Teacher Logbook:
Sunday, July 9, 2000 1500 hrs.

To some of the scientists, living at sea for weeks at a time is old hat. Many of them have been to out here dozens of times. After a brief adjustment period they're used to the conditions that many landlubbers, such as myself, don't think about. For instance, everything continually moves. Occasionally your stomach feels like you're on a roller coaster ride, but usually the ship just rocks gently with each passing swell. It's somewhat analogous to riding in a car. It can lull you to sleep. When the waves are high it makes everything tough out here. The biologists find taxonomic identification difficult when their specimens in the petri dish are swashing back and forth under the microscope.

Good weather is an extremely important component to the success of an expedition such as this. ROPOS is our only means of viewing and sampling from the world below, and its use is somewhat weather limited. The ROPOS team starts biting their nails when wind speeds exceed 25 knots, and for good reason. The 17,000 lb (7700kg) van sized ROV is not something to take lightly when suspended in the air on rough seas. Even with its powerful winch and several crew members working to get it in and out of the water safely, it sways and things can go wrong. To avoid a costly mistake, weather forecasts are continually checked and assessed for conditions conducive to deploying and retrieving the vehicle. Without cooperation from Mother Nature, it stays on deck.

Loosing dive time doesn't make anyone out here happy because it's very expensive to run a large expedition such as this. Every moment counts. To maximize dive time people work in shifts around the clock. This includes the ROPOS team who maintains and operates the vehicle, scientists who instruct the ROPOS pilot on dive logistics, and supporting scientists who operate the navigation system, dive logs, and video taping necessary for a successful dive. The control room is quite an operation, day and night. We've been extremely lucky on this cruise so far because of the relatively consistent weak high-pressure air mass hanging over us. It brings overcast skies, but relatively low wind speeds. Hope it keeps up because I wouldn't want to spill one of my last cups of coffee.

Jeff

Amphisamytha galapagensis (worms that live in white tubes), red scale worms (Polynoid), and tube worms in the background - all on a piece of basalt.

Lava pillar with bathtub rings at Magnesia Vent.