Science Results : Daily Update

Daily Update | Current SEA Research

July 2, 2010

By Giora Proskurowski

Today is "watch change", meaning that each of the watches switch their mate and scientist so that they can experience working with each of the three pairs of leaders. In order to make the logistics of this switch work, Captain Chris and I substitute into the watch schedule, taking over the evening watch on deck and in lab. This is a fun opportunity for us to let go of some of the big picture responsibilities and get tangled in all the complicated details that the mates and scientists have made routine.

For this special occasion I will keep a running journal of the first couple of hours of my experience, both because I expect lab to be a bit slow until our 2200 deployment, and because Athena Aicher and Lisa Ballard are going to take control.

1840- I clean my plate of spaghetti and meatballs and Caesar salad in a hurry, so that I can make it to watch on time. Normally the "Others" (Captain, Chief Scientist, Engineers, and Steward) eat second seating at dinner, and don't have to rush...definitely cramping my style.

1845- I wander into lab and ask scientist Dave Murphy what the state of the lab is. He forgets I'm relieving him, and gives me the "everything is taken care of, boss" line. I ask again, and he stares at me as if to ask, "why do you care so much?", before remembering that I'm his relief. Murphy is lucky because his next watch is at 0700, giving him a full 12 hours off at night.

1850- Meg Cronin, the off going "labmiral" (volunteer leader of the lab) turns over to Athena, the oncoming labmiral, Lisa, and myself. Looks like she ran a tight watch, and there are only a couple minor loose ends to tie up. Turnover is executed with "You are relieved", and a dap (blown up) between labmirals, Murph and myself.

1855- Lisa heads to the bow to do 5 minutes of observations for macroplastics, the last hour that we'll be able to do this today, as the sun is now setting. Today we will have missed no hourly observations, a difficult feat because of class and deployments.

1900- Athena takes care of the hourly. This includes writing down in the science logbook a host of statistics on the atmospheric and oceanographic conditions. Completing an hourly means that data have to be obtained from two lab computers, the log and thermometers on the quarterdeck, the barometer in the doghouse, and wind and sea conditions from observations. The hourly acts to complement the suite of data that are automatically logged, as well as to keep everyone in lab clued in about our current conditions.

1915- I head to deck to check in with everyone and see what is going on. Seems like a party out there. Tyson has the Junior Watch Officer vest on, meaning that he is mostly in charge (his mate, or in today's case, Captain, is actually in charge, but will generally only step in when safety dictates). I jokingly bark at helmswoman Leslie "Where are we going? Turn this boat around," – poking fun at the fact that I just reversed a course change, necessitating a flurry of sail handling.

1930- Lisa and Athena decide to tackle the only real task until our 2200 neuston deployment: data entry. Good on them. Data entry is a very important part of turning all our paper data sheets into useable digital spreadsheets. All data are entered into our lab computer, read back by the typist, and then triple-checked by a separate watch (which changes the font of the data to blue, meaning that it has been verified).

1940- I think there is a whist game going on right now. Typically second mate Colleen Allard runs this game on days that she is coming off afternoon watch. That is today. Whist is an old, old, trick-taking game; rumors abound that it was the parent to bridge, and that the British navy played whist before battles to calm nerves.

1950- Yep, there is definitely a whist game going on. I just poked my head down the ladder from the lab to the main saloon. All my whist nemeses, except for Chris and Athena, are playing: Colleen (keeping score), Murph, Dave Reynolds, and Skye, as well as newbies Roman, Jenan, Marina, and Jeremy "Midshipman" Dann.

2000- Lisa begins going back into recent CTD data to examine how deep the mixed layer is. Examining temperature and density data, the mixed layer depth is the depth at which the temperature decreases by more than 0.5°C, or the density increases by more than 0.1 (units of density in oceanography are unitless, a sigma value of 27.1 means 1027.1 kg/m³).

2001- Athena rocks the hourly. It's dark now, so no observations of plastics from the bow.

2015- More data entry. Really, a slow watch so far. Luckily Athena and Lisa are high energy and this doesn't phase them.

2020- Athena frees a juvenile billfish that we've had in a jar for the past couple hours, after it was caught in the afternoon tow.

2040- I'm getting off pretty easy tonight, as the lab was almost totally buttoned up at turnover. For the past several days the lab has been really pretty hectic, with buckets all over the place at different stages of processing, and up to six people working.

2045- Running journal is coming to an end as I've got to send the daily update off. It's been a good time so far in lab, and I'm sure that Athena will pull off the neuston tow with ease.

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For more from sea, listen to an interview with Chief Scientist Giora Proskurowski on the July 2, 2010 Science Update podcast, produced by AAAS.