COSEE: A 8 day cruise packed full of scientist agendas, working like crazy around the clock. Oh, and high school teachers get to learn how science is done on the Great Lakes. My shift is 8pm to 8am (special thanks to Max for taking this trip off to move).
Prior to this cruise though, I manage to drop a 100+ lb stainless steel filtering apparatus on my shin/foot resulting in significant bruising and minor bleeding. Lesson learned, take the time to disassemble, rather than the time it takes to kill one's self.
After a couple days of teachers and scientists coming aboard with their luggage and equipment respectively, I was itching to leave port. After too many days, there is very little to do. Things are clean. Broken things are fixed. Time is spent idle and uncomfortable. Finally, after some teacher field trips and orientations were finished, we were set to depart.
Immediately, one of their 'test instruments' a 'Manta trawl' was an initial failure. Obviously so. The design gave to no chance to skim the surface for plastics. Dive. Dive. Dive. We were the first to try this method of sampling on the Great Lakes (and it eventually worked, with some design improvements) so that was pretty neat.
The first night out of Duluth, we were doing sampling just off the coast of the city. It looked great from the water. The boat's safety officer (kind of an odd fellow) spent the first 23 years of his life in Duluth and yet could not tell Duluth from 'Port Black', a false name given in response to "what city is that?" by the ordinary seaman, Russ. High comedy.
At this moment, I am in Houghton, Michigan. Look it up. Pretty remote place. We decided to duck in here, because there was a weather event that started during the night. Russ and I dominated it, thought. 6 ft seas, 30kt winds and we were loving it. Eventually, the Captain and the science team decided it would be best to stop sampling until the event passed. So here we are, Houghton, Michigan. Yet another location protected from the intense heat wave hitting the rest of the country at 56 deg F.
Prior to this cruise though, I manage to drop a 100+ lb stainless steel filtering apparatus on my shin/foot resulting in significant bruising and minor bleeding. Lesson learned, take the time to disassemble, rather than the time it takes to kill one's self.
After a couple days of teachers and scientists coming aboard with their luggage and equipment respectively, I was itching to leave port. After too many days, there is very little to do. Things are clean. Broken things are fixed. Time is spent idle and uncomfortable. Finally, after some teacher field trips and orientations were finished, we were set to depart.
Immediately, one of their 'test instruments' a 'Manta trawl' was an initial failure. Obviously so. The design gave to no chance to skim the surface for plastics. Dive. Dive. Dive. We were the first to try this method of sampling on the Great Lakes (and it eventually worked, with some design improvements) so that was pretty neat.
The first night out of Duluth, we were doing sampling just off the coast of the city. It looked great from the water. The boat's safety officer (kind of an odd fellow) spent the first 23 years of his life in Duluth and yet could not tell Duluth from 'Port Black', a false name given in response to "what city is that?" by the ordinary seaman, Russ. High comedy.
At this moment, I am in Houghton, Michigan. Look it up. Pretty remote place. We decided to duck in here, because there was a weather event that started during the night. Russ and I dominated it, thought. 6 ft seas, 30kt winds and we were loving it. Eventually, the Captain and the science team decided it would be best to stop sampling until the event passed. So here we are, Houghton, Michigan. Yet another location protected from the intense heat wave hitting the rest of the country at 56 deg F.
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