Journals 2004/2005

Linda Hoffman
Palms Middle School, West Los Angeles, California

"Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance, and Status of Humpback whales (SPLASH)" NOAA Ship McArthur July 28 - August 28, 2004

Journal Index: July 28 - 29 - 30 - 31 August 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11           12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19           21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28

July 30, 2004

I called Randy, mom, and Bob from the ship. As I was talking to Bob the landlines were pulled and I had to go to the computer to tell him what happened. Unfortunately what we send by computer arrives a day later to the people we send it to. I just hope he wasn't worried.

As we headed out to sea in the fog, the captain from leg 1 and some of the crewmembers left the ship and waved good-bye from the pier. Fog and calm seas soon gave way to diamonds on the ocean. ). Beaufort 1-2, temperature around 40°F.

Photo: Protected Resources Division, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, California. swfsc.nmfs.noaa.gov/PRD

Allen one of the scientists came out and showed me how to work the digital camera with the 400x lens. It was fun taking some pictures with such a fantastic camera. As I went up to the fly bridge, humpbacks were immediately spotted and I began using the big binoculars. As we were doing this, the ships alarm rang. It was an abandon ship drill. I ran down to get my equipment, which, was under my bunk bed. I then carried the two heavy bags up to the main deck. All this time indoors I was wearing very warm clothes. By the time I needed to put this gumpy suit on, I was feeling faint. No one warned us to not wear a lot of layered clothes under this extremely warm "survival" suit. They almost had to save me when I got too hot. For the first time I started to feel the rock of the boat.