filtering and tuna

We're back in internet range-yeah. The cruise has been pretty good-crew dynamics haven't been great but have been good enough to get the job done. The weather was bad for about half of the cruise and the launch pad proved the better of me a few times. On the other hand isn't puking over the side required at some point in a sailor's life? A friend on the boat gave me some bonamine (can't buy it in the US and it's difficult to find in Van) which made me better in less than an hour. Since then I haven't had to take any more and I haven't puked over the sides any more. yeah drugs. Once I got over the seasickness, I could sleep most of the time. I did find that waking up airborn at the crest of a big wave is more frightening than waking up being slammed into the wall (a la the Feb. cruise). Less painful, but much more disorienting.


Because of the bad weather we skipped some stations on the way out and are picking them up now. The first of our large volume casts is in the water and by lunch tomorrow we should be done with the big filtering for this cruise.


the water calls-I shall return

Sailing away again to bacterioetiville

I'm back on the boat, ready for the next few weeks. I think. Tomorrow through the weekend are going to be really busy. But we each get 8 hours off a day this cruise. whahoo. The collaborator issues haven't gone away, but I'm trying to ignore them. The post-doc from that lab that is on the cruise with us pushed again today for more sampling (wanted to know why I had given her 8 hours off a day and trying to convince me that she can work 24 hours a day. isn't there medication for delusional people?). She tried to tell me that my PI said "they" were allowed to do more sampling. I really don't know what else I can to to convince this lab that there is no us and them. We're all on the same team and will all work together. I think. The most contentious station is the first one-the one that there really isn't any extra time to sample and process. So at least it will be gone by Thursday.

On to happier thoughts. Such as my own room. The chief scientist emailed yesterday asking if I thought I could handle a room up on the officers deck and if so was I interested. Yes and Yes. The question about whether I could handle it is because this is one of the 2 the most forward cabins on the boat. It's nicknamed the launch pad because there is a lot of movement up this close to the bow. But I think it'll be ok.

My cabin is on the starboard side at the very front-basically just above the "J"

It's kind of funny shaped and the bathroom is really strange because it's up against the angles of the hull, but it's mine.

Pictures from the last cruise

I realized that I never uploaded pictures from the last cruise. So here are a few choice ones.

The carboys waiting to be filled one last time, Papa 50N 145E June 15

Last cruise there were several groups working on iron. Iron measurements on seawater are difficult because the concentration of iron is really low in the ocean and the boat is made of steel (trying to measure a tiny amount of something without contaminating it). Hence the clean room or bubble in the middle of the main lab.

And sperm whales. I was sleeping when killer whales were spotted but was awake for the sperm whales (Our casts tend to be at night since we don't care what time of day they're collected, most of the other biologists are working on photosynthesis so need their casts during the day. Which means that I'm generally sleeping during the day). But I didn't miss the sperm whales. The captain stopped the boat and we floated with this pod of females and calves for half an hour or so.

I love the color of the water in the deep ocean and the gradient of color from the near black-blue of the calm water to the white bubbles coming off the propellers.

The tale of a tomato named Paul

Hi my name is Robeson, Paul Robeson and this is my home.

I have lots of nice neighbors including my friends the Wynches-Dr. Wynche is on the left and her wife is on the right.

This is my friend Brandy Wine. Try not to stare, she was born like that.

Now I'm going to join my friend the Calebash, we're going on a trip to a big farm in the country where we can run and play. Well that's what the green chilies told me.

updates cause I left you hanging

So after the scare last week when the electricity went out while all of my DNA was sitting in a gel, all was well. One sample didn't work very well. But my ridiculous streak of good luck with these samples continued-the sample that didn't work was one that I still had DNA left and it worked when I repeated the proceedure. So now I have 50-75% of my major lab work successfully completed (the range is because we're trying to get approval to run more samples). All the hard work figuring out what the data mean hasn't even begun, but at least the stage where a little bad luck or moment of inattention or both can completely ruin a sample is nearly done.



I'm heading back out to sea Tuesday. The turn around between the June cruise and this Aug cruise is crazy short. Too short for me to have worked up much excitement about going out again, but hopefully that will come once we get everything packed and organized.



Our collaborators have contributed to my near-dread of the coming cruise, we've been bending over backwards trying to help this lab get samples (they don't have any money for sampling). But they keep demanding more and more samples-we're taking 3 people this time because just 2 of us last time was too punishing AND we dropped several of our planned samples. The work that they are supposed to do will be interesting (providing that they can get their methods to work) but they are increasingly difficult to deal with. The collaborator lab is headed by a very young investigator who doesn't seem to realize that we aren't working for them-we're working with them. And we don't need them, there is a lab in our building that does the same type of work with slightly older methods (as in proven methods). However, collaborator lab can't get these samples without us. Yet they still thought that my sampling plan was somehow a negotiation position, that they could just come back with their demands and we'd drop some of our samples (again) in favor of theirs. There were some veiled threats that they may walk if they don't get there way. then they reconsidered. We'll see if that turns out to be good-saving the collaboration-or bad-prolonging the pain of a doomed relationship.



I think that we all realize that ultimatums are not a good way to go. Professional ultimatums probably are going to backfire. Professional ultimatums when you have nothing to leverage are just stupid.

Hiking with technology

Thairo and I went down to Olympic np this weekend for our first (hopefully not last) backpacking trip of the season. While I've always had technology in the backcountry with me, previously I've had the excuse of having to carry gps/palm pilot/cell phone or radio because of work. However this trip I have yo admit that I carried my phone for me. And for the new app I found-topos2go. It allows you to download and display and mark georeferenced topos. Yeah. It came in really handy when we got to the ranger station and were told that we could hike where we planned because it was too crouded-but no problem cause I had downloaded all the topos for the park.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to try out my previous favorite utility app-distant suns-because it was overcast the whole time. No stargazing on this trip.
But we didn't get lost