NOAA Ship MILLER FREEMAN

Mission: Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations

Day 4: May 22, 2007

Visibility: 2 Miles

Wind Speed: 35 with gusts to 55 Miles Per Hour!! YIKES

Sea Wave Height: 14 Feet!

Water Temperature: 3.9 Degrees Celsius

Air Temperature: 6.7 Degrees Celsius

Pressure: 998 Mbs

Personal Log

The storm that gathered yesterday hit us full force by the end of the day. The waves were 15 feet and the winds were gale force by evening. What a night! The ship rocked and rolled and the bongo nets flew at us as we tried to bring them on board. At one point, I caught the cod end of the net just before it flew into the side of the ship. It would have broken itself to pieces. When I got up this morning, all was strangely calm and quiet. At first I thought I was getting used to the high seas, then I realized the ship just wasn’t rocking anymore. Was the storm over? No such luck! The storm had gotten so bad it was not possible to deploy bongo nets any more. We had taken shelter in a tiny bay on none other than, are you ready, Jacob’s Island! Jacob is my first name, so I guess I have an island, and I LIKE IT! What a great island. No waves, no high winds, what a beautiful place. Thank you Jacob’s Island! At about 9:00 this morning, we headed back out to sea to greet another set of 15 foot seas and gale force winds. After an hour or so, we wound up back here in our beautiful little bay on beautiful little Jacob’s Island.

What do high seas feel like? Well there a little like being on a roller coaster that goes in lots of different directions, and never comes to an end. At the top of the wave, you get that feeling in your stomach just like you do on a roller coaster. The difference is that you still have to do your work, eat your food and manage to walk around the ship without bumping into anyone, knocking over any equipment, banging into a steel wall or falling down stairs. Yikes.

I have a few pictures to send you and some video. Click here for the video of the waves.

So many of you asked for more video of Bruce making rope that we made you another. Here he tells you how to do this yourself. Want to learn more? Click here for the video and Click here for a website on knots!


Today the winch on our Fast Rescue Boat (FRB) was moving slowly. We had to lower the FRB and move it to the back deck near another winch. The FRB is important for safety reasons, so this had to be done. Take a look at the crew moving the boat around in a storm!
















Science Log:

Well, there isn’t a whole lot going on in our little study today. And that is going to cause us to loose some parts of our study. Chief Scientist, Annette Dougherty has been studying our route trying to figure out which stations along the way that we will NOT be able to get to. After all, the ship still has to dock in Kodiak on the 28th of March. So every moment we spend in this little bay is time away from the study these scientists are doing. But that, in the end, is how field work functions. There are no guarantees when you are in remote areas like this, and studies are frequently affected by weather and other elements and have to figure out ways to deal with it.

Excalibur Update: We are about 24 hours away from the furthest point of land. That’s where the scientists say to deploy the buoy. Of course, we have to wait for the weather to clear before we move out, so I will just have to keep you posted.

I understand some of you had trouble seeing the bongo nets video yesterday. Here is another link, please try again.

Question of the Day:

Given what you have seen so far, tell me if you would like to spend time at sea or not? Why or why not?

Answers to your Questions and Comments:

I’m glad many of you answered that you would wear safety gear. Many people don’t realize how important it is. We do not always have the gear on. We just use it when we are doing operations on deck where there is some risk involved. When we are below decks, we wear street clothes, but we have lots of safety equipment nearby if we ever need it. It is a little heavy and cumbersome at first, but you get used to it. The gear does not make you feel like you are going to fall in. In fact, part of our gear involves a rope we use to tie into the ship. This keeps us from falling off when we are near the edge. But if we wind up in the water, our gear always includes flotation to keep us at the surface.

Thanks to all of you for writing. Here are answers to some of your questions. Do we have to wear safety gear when we are sleeping? No, we have a survival suit and other gear near us in our quarters, but we only have to put on gear if there is an emergency or if we are doing operations outside on deck.

Is the ship clean? Yes, Sangeetha, the crew do a good job of keeping things as clean as possible. But when you work on a ship, there is dirt around.

I will be bringing back samples of plankton to school.

Sophia, I saw the skull on the side of the road because Bruce, the chief boatswain on this cruise pointed it out to me and stopped so I could photograph it. Thanks, Bruce.

Many people asked when I will be back. I am scheduled to fly on the 29th and will arrive very early in the morning on the 30th.

A lot of you are asking questions about the plankton. My plan is to show you the lab tomorrow (I was going to do it today, be we are not working right now due to the weather). The next day I will show you about the plankton we are finding. So, keep checking back! I’ll be sure to tell you how much we are finding and how that compares to last year. Good questions!

Many of you asked about the radar. It is used to look for ships and rocks that might be anywhere around the ship.

Sam, we are 4 hours behind you. So when it is 9:00 AM in New York it is 5:00 AM in Alaska.

By the way, no one, not even me, has fallen in the water this cruise.

Have I gotten sea sick yet? Yes! In fact, I’m not the only one here. The waves have been huge!

I do miss Rusty. I had not heard cats bring luck. I’ll ask around about that.

I’m glad many of you liked the whale picture. I saw it off the bridge wing. It was swimming by. We did not hurt it or do anything to it at all other than take it’s picture and say hello as it passed by.

Another special hello to Simon and Nicky. Thanks for writing. Another special hello to Mom and Pop (Lillian & Bob) in Sacramento. Thanks for checking the blog.

Photos:

Bruce Knoepke, Chief Boatswain on NOAA Ship MILLER FREEMAN making knots
Flat Stanley at the microscope
Jacob Island
The crew, including Chief Survey Technician Philip White moving the FRB to the back deck of NOAA Ship MILLER FREEMAN