Daily Journal

September 8, 2005

Chris and Amanda rinsing and calibrating the profiler Chris and Russ preparing to dismantle the profiler

Talk of Home

Today at 9 PM we are scheduled to leave the Monterey Bay. Many activities of today are oriented towards the process of arriving in port by late morning on Saturday. All around there is talk of returning home. Amanda looks forward to playing with her pet Chihuahua, Johnny. Johnny has captured the hearts of many on the ship as we all saw many of his pictures throughout the trip as a slide show on Amanda’s computer screen. Home for most of the science team, includes an air flight back to Oregon. Portland, and Corvallis are the home destinations for most of the science team. The lidar team will fly to their East Coast homes. The ship’s crew lives in the San Diego area and they talk of a pleasant stay at home, but also of the up and coming next cruise. Ron talks of his citrus trees at home. Matt talks of his motorcycle, which he will start riding because of the rising gas prices. I think of the sweet fruits that are ripe on the trees at home: pears, nectarines, plums, grapes, and apples. All of us think of the family and friends that are waiting for are arrival back home.

I am amazed at the presence of fresh apples, oranges, avocados and nectarines that are still available on this cruise. I never would have though it possible to store fruit for that long. But with the large refrigerators on board, the cooks are even able to keep lettuce for a month. The trick with lettuce, I am told, is maintaining the correct temperature and keeping it packaged in newspaper. The cooks have done a fine job in keeping everyone fed with a daily menu that was different every single day. Today the dinner menu was crispy fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, and gravy.

The scientist all worked together today on completing the 24-hour survey. As the survey ended, it is with the feeling that the cruise objectives were completed successfully. Lab Equipment now is being rinsed and the dismantling process has begun. By this time tomorrow the main lab will be packaged for shipping back to OSU (Oregon State University) in Corvallis, Oregon.