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JULY
10:
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Once the ship got underway, the flags on the R/V EDWIN LINK were flying in the bright New England sun.
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A seaman rigs a pulley to the JSL's A-frame crane.
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Seawater streams across the afterdeck around Harbor Branch's JSL I submersible.
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Click below to learn a bit more about this advanced and versatile deep-sea research tool...
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Accomplished videographer Brian Cousin is doing double duty on the Gulf of Maine cruise. He's gathering footage for a video about bioluminescence, and he's bringing the Gulf of Maine to your desktop as our @Sea correspondent. Click below to learn more about Brian...
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Is there a question you'd like to ask our intrepid correspondent? Send us an email at
AskAtSea@hboi.edu.
Selected questions will be forwarded to Brian, and we'll post the answers online.
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DISPATCH 3: En Route to Oceanographer Canyon
@Sea correspondent/photographer, Brian Cousin
JOHNSON-SEA-LINK I is rigged for mid-water work. Note the rectangular SPLAT screen above the sub's sphere. The bioluminescent signatures of deep-sea organisms striking the screen are recorded by the ISIT camera and LoLAR (Low Light Auto Radiometer) positioned behind the screen.
July 10, 11:41 AM --
We are in the outbound Boston shipping channel on our way to Oceanographer Canyon, almost 7 hours after departing Woods Hole and 3 hours after clearing the Nantucket Shoals.
Winds are out of the southwest at about 26 knots and seas are 5 to 7 feet and building. It's going to be a little sloppy.
It's also foggy. You can look up and see blue sky, but the fog rides on the water so you can't see far in any other direction. The ships radar will reveal vessels in our area but a close eye has to be kept out for small boats. The ships whistle is programmed to sound a blast every two minutes for the benefit of those who can't see us.
We're maintaining a following current so we're making good speed, about 12 knots.
12:50 -- George Gunther, captain of the EDWIN LINK says the weather's going to change in a couple of hours. The wind will shift from southwest to northwest and die down. Seas should settle as well. I hope he's right. We all do.
Not too many in the galley for lunch today. Those of us unaccustomed to being on the open ocean are trying to pass the rough sea state knocked out by dramamine or wearing motion-sickness patches, and actively not thinking about food. The waves are a little higher and washing the aft deck underneath the JOHNSON SEA LINK. It's great that there are a lot of jobs in marine science that don't require a person to go to sea. No Masters or Ph.D. degree exempts a person from sea-sickness.
The labs are pretty well set up to begin collecting data. Screens of visqueen hang from ceiling to floor around Dr. Tammy Frank's and Trevor Myslinski's workstations. It will shield their equipment, samples and themselves from any form of light pollution that would ruin their experiments. The other scientists in the lab have hung lesser screens, to keep the minimal amounts of light they are using from straying beyond their workspace. I can see two sandaled feet below one screen, that's all. I wonder how visual all this work on vision is going to be.
6:30 pm -- The engines have stopped. We've arrived on station at Oceanographer Canyon: 40 degrees, 20.11 minutes north latitude and 068 degrees,
07.771 minutes west longitude. At this point on earth, the water is about 2,800 feet deep.
The charts show a string of 12 canyons along this latitude, stretching between about 071 degrees west (Block Canyon) and 066 degrees west (Georges Canyon). Directly to the south lies the deep water of the open ocean; to the north, the famous fishing region of Georges Bank.
The weather has changed completely, in the course of an hour. It was possible to watch the high pressure air push out the low, and to feel the wind drop. Unfortunately, the seas are still too rough for submersible operations, and Drs. Frank and Widder's plan to log their first science dive has to be shelved. It's a little disappointing; time in the field is too precious not to squeeze every last opportunity from. But sub ops. director Phil Santos has a good point. There is still some sea state, and a dive starting in the evening would call for a recovery in full darkness.
With a fair weather report for tomorrow, operations should begin.
We're anxious to get started.
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