Pilot Whales!

Halfway!

It seems crazy that I've already been out at sea for three and a half weeks! Time is really flying by, probably because I'm always busy and getting lots of sleep. Apart from nights with lots of stern slaps (i.e. when a big wave hits the back of the ship and shakes it up and down), I sleep a good 8 or 9 hours a night. Though we're getting into rougher weather as we near the roaring 40s, and already some people have been feeling sea sick with the increased roll, pitch, and heave of the ship with the wind and waves. Luckily, I haven't gotten sea sick at all. I did get sick, which was strange since it was over a week in and no one else on board was sick, but luckily I was able to sleep for 24 hours and get back to work the following day.

Every day is more or less the same: dredging, surveying, data processing, or dealing with the rocks. Sawing rocks is getting interesting- you really have to saw with the motion of the ship. Another thing interesting to do with the rocking of the ship is working out. I do some yoga and stretching before I go to bed and the whole balancing aspect of yoga can be a challenge. Also, when doing crunches or push ups, half of the time they're really easy and the other half it feels like gravity just increased a lot.

I'm still enjoying almost everything about being at sea. Everyone seems to be getting along great. And I will never get tired of watching the ocean. Depending on the weather, the ocean is a different blue everyday. I have yet to see a whale or dolphin, but there are lots of seabirds around. I'll end with a picture of the sun setting over the ocean.

I'm on a boat!

As you read this, I am somewhere in the South Atlantic Ocean heading west. We departed Cape Town on Saturday at 16:00. The students in the science party (of which I am a part of) are divided into 3 eight hour watches. I'm on the 09:00-17:00 (so think 9-5), which is awesome. So far all we've had to do is watch screens and log data, but once we reach Walvis Ridge we'll get to dredge rocks and they'll be lots to do!
Other things of note:
I have my own room and own bathroom/shower (most people have to at least share a bathroom).
There is a hot tub. Today I sat in a hot tub overlooking a deep blue ocean. It was amazing.
I won a game of hearts today.
The food is great, though I have a feeling the fresh fruit won't last too long.
I sleep really well with the rocking of the boat.
It's still kind of mind boggling to me that I'm actually on a big ship in the ocean of the coast of Africa, no less.

Call me Kimmael

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to the sea as soon as I can.

-Herman Melville, Moby-Dick chapter 1

Art, Science, and the fusion thereof

My mom and I went to a talk sponsored by the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion program as part of their "the Consilience of art and science speaker series."  The talk was entitled "Pages from the Book of the Unknown Explorer" by a self-described "process-based visual artist," Judit Hersko.  It was more a story and slideshow than a talk, really.  The overall story was one of using art and the humanities to investigate antarctic ecology.  I don't think I can remotely do the presentation justice by trying to summarize it here, so I'm not going to try.  After this story, Judit went on to talk about her efforts in bringing science, in the form of art projects, to students who were otherwise difficult or just plain didn't want to learn about science.

The audience was clearly moved and enamored of her presentation and ideas.  And to some degree I agree with all of the feedback from the audience.  By using a multi-disciplinary approach to education, I think kids, as well as adults, can get a lot more out of the subjects they're learning.  The real world doesn't separate subjects in neat little boxes; everything is connected.

An example of art/science fusion in the oak grove in the UCD arboretum- I made the bird!

Ok, so now I'm going to ramble tangentally on and on about art, science, and ocean acidification, so continue after the jump and read at your own risk.

Straight floatin' on a boat on the deep blue sea

In a little less than three months, I will be on a boat.  Specifically the R/V Melville:

"During a career now in its fourth decade, Melville has cruised over almost all the World's oceans in the pursuit of scientific knowledge."

And why, you might ask?  Well a fellow Carleton AND Williams-Mystic alum is getting her PhD in marine geology at OSU and her lab needed volunteers for a dredging and mapping cruise of the coast of- get this- South Africa!  So at the start of February 2012, I will be flying to Cape Town and embarking on a two month research cruise, all expenses paid.  Hooray for science funding!

Among other things, I'm ridiculously excited to:

1. be on a ship (on the ocean!)
2. do geology again
3. see penguins in the wild (or at least I hope we're in Cape Town long enough for me to do so).

There will undoubtably be more blog posts on this topic as the trip gets closer and I get more information, so stay tuned!  I might have to change the name to A is for the Atlantic!