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DISPATCH 1: - 9.11.2006 | Tammy Frank 
After two days of unpacking and setting up the labs, we left port this morning for
San Clemente Basin. Unpacking is always a major operation when you have 43 assorted
shipping trunks and Tupperware tubs that need to be emptied and sorted out, to say nothing
of 600 lbs. of net gear.
The first order of business is always figuring out where everyone is going to set up their equipment, although it was a bit easier on this cruise than on others because only 5 scientists needed places to set-up. Between us we brought enough equipment to fill up two good-sized U-hauls, but that still beats 10 scientists who bring enough gear to fill up 4 U-hauls. What takes up so much space, you might ask? Well, anything that's going in the water usually needs to be protected from banging against the sides of the ship during launch and recovery, so there are metal brackets, braces and/or cages around the equipment to absorb most of the shock. My net bars are 11 feet long, so those alone, together with the net and collecting vessel, can fill up half of a truck. This time, our gear had to be trucked from Florida to California, so our delicate electronic equipment had to be packed in well padded trunks, and as those of us are fighting middle age know, extra padding takes up a lot of extra space. 
Once the gear is set-up, we then utilize two of the most essential pieces of gear for our work - black plastic and duct tape. The animals we work on would be blinded by room lights, so our options are turn out all the lights in the lab and make the entire scientific party work in the dark with the aid of flashlights, or block off part of the lab with a dark room for our work and let the rest of the scientists work under (relatively) normal conditions. Being kind and considerate people (and because we want help hauling our 43 trunks/tubs onto and off the ship), we build a dark room with black plastic and duct tape that is fairly light tight even with all of the lights on in the rest of the lab. The first order of business once we left the dock was a safety briefing, in which we learned about the various safety procedures, including what to do in case of an abandon ship. This required a demonstration of how to get in and out of a survival suit (also known as a Gumby suit). One lucky member of the science party always gets to demonstrate how to get in and out of the suit, and our victim on this trip was Kelly Mazako, one of our educators-at-sea, who teaches integrative biology at Ft. Pierce Central High School in Ft. Pierce, Florida. We were also given other essential information, such as meal hours, where the ice cream freezer was, and how to make coffee. Working the hours we do out here, always having coffee available is essential, and it's good to remind people that if you empty the pot, start a fresh one. 
We launched our first trawl at approximately 4:30 p.m., which was an interesting experience, as we had to get an 11 foot wide net through an 8 foot opening. However, with the participation of on and off-watch Wecoma crew members and every member of the science party, we managed to launch it under the guidance of marine tech Marc Willis by having several people haul in on a tag line attached to one side of the net so it could be angled out. Unfortunately, the first trawl was not a success. We lost a U-bolt on one side of the net, which released that side of the closing bridle, so the net fished half-closed most of the trawl. However, it was a good practice trawl, and my experience is that if the first trawl goes perfectly, you usually have major problems later on in the cruise, such as hurricanes or shredded nets. If the first trawl is a bust, the rest of the cruise usually goes very well, so this is a good omen. 
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