Happy birthday to my oldest, 15 today!
Just came off night watch– only one hour because we are still in port, alongside. Typing on phone.
Quiet wake up call by previous watch, telling me it was 0150, ten minutes to two, and a little chilly out. Time for my watch.
On deck, two others from my watch–kim and noah, and Katy, first scientist. Read standing orders, initialed. Had read night orders before going to bed. Just regular boat check and log weather.
Boat check includes walking the deck and surveying the lines tying us to dock, to ensure no chafing, that the lines are still holding correctly, tide hasn’t moved them to rub or loosen. General check of the deck– lines, any gear out of place, all’s well. Below-decks it includes a walk-through, looking for any standing water, unusual smells, anything amiss, check dry stores, refrigerator temps, and engine room– record oil pressure, temps, water levels, etc.
Also need to record seas and weather. Skies currently 6/8 covered in cirrus, seas calm, wind 1 beufort. Temp 20C.
Food has been good. Breakfast burritos for breakfast yesterday, then quesadillas with lots of fixings and salad for lunch, pasta with sausage, broccoli, fresh bread for dinner. About 1/4 crew is. Vegetarian, so there were two versions of same dish for dinner. Day before we had rice and stir-fry for dinner.
My bunk is small, in the fo’c’sle, which is all the way up under the bow of the ship. Will move a lot when we are underway. Captain sleeps all the way aft, which is relatively more stable. Most of the staff are mid-ships. Good thing here is no one walks by, so fairly quiet.
Spent most of the day running emergency drills: MOB- man overboard, fire, abandon ship. Safety is a huge issue, and we will hold weekly drills.
During emergencies, all hands on deck. Our watch is responsible for handling sail, to get us hove to (stopped) or changing sail to help manage a rescue of MOB. We muster amidships, call roll and await orders, which come immediately. Engineers and videographer join our watch for emergencies, adding to our usual seven plus mate to bring us to eleven– except that the engineers leave immediately after roll to manage the engine room.
Also reviewed driving the hydro winch and J-frame for science deployments. Will use them for putting nets, bottles,etc. Over the side.
So far, so good. Glad to be back on the ship. Shipmate are a good bunch– very interesting and capable.
Hoping we can leave tomorrow!
ChC