2011.01.15
19:58HST
Barna, A
R/V Kilo Moana

Conditions

  • Lat: 19 46.458 N
  • Lon: 162 35.500 W
  • Speed: 11.9 Kts
  • Heading: 251.2T
  • Sal: 35.189 PSU
  • SST: 26.44 °C
  • Pres: 1016 mbar
  • Air Temp: 24 °C

Weather and Sea State Observations

Another nice day! No rain and perhaps 25% cloud cover. The swells seem to be getting larger as the pitch and roll data available indicate that the ship is more rocky than yesterday.

Journal Entry

Woke up late! Well, by late I mean about 0800, so my track record for getting breakfast is now 0/2. The ship is still in transit and will be for the next day and a half. We are scheduled to arrive on the first station around 0300 or so on Monday the 17th. As such, today was spent trying to keep myself occupied and productive (if possible).

I started with going up to the bridge where the third mate was on watch. He gave me what felt like a very through explanation of the ships bridge systems. These systems included navigation, propulsion control, steering, communications and the monitoring of all the secondary systems on the ship. Most of the science systems, including internet, are completely separate from the bridge systems. The third mate even allowed me to “take the wheel” and steer the ship for a bit saying to me “crank the wheel a bit to get a feel for how the ship responds.” I gave it about 10 degrees left rudder and sure enough, the ship slowly turned left. After driving for around 10 minutes, control was given back to the automated systems. One thing I did note in the bridge was all the redundancy. Each system probably had 2 or more backup ways of being controlled.

After my bridge tour was lunch. Today was Sloppy Joes, quite delicious. During lunch I discussed my experience on the bridge with other members of the science party. After hearing that I was allowed to drive the ship, one noted “so the lurch was you?” While nothing I did caused a lurch that would be noticeable above the motion of the swells, I claimed responsibility for it.

We were assigned our various watches today. “Watches” being the period of time that I am to be ready for scientific activities, which could include the launch and recovery of a CTD system, launch and recovery of the microstructure system, and recovery of the mooring systems we are steaming toward currently. My particular watch schedule is from 4 to 8. This means both 0400 to 0800 and 1600 to 2000. Though I am not quite sure what I will actually be doing on any given watch, I?m sure someone will let me know.

I spent the rest of the afternoon watch what few episodes of Stargate SG-1 I managed to put on my computer and napping.

Dinner today was very interesting. The main item was a crepe filled with chicken spinach and cheese (I think it was cheese). As a side there was a miniature, bite sized, quiche containing simply, eggs, cheese and bacon. As one of the cooks I was talking to noted “Everything is better with bacon!” I had several of these.

No land in sight for the first time in my life. The third mate asked how I felt about it. I don’t really feel anything about it. While where I am might be a dangerous place I certainly don’t feel it. Being at sea feels normal and natural.

Well, time for some sleep.