This past Sunday we all officially moved aboard the Research Vessel (R/V) Roger Revelle. The R/V Roger Revelle is housed out University of California-San Diego Scripps Institute of Oceanography. After two big delays, 3 years of a postdoc, and lots of discussions of when this cruise would be rescheduled, we have finally left port and made it to sea! Loading up the ship was a feat that required all hands-on deck. There was science instruments and equipment to set up lab spaces in the main lab and on deck, trace metal clean and storage vans (specially designed shipping containers) out on deck, the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Sentry, gas cylinders, and loading all the food and personal supplies on board. Not to mention everything had to be set up and secured to insure it wouldn’t bounce all over the place while we are moving. Everything we brought on with us (or had shipped to us the week we were in port) is what we will have for this entire 50 days. We will not be visiting a port and there is no way to restock. Definitely planning to eat a lot of fresh fruit and veggies early on! Currently, we are transiting along Baja and have another two days before we leave Mexican economic waters. We just past Cedros Island (see photo above) this morning which will probably be the last bit of land we will see until we start to steam back to San Diego in late-October/early-November. Out first stop is the Northern East Pacific Rise 9-10˚N to test our instruments (robots included) to make sure everything is working, and hopefully, collect some opportunistic samples. This test site has been well studied over the last 20 years which means we have a good idea of what we expect to see. But also, it will allow us to highlight if anything else has changed since the last research vessel visited. We are planning to have a science meeting today after lunch so I will keep you updated if anything changes.
With that in mind, are there specific topics or questions you have about life at sea? If so, drop a comment below and I will try to cover it in a future post. Also, the cruise now has social media accounts. The whole science party has access and will be posting through out the cruise. Follow along on: Instagram: @plumeraiders Twitter: @plumeraiders_01 Till next time!
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AuthorColleen L. Hoffman is a scientist by day and adventurer by night. She is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington. Categories
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