Monday, September 7, 2009

long,strange journey...


Well we are back in Seattle. I am currently on a really comfy bed (all comfort is relative) and really fast internet (likewise with speed). It has been a long, strange journey. At times it felt like forever. At the end, it sometimes felt like we were just getting started. I guess with split dives, a midcruise port stop, multiple transits and system checks, rechecks, failures, rebuilds, and very very little sleep it all blurred a little.

A summary of the last few days: Kiana had a dive, and then we had one more halfday dive at a new site called Zonabare. This is also called a bounce dive, because you just "bounce" off the bottom. We collected some mud core samples, and each lab group got a couple to check out later. We were pretty busy, so we just threw them in the cold room and we'll deal with them later. I finished my experiments that night, with worm number 898. I started on 555 this cruse so that's well over 300 for the trip. Not bad i'd say for 4 dives and multitudes of crazy out there.

After I finished up, we started packing like mad and got into port yesterday morning. The seas were really rough crossing the Columbia River Bar and things were flying around at about 5:30am yesterday. I was braced in the bed just to stay in, and the fog horn blared for a good half hour. It was pretty misearble, but after that we got more calm seas and got into port around 10am. We left with 6 pallets of equipment, and this time we had 7 pallets. It was an impressive operation- In about 16 hours we packed a few thousand pounds of equipment (a bit unorganized to be sure) and got it stored in a warehouse in Oregon.

Then it was time for fun! We went to the Wet Dog cafe for dinner and much deserved beer, and then on to the local bar called the Portway where we had an open bar paid for by the chief scientists and karaoke. Kiana did her dancing, and the rest of us did pretty bad renditions of Rolling Stones, Britney Spears, Bon Jovi, etc. I closed the evening with Bohemian Rhapsody, which went over really well with the group.

Today, we packed the samples in dry ice and drove rental cars up to Seattle, and we settled into a nice little hotel (thanks Jeannette!!) called the Deca. Our plan is to meet the UW staff tomorrow to get our samples packed cold tomorrow morning and then go see a little Seattle before heading to California for vacation. Horray!

This is Geoff signing off for AT 15-51. Talk to you all next cruise.




Scientists enjoying their first shore meal in a couple weeks.

Kiana, looking stylish with the flower and the microbrew.

Suni and Mark at the Portway in Astoria, Oregon.

An angry beach ball.

The Girguis Atlantis 15-51 Crew. Juan de Fuca 2009. Signing off.

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