And off we go...!

Well everyone... we are officially underway! I’m posting this from on board the Langseth, where I’ve been living now for two days. But before I share all the ship’s details with you, I’d like to give you a few more pictures of other things I saw and experienced in and around Kodiak leading up to the ship’s arrival. Thanks to the Langseth’s 36 hour delayed departure, we had ample opportunity to hike and continue to explore the beautiful landscape (as well as the delicious local brewery). Below are some random samples of some of the best pictures I’ve yet taken. Enjoy, and be jealous.

The dock near our hotel in Kodiak - about a 2 minute walk from my room.

We saw this on a hike. Hello?

More amazingness.

At the Kodiak brewery - this beer is a real thing. I drank it.

This is called... Fort Abercrombie? Or something? Anyway it was gorgeous.

Me at Ft. Abercrombie.

The Kodiak airport - literally the size of my face.

Me at the top of the windmill hill.

These windmills power 80% of the town (or so I'm told)... how cool is that?!

More unbelievable views from the top of the hill.

The far right dock is where some of the "Deadliest Catch" boats are.

A view of Kodiak from up high.

The ship arrived on Sunday evening (June 5^th), and we boarded that same night (after almost not finding a place in town that was open after 9 pm for dinner). The ship itself is fairly large, somewhere between 200 and 250 feet in length, but certainly no cruise liner. It’s quite impressive to see, though it is about the size I was expecting. I took some pictures, but they upload at approximately snail pace, so I'll post them separately in the near future.

My cabin setup is similar to my sophomore year of college...  I’ve been assigned a room in a small pod-like area with four cabins total, each off of a central common/living room area, and each pair sharing a bathroom between them. I am indeed rooming with Jenny, and there are two other graduate students (Ryan from UT and Erik from Wyoming) sharing the bathroom between us. The other side of the pod (or “snake pit” as the crew and students have deemed it) has Bobby (UT grad student) and Kevin (IT guy at UT) sharing a bathroom with Ray (USGS) in the other room. The cabins, at least on my side, are small but certainly livable, and much nicer than I was expecting. I have my own little closet thingy and a drawer to put my stuff in which I also was not expecting. The bathrooms and showers require flip-flops, but otherwise seem, again, small but livable. I don’t anticipate any issues – I get along well with everyone and have been able to sleep well so far, so hopefully that will continue. Again, I have some pictures that I'll put up later.

Other facilities on board include a mess hall (just around the corner from my room... essential), laundry (with brand-new machines, also just down the hall), a movie room with a decent selection of films, a fitness center, and of course, the science lab, where I will be spending 12 hours a day for the remainder of the trip. We spent much of the first day getting settled into the cabins, having safety meetings (real ones), and setting up the lab network with the processing machines. Photos to come.

The food so far on the ship has been great – apparently we have some of the best cooks on board with us, and you can tell. Most everything is cafeteria-style, but there are always a number of delicious options. Breakfast has been American-style, with eggs cooked fresh the way you request them, bacon, sausage, breakfast potatoes, fresh fruit (wonder how long that will last...), a variety of toast/bagels, and a refrigerator filled with every kind of juice imaginable. There is also coffee and tea, but we’ve decided to take it upon ourselves to make coffee and bought a pot to keep in the lab (read: the coffee here=not good). Lunch today was stuffed cheese shells, rice, Chinese-style honey chicken, and mixed vegetables with a few other side options, including seafood and vegetable soup (good). There were cookies for dessert and there’s always ice cream in the freezer (yummmm). Dinner was a choice between steak and baked halibut, again with a number of sides including baked potatoes and mixed vegetables. Between meals, there’s usually fruit out, and you can always grab juice, water, cold cereal, or make sandwiches with the lunch meat in the fridge. There is also always a well-stocked salad bar available any time. This is certainly better than I usually eat at home. And yes, though it seems impossible, there’s a strong possibility of weight gain because of it. Yes, I’m ok with that.

The shift I’ve been assigned is a 12-hour shift (same with everyone else), but I just so happened to get lucky and get the best shift ever. I’m on watch from 8 am to 8 pm (i.e., almost normal working hours). We’ve got a rotation system set up in which someone new replaces someone who was on watch comes on every four hours. During my 12-hour shift, I’ll be doing 4 hours of seismic processing, 4 hours of watching (making sure all the data looks good, keeping logs, etc.), and 4 hours of multibeam processing. (See the first post for info on what these things are.) More info on this as I actually start doing it!

As far as ship motion goes... we started off in very calm water in port, and it’s been steadily getting worse. The ship very noticeably pitches and rolls (I eyeballed the tipping at about 30 degrees at worst), and every so often you can hear and see a wave crash outside the window in the snake pit. Word on the street (read: on the ocean) is that we’re going to hit some fairly rough weather the first couple of days we’re out. I’ve heard lots of different advice on how to handle seasickness, including doing nothing. I seriously considered going without any medicine just to see how I handle the seas on my own... but I decided that it’s important to be able to focus on work these first couple of days, and also that it’s a bad idea to test-run my seasickness in rough weather. With that in mind, I decided to try a half patch of the scopolamine prescribed by the doctor, which requires you put it on four hours before you need it. Turns out that was an excellent decision. At first, I found the motion of the boat to be quite lulling (I took a 3 hour nap shortly after hitting some rougher water), but this morning I almost threw up after taking a shower (a very difficult activity, it turns out). After recovering and showing up late for my shift, I was called up on deck to help out with deploying the streamers (long, 8 km length sensors that record the seismic data returns). I felt like a cold, wet slingshot the entire time I was out there, and sure enough, ended up throwing up over the side. Great. A rite of passage, maybe? Ugh...  I find that if I don’t think about the motion of the waves too much, I feel a little better about the whole situation, though it’s hard to concentrate in 15-foot swells... hopefully I’ll feel better as time goes on. Might put on the other half patch at some point, though the one I already have on is certainly helping.

Will keep you all updated!