A-sailing I will go
Jun. 19th, 2006 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lorimtThis grad school thing is going to be excellent. How can I tell? I was just issued my official 1-pair-per-grad-student steel-toed galoshes. How many people give you puddle-splashing boots with steel toes. They make me happy, in a very silly sort of way. A good omen of things to come.
What else is new? Well, for those that don't know, I was issued those galoshes for a 10-day sailing trip with the SEA education association aboard the Corwith Cramer, a brigantine (aka: big ship with lots of "white flappy things"). Over the next 10 days, I'll be learning lots of ropes and sails, helping navigate, cook, clean, and dumping big metal cylinders into the briney deep, only to pull them out later and analyze the water inside.
We're going out to do lots of samples along a "shelfbreak" (place where the ocean gets deeper faster) south of the cape. We'll also be going from a cold polar current toward the gulf stream (and if the weather cooperates, all the way into it). We'll be measuring lots of physical characteristics of the ocean, as well as plankton density and nutrient levels.
My sleep schedule will be re-wired to match the "Swedish watch" system, which involves 3 groups covering 5 watches per day (2 day shifts of 6 hrs, and 3 night shifts of 4 hrs). The students are a part of the crew, and so play a real role in keeping the ship going where it needs to go or staying where it needs to stay. Because we're in the north and crossing from one water type to another, the weather could range anywhere from really cold and wet to really hot and sunny.
The trip should be a whole lot of fun, and who knows, I might even get around to posting about it afterward. See you all (some in person, some electronically as it were) in 10 days!
What else is new? Well, for those that don't know, I was issued those galoshes for a 10-day sailing trip with the SEA education association aboard the Corwith Cramer, a brigantine (aka: big ship with lots of "white flappy things"). Over the next 10 days, I'll be learning lots of ropes and sails, helping navigate, cook, clean, and dumping big metal cylinders into the briney deep, only to pull them out later and analyze the water inside.
We're going out to do lots of samples along a "shelfbreak" (place where the ocean gets deeper faster) south of the cape. We'll also be going from a cold polar current toward the gulf stream (and if the weather cooperates, all the way into it). We'll be measuring lots of physical characteristics of the ocean, as well as plankton density and nutrient levels.
My sleep schedule will be re-wired to match the "Swedish watch" system, which involves 3 groups covering 5 watches per day (2 day shifts of 6 hrs, and 3 night shifts of 4 hrs). The students are a part of the crew, and so play a real role in keeping the ship going where it needs to go or staying where it needs to stay. Because we're in the north and crossing from one water type to another, the weather could range anywhere from really cold and wet to really hot and sunny.
The trip should be a whole lot of fun, and who knows, I might even get around to posting about it afterward. See you all (some in person, some electronically as it were) in 10 days!
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Date: 2006-06-19 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
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