[Cruise Journal: 17 December]
The difference between rooming in a hotel and rooming on the ship is minimal. This is a fair assessment of a comparison of our last night on shore to our first night on board. However, something changed between our first night on board and our second: we set sail. We are now able to verify from firsthand experience that the first and most frequent thing we’ve heard from the crew is true: that the Sikuliaq does indeed roll. Quite a bit. In fact sometimes it seems that, even though the swells are modest or even barely discernable to the untrained eye, the ship will roll gleefully and wantonly simply because that is how it derives joy for itself.
Walking is no longer straight-forward. Doors acquire and abandon preferences for which way they will swing from a neutral position. Cups slide. Chairs shift. Motion is an inescapable facet of life now. Among science team, the race to adjust is just beginning, and to declare a winner now would be premature.
Into this context comes the 0830 fire and boat drill.
In the event of an emergency (or this drill), all personnel are required to report to designated muster stations with their survival equipment: PFD (personal flotation device) and immersion suit. The science team musters in the Main Lab. At the 3rd Mate’s instructions, we donned (we mean, modeled) in turn the vests and suits and practiced moving from the Main Lab to the alternate muster station on the aft deck where, in the best-case response to what would have to be a very un-best-case situation, the lifeboats would be tied waiting to receive evacuees.
(Many more details about shipboard safety and procedures will fill another post.)
Following the drill, we had a thorough tour of the ship from one of the techs. Rather than simply recapitulate that here, we’ll introduce you to the various areas of the Sikuliaq gradually as we inhabit and use them over the next several weeks.
Today’s other major event was the commencing of watchstanding. (By the end of the cruise, we will have a lot to say about watchstanding. Watch this space). Because the instruments are constantly recording data, someone needs to be monitoring and logging the status at all times. Covering the whole 24 hour clock means that some people are going to have interesting and unfamiliar schedules. It also means, unfortunately, that the cruise archivist cannot be present to document everything that happens on watch. There may have occurred an eventuality in the first round of watches earlier today. Mops may have been employed. I’m afraid that’s as much as I know.
Data arebeing collected, watchstanders are actively monitoring their stations, and the ship is steaming at 11.9 knots toward Waypoint 1, where our AUV Sentry will have its first deep dive test of the cruise.