Karen's Daily Blog

Whoever wished this crew “fair skies and following seas” knew what he or she was doing.  The sea stretches out ahead of us like taffy, silky smooth and lightly rippled.  And what’s that approaching from the horizon like chocolate chips in the taffy, pressing past and falling away behind us?  All afternoon we pass a steady stream of sea turtles.  Where are they going, and why? Scientists have learned that turtles use a combination of light and magnetism to determine their path.  These guys must all be headed straight for the west coast of Mexico, many miles behind us now.

We’re just one morning out of Manzanillo, with some 40 hours more to go, the captain tells us. We’re due to arrive Wednesday morning, the 12th, just before 8 a.m. – in time for the first Alvin dive of this cruise.  Wow!  Everything is happening so fast.  Suddenly this time that I’ve been looking forward to for months is here, and already the cruise seems to be rushing by.  Along with the rest of the science group, I’m scrambling to unpack, set up, and get down to business.  But first: SAFETY!

These bumpers are used in port to keep the ship
from crunching into whatever it’s next to, such as the
dock. They are pulled aboard once we leave port.

That’s right, Safety First.  The ship crew gives us a presentation of information and tips that makes some of us quietly thoughtful, and others a little jumpy: 

We learn what to do in the case of WOMAN or MAN OVERBOARD. 

If we have anything worse than a scratch, the medical personnel would like to see it before it turns into an infection. 

Wear closed-toed shoes on deck and in the lab.

No running. Just “walk smartly!” says the captain.

No throwing aerosol cans in the garbage that goes into the incinerator.

Let someone know if you go out on deck at night. 

Dispose of and store chemicals properly. (Chemicals are a big deal on a science cruise.)

In other words, do all you can NOT to get hurt. We are reminded that, where we’re going, it’s too far for a rescue from shore.  And if we need any further reminder, we don’t have to look any further than the ends of our beds – where each of us is outfitted with an orange Personal Flotation Device (PFD – some people call them life jackets) and a survival suit in a bright orange bag.

(Shout out to art students: do you know why orange shows up best at sea? That’s right – it’s the contrasting color to blue, directly opposite on the color wheel.)

Uh-oh.  Something’s wrong:  My berth mate Bekki Helton of the University of Delaware and I only have one survival suit between us.  Every man for himself?  Not where Bekki’s concerned.  She thoughtfully gives me the survival suit and goes to hunt down an extra for herself. Just in time, too: the “ABANDON SHIP!” alarm is sounding, and each of us has to “muster” – nautical talk for meet – on the main deck.  Since Bekki’s in the bottom bunk, she meets her group on the starboard (right side) of the aft (back) deck. I meet the other top bunkers on the port (left) side.

Bekki Helton was quickly provided with a Survival Suit.

If this were a real Abandon Ship order, we would jump into our survival suits and use emergency ladders to climb down the side.  Large round covered rafts (bright orange, of course) like something out of James Bond would automatically inflate. They contain emergency food, water, and other supplies, as well as a radio and EPIRB. That’s an Emergency Position Indicating Radiobeacon, a device that sends a signal to satellites overhead so that our position can be tracked, and so we can be found. 

We also get a lesson on fire alarms and the use of fire extinguishers. Since there will be fire drills in the weeks to come, I’ll save the subject of fire for then.

The subject of safety is clearly of vital importance. Even Rex, Jr., the beautiful stuffed dog in Main Lab is outfitted for safety.  (Dog lovers will note that Rex is a Labrador retriever, so guess what that makes him? A lab lab!)

Tomorrow, we visit Alvin, up close and personal. I can’t wait to meet him.

Today's Extreme Blogger:
Lauren Farrar

Here I am on a research vessel in the middle of the ocean. How was I so lucky to end up here? I am still asking myself that same question.

With a background in biology and film production from USC, I always knew I wanted to be involved in making science films. I had this realization senior year in high school, when I was forced to watch a horribly boring video on photosynthesis.  I thought the information was really interesting, but the video had some nerdy old guy running around in a space suit, which made a class full of seniors want to roll their eyes and pass notes in class. I was thinking, who made this film? Somebody’s got to be making these things, and then I thought I want that person to be me! So, I researched colleges that would allow me to do science and film and I ended up at USC. That’s where I met Dave Caron, one of the main scientists on the cruise.  As an undergraduate student in college I was working in Dr. Caron’s lab, helping out with some studies on harmful algal blooms.  Dr. Caron was always really interested and curious about my background in film and one summer found funding for me to make a documentary about the research going on in the lab. After that, he invited me on this cruise to do the video work.

Lauren filming aboard the Atlantis

Here, my primary responsibility will be organizing and editing all the video footage that will be taken while Alvin is under water.  Alvin has a bunch of cameras that are constantly rolling while it’s on the ocean floor. The two scientists in the submarine each have their own camera so that they can control what is being recorded. Each scientist ends up recording about 6 hours of video footage while they’re in the sub, so that’s about 12 hours of footage per dive for me to edit and go through.  Needless to say, I am pretty busy watching everything. I think my job is the coolest because I get to see everything, so it’s almost like I go on every dive. It’s also fun eavesdropping on the scientists’ conversations since the audio in the sub gets recorded when they are recording what they see.

Having this video record is really helpful because it allows the scientists to see what the environment looks like when they do something or find something interesting. For example, last year, we set out traps that were designed to catch protists, which are tiny little organisms that are made up of only one cell. Having the video footage of where we put the traps, allows us to see what the area looks like and provides a record of how the traps were deployed.  We can compare what the site looked like a year ago to what it looks like now.

When I’m not organizing video footage from Alvin, I am busy shooting footage of other activities on the ship. I am sending some of these videos to be put on the Web site for you to watch. With all this video footage, I am hoping to make a very interesting documentary…

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