy. It's hard to be away, but thankfully our internet speeds have been conducive to keeping in touch. 

Thanks for following along. I'll be sure to post more often!

 

The Northern Floats

Since leaving Hawaii more than two weeks ago, we've made our way steadily south. Hawaii is 19 degrees North of the equator and we're now at 44 degrees South. We've deployed four of the SOCCOM floats so far. 

Chief Scientist Barney Balch and Scripps restech Charlie prepare to deploy SOCCOM float "Hawk-eye." Photo by Megan Roadman.

The other big news is that we were allowed to stop wearing masks on day 15. People onboard seem very grateful for the change, though it definitely takes some getting used to. I find myself touching my chin or reaching into my pocket at times, panicked that I'm not wearing a mask when I should be. We get to enjoy this time after spending two weeks in hotel isolation and then another two weeks social distancing once we got underway. I know I'll have to go back to it once the cruise is over, so I'm planning to enjoy the next six weeks of being relatively stress-free about the pandemic.

We're also able to serve ourselves buffet-style at meals. For the first two weeks, our cooks Richard and Ruth had been serving us. I'm sure they're happy for the change! We also had set meals windows and sat only two people to a table that could fit six. Sitting right next to and right across from people at meals feels like such a luxury!

It's only been a few days, but we're definitely missing the calm seas of the tropics. We're in the roaring 40s now and headed as far as 60 degrees South. With 6 more floats to go, we'll be busy. Check back for more updates!

Missing that blue water from the deployment at 30 degrees South.

Float Decorating Party!

 R/V Revelle left Honolulu the day after Christmas. We spent December 23-26 loading the ship and preparing everything onboard. I knew the loading days would be busy, but I hadn’t realized for how unprepared I was for them physically after two weeks in a hotel room. We should have been training! On day 10, stand for one hour and then steadily increase that each day. Even just wearing shoes felt different. 

We worked all day on Christmas, pausing to make phone calls and Zoom appearances with friends and family. The cooks, Richard and Ruth, made a great dinner. I brought a small Christmas tree and set it up in my lab. It was quickly surrounded by presents as our chief scientist / St. Nick brought chocolate bars for all of us and we did a white elephant gift exchange. Though the actual exchange was delayed a few days due to weather since we had to hold it outside due to the COVID protocols.

Christmas tree atop the SOCCOM floats, stored on the back deck.

 

We crossed into the Southern Hemisphere with only a few hours left in 2020. Again, because of COVID protocols, we are delaying any crossing ceremony until we are sure we’re all healthy and can do so safely. 

 

We’ve been at sea for 8 days and still have a few more before we start deploying SOCCOM floats. In the downtime, I got a bunch of the scientists to help out with decorating them based on their names and designs from the schools that adopted them. It was easy to find volunteers for a fun arts and crafts project on the sunny back deck in calm, tropical waters. It was only then they realized that it also came with some manual labor to unstack and restack the heavy crates.

 

Some of the floats are black and can only be decorated with metallic sharpies, while the yellow ones have a broader range of colors that will show up. It was fun to work within those restrictions though, and I think the floats all turned out beautifully. I was so grateful to have had help. I am not very artistic and usually only decorate a few at time before running out of ideas. This time around, all 13 floats were decorated inside of an hour.

 

Check back for posts about the floats as they get deployed and other exploits from aboard R/V Revelle!

Hotel Quarantine

**To ensure everyone’s health and safety, the entire 22 person science party and 14 relief crew members spent 14 days in the Laylow Hotel in Waikiki in preparation for this research cruise. We then moved aboard R/V Roger Revelle and are headed south to deploy floats, collect and analyze seawater, and many other science initiatives too!

 

My Review of the Laylow Hotel after spending 2 weeks in room 905:

If you must spend 14 days in a hotel room by yourself, there are certainly worse options than the Laylow Hotel in Waikiki. The suites are room numbers 1,4,5,14 &15 on every floor and each has a slightly different layout and even furniture and artwork. One wall is covered in what can only be described as Wes Anderson Hawaiian chic wallpaper. It makes a perfect Zoom background. Interestingly, roughly 1 in 4 rooms has the same pattern with the opposite color scheme. 

 

My Scripps teammates.

Unless one only wants a parking garage view, ask for a room on the 7^th floor or above. Make no mistake, every room comes with a view of a parking garage, this is just if you want anything additional to look at.  More specifically, suites 1,14,15 have partial ocean views. If you are about to spend 2 months with only the ocean for scenery, suites 4-5 view the mountains instead. All get rainbows, but only rooms 1,4,15 see to the southwest in case of remarkable once every 800 year views of conjunctions of planets. Rooms 5,14 overlook the Laylow’s pool for those who enjoy watching other people relax on daybeds and pool loungers.

Thankfully, the walls of the hotel are sound proof. Despite every room coming with its own ukulele, there is no assault from the noise of dozens of people learning to play said instrument. The Hideout restaurant is visible from rooms 4-5 and comes with nightly live music from 6-9pm and caterwauling drunk people from 9:01-10pm. The balcony doors are thick and block most of the sound. If one enjoys 1-2 guitar toting young people playing covers of ‘90s R&B plus Beyonce, it is actually a lovely addition to warm tropical evenings. Currently there is a one week rotation of talent, all good but Tuesday night is the standout. 

Daily rainbows are a lovely feature.

 

The WiFi is adequate, except on days when 36 people are trying to download everything they can think of in preparation for 2 months without any internet. If you bring a Chromecast, be prepared to have to resync it at least once a day for no apparent reason. And if you bring a Nintendo Switch to play MarioKart with your new friends, only one of you can be on the hotel WiFi, again for no apparent reason. The rest must use their phones as a hotspot. The "Smart" TVs do have Netflix, if you can remember your brother's password.

 

The toiletries smell pleasant, not too floral and not too musky. The robes are soft and big enough for a plus sized person. There are no microwaves or even coffee machines. BYO bottle opener and corkscrew as well, the hotel only has a few loaners. Once the knick knacks (is it art or is it a cup?) are moved, there is ample shelf space for snacks and any holiday decorations you may have brought. Lighting is also a bit lacking, the front desk will deliver an extra lamp if requested (or if yours smokes when you turn it on). The lamp hanging over the table is inexplicably low and covered in spines. Moving the table and looping the lamp’s cable can help, but if one has a hard had that is the only way to ensure injury-free use of the table. 

An early tally, me versus the urchin lamp

 

The hotel staff are superstars, willing to shuttle presents, booze, and snacks from one room to another for those who cannot so much as step out of their room. They also accommodate delivery services with ease. Every food imaginable is available, including Hawaiian favorites such as malasadas, poke, plate lunches, and pineapple in every conceivable form. The hotel meal plan is apparently lacking in variety, vegetables, and heat, so stick with Doordash and other delivery services. Foodland delivers alcohol.

After two weeks and four negative COVID tests, you'll be ready to set sail!

 

Enjoy your stay at The Laylow!