24hr Sampling OPs
We get to a study site as quick as we can and start doing science ASAP once we arrive. There are no weekends or shipwide rest times. Science happens around the clock- we’re just as likely to throw stuff in the water at 2am as 2pm. Remember that we did a bunch of time changes already so we wouldn’t have to deal with them during science time, so the sun currently rises and sets for us around 4:30.
The 3 big science teams have divided into 2 groups: one that works noon to midnight and one that works midnight to noon. They split based on experience levels and specialties, so each team has a group of people on duty that can do all the things well. It’s harder for the 2 smaller science teams, who are currently waking up whoever’s rested enough at whatever time their samples come up. The cooks make 4 meals a day now- “mid rats”, or midnight rations, is a brunchy meal.
It's really hard mentally to have a non-schedule. We wake up and panic, then turn on the tv in our room, which broadcasts a bunch of ship cameras and instrument readouts. First we look at the back deck camera and match it up with what we see out our window:
- fast movement + nothing happening on the back deck = transiting to the next station
- slow + nothing = we just arrived
- slow + wire in the water = we’re on station
- slow or fast + people but no wire = we recently finished a station
If there’s a wire in the water, we flip through the channels to see which instrument readout has a depth that’s not 0 (everything reads 0 meters deep when it’s sitting on deck). Once we find that, we can see if depth is increasing (the instrument is on its way down), staying the same (it’s doing whatever it’s supposed to down there), or decreasing (it’s coming back up). There’s a set order that we do science in at every station, so once we figure out which instrument is out, we have a feel for where we are in the course of sampling a station.
The panic is especially strong from Holly because she’s in charge of one of the small teams with no sleep schedule. Does she need to rush downstairs to make decisions? Are we way behind where we thought we would be at this time, which means something hasn’t gone according to plan? Who was awake overnight and are they well-rested enough for whatever’s happening now, or coming up soon?
Long post already, will stop there for today. I’m getting your questions and answers are coming. There’s also ice, whales, penguins, and seals besides the science and I’ve spent a few days feeling overwhelmed- I need a set of spider eyes so I can see everything all the time.
🕷 Virginia
My favorite tv channel. From top left and going clockwise: front view, back view, looking backwards down the left side of the ship, looking backwards down the right side of the ship. I have so much to tell you about ice!
Seals! Look about halfway down and a little to the right of center. This is the Instagram version, though- in real life we see little plorpy blobs on an ice chunk and then everyone screams, gets out binoculars or cameras with big zoom lenses, and we end up with something like this. The things I've seen closest to the ship come when I don't have my camera of course.