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<\/p>\nThis blog post title reflects both our actual trip through Drake Passage and how we pass the time during the transit.\u00a0 First, though, I\u2019d like to introduce the people in our group.\u00a0 In the picture below, from left to right, are Jean-David Grattepanche (Temple), Wade Jeffrey (University of West Florida), me (Rebecca Gast, WHOI) and Ari Simmering (University of West Florida).\u00a0 We are honoring the movie \u201cLife Aquatic\u201d, and while we are not wearing our big boots, we ARE wearing the t-shirts that Wade designed for our group.\u00a0 Oceanographers love, absolutely love, to use acronyms (until you get a cease and desist letter for copyright infringement for using a known brand name) \u2013 so we came up with one for our project.\u00a0 It\u2019s REMIXED, and stands for Research Examining MIXotrophic Ecology and Diversity.\u00a0 As in manga and graphic novels, we are referencing previous cruises that we\u2019ve done with Wade (MIXURS and RE-MIXURS).\u00a0 And honestly, we rarely remember what the acronym actually stands for, but it\u2019s fun making them up.<\/p>\n
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On to the Drake Passage.\u00a0 It\u2019s a relatively small patch of ocean, but one that\u2019s notoriously stormy.\u00a0 As I mentioned in my first post, we prepared for the worst.\u00a0 After we rounded Cape Horn on Monday night, we did one last check to make sure the lab was secure, took our sea sickness medications and went to bed.\u00a0 I woke up at 3:30 in the morning because of the change in ship motion, not only a change in the direction of the roll, but an increase in its strength.\u00a0 The best place to be in rough weather is usually your bunk, so I went back to sleep.\u00a0 At 7 am the ride hadn\u2019t gotten much worse, so I went to breakfast and took a look outside.\u00a0 We were being treated to a glorious, sunny day \u2013 and while there were certainly large swells, the ship motion wasn\u2019t bad.\u00a0 Although the sun went away on Wednesday, and we encountered rain\/snow squalls, we got through the Passage with minimal distress (and I haven\u2019t missed a meal yet).\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if it was rubbing the toe of the statue in the park near our hotel or the chips that we threw into the sea as an offering to Neptune (oceanographers are also apparently superstitious), but we had a remarkably easy southern crossing.<\/p>\n
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Normally I\u2019m seasick for the first few days when I\u2019m on the ship.\u00a0 I end up either in my bunk or in the lounge watching movies.\u00a0 It\u2019s difficult to concentrate or work until your body acclimates to the motion \u2013 especially for those of us who aren\u2019t at sea regularly.\u00a0 The combination of reasonable weather and anti-nausea medicine made it possible to actually get some work done.\u00a0 Of course, we also had ship orientation meetings, lab safety training, and an abandon ship drill.\u00a0 No, we don\u2019t launch the lifeboats, but we do get into them \u2013 they are not pleasant (infact, they are a bit scary), which is why they are only used in an emergency.\u00a0 Folks have also figured out the movie situation in the lounge, and we have been watching an odd selection.\u00a0 It\u2019s not exciting, but after the stress of travel and a hectic port call, the rest has been welcome for everyone.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow we will have reached Cape Shirreff on Livingston Island, where we will leave the 5 people doing seal research for the next month.\u00a0 In addition, we will be moving all of their supplies from the boat to the island using zodiacs.\u00a0 Doing this will require the help of many volunteers to pack the supplies into large canvas slings that the crane will load into the zodiac, and a chain of people on the shore to transfer the supplies from the zodiac to above the high tide line at the beach.\u00a0 Hopefully I\u2019ll have some pictures to show you tomorrow.\u00a0 I\u2019ve volunteered to be one of the folks who helps out on the beach\u2026it will be a good way to pass the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This blog post title reflects both our actual trip through Drake Passage and how we pass the time during the transit.\u00a0 First, though, I\u2019d like to introduce the people in our group.\u00a0 In the picture below, from left to right, are Jean-David Grattepanche (Temple), Wade Jeffrey (University of West Florida), me (Rebecca Gast, WHOI) and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions\/192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/staff\/rgast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}