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Journals 2008/2009

John Karavias
Walt Whitman H.S. Huntington Station, NY

"Estimation of Primary Productivity and Particle Export Rates as a Function of Phytoplankton Community Structure in the Bering Sea"
United States Coast Guard Cutter Healy, Icebreaker
July 3 - July 28, 2008		 Journal Index:
July 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11
       12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19
       20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27
       28 - 29 - 30 - 31

July 15, 2008
Second sediment trap deployment

Today was Pat's day to stress out. We had our second deployment of the sediment trap. I empathize for Pat because it is a very stressful 24 hours for him. We started the day at breakfast talking about how we could make this deployment even better than that last one. This time I was to be working the winch so I was quite nervous also. I did my best not show my nerves.

Pat and I donned our mustang suits and went out to the fantail. Since I showered late last night and smelled fresh, but noticed my mustang suit smelled.... Less than fresh! The deployment went very well. As soon as we were done feeling good about ourselves, we had to collect 12 bottles of water of the CTD and begin filtering it.

I am much better now at setting up the thorium filtration. I added the chemicals in tandem with Pat and I prepared the filters for him. We set up the final stages of the tubing together and then the vacuum pump fired away. For the next four hours we read our books and kept an eye on the system to make sure it didn't leak and waited for the water to run out. Thank goodness for Dirk Pitt, all you Clive Cussler fans know what I mean.

Then I was exhausted and took a nap. Big mistake. I was staring at the walls last night. Dirk was called and I finished his adventure. My folks will be proud. They know I don't read much so for me to read a book in 10 days is great. Ironically, the book has planes crashes and boats sinking. I don't think my dad knew that when he bought it for me at the airport so I could catch a plane to take a month long boat ride!