The last 24 hours have definitely had its ups and downs… literally. I woke up this early morning at 3am for sampling only to find the boat rocking and rolling on 4 to 6 foot waves. The captain said there were occasional 8-foot waves. It was pretty cool. I didn’t feel ill, but it was definitely a new sensation. Even as the boat sits quietly now, I feel like we’re sill rocking. The weather conditions were amusing, but halted our sampling. Putting equipment into white caps risks smashing into the boat so we actually lost a lot of sampling time though we will be able to go back and recover a few sites… bummer, but at least the crazy scientists running on 2 hours of sleep (collectively during the trip), were forced to sleep.
This did not mean I was off the hook… so to speak. Dr. Boyer’s water pump was still able to sit at the surface for his chlorophyll samples. It was actually pretty cool to be on the back of a rocking ship in the middle of the night with water breaching the deck and sampling. In the picture below, I’m helping with the pump and working to prepare the samples in the lab from 3am to 5am. After my shift, I fell into a slight coma until 10am when we met as a group. I was even able to sleep through my room’s loose gear rattling inside the cabinets.
We then sought refuge in the Keweenaw Channel for the rest of the morning and day. [I should note that I’m making this sound like we were nearly in a catastrophe. It wasn’t. I’m told the ship can handle 20’ waves, but microscopes and sampling gear can’t so we pulled over.]
The rest of the day was spent playing with the hydrolab probe, secchi disk techniques, plankton sampling techniques in the channel and we participated in an Edmund Fitzgerald lesson to use in our own classes. Even though I’m very familiar with these sort of sampling tools, I’m still learning different techniques to enhance my classes. We also heard from Dr. Ashley Moerke from Lake Superior State University about watersheds, human uses and impacts, and planning industry more consciously. I’d like to use a few of her ideas in my own classroom.
Right now, we have arrived in Houghton, MI. We’re going to eat dinner, play in the lab, and then go play on land. Shiver me timbers!!!
Cool!
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