Journals 2005/2006

Julie Long
Farnsworth Middle School, Guilderland, NY

"Late-summer Ecosystems Monitoring Survey" R/V Albatross IV August 12-25, 2005

Journal Index: August 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18            19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25

August 17, 2005
BBQ Day

Today was the busiest day so far! From the midnight to 6:00A.M. shift, we didn't have a station until 3:00A.M., but when 3:00A.M. came we had a bottom grab, a water sample, and a plankton tow. Nora and I worked continuously until 5:50A.M., when we were relieved from our watch. On our noon to 6:00 P.M. watch we started out right away with a bottom grab, water sample and plankton tow. We hit three other stations during our watch this afternoon. We worked for 6 solid hours without sitting. We were exhausted!

Today was a perfect day at sea; the seas are calm, there is unlimited visibility, the skies are clear blue and it's in the low 70s. Fabulous. Our head steward (the chef) decided it was a great day for a barbeque so he rolled out the charcoal grill and barbequed hamburgers and hot dogs. It was great!

A view of the sunrise on this picture perfect morning.

I saw a small pod (4-5) of Atlantic White-sided dolphins today. They swam by while we were doing the bottom grab around noon. Then tonight, at our final station of our watch, we saw a basking shark "lounging" at the surface. Very cool. Still no whales but I am ever hopeful.

I have met so many fascinating people on this boat. In small windows of free time I have I have been chatting with the crew, the officers and the other scientists. The stories of people's lives have really been interesting to me.