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The Project Part 1: Part 2: Part 3:
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05 August , 2005
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 Lady AB, Michelle, future ship captain  Willie, 4th Engineer, staying in shape  Yet another CTD cast; this one is going all the way to the bottom, 2000 meters down.  On deck incubation tanks. The blue color mimics the color of seawater to create a more natural environment for the plants growing in there. |
Michelle, the 3rd mate aboard the R/V New Horizon, attended the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo, CA (near San Francisco) for four years. Men outnumber women, 10 to 1, in this course of study.
Michelle grew up in Newport Beach, California. She spent a lot of time at the beach, and did a lot of rowing. She is the first and only person in her family to work at sea. She decided to pursue a career on ships because she loves the water and likes to travel.
Her training included classes in navigation, ship structure and ship stability (that’s about keeping the ship upright). She enjoyed the math classes, but found her English class difficult. Michelle’s training also included extended periods at sea; her freshman year, she spent 60 days at sea performing lookout and security detail. The cadets are always under the supervision of a licensed officer. The first training ship she was on traveled to Hawaii, Fiji, Australia, Japan, Alaska and finally Seattle, Washington.
During her sophomore year, Michelle worked on a container ship that traveled from Oakland, California to Dutch Harbor, Alaska and then on to Yokohama and Kobe, Japan, then to Taiwan, Hong Kong and finally to China. She was the only female onboard, and says that she experienced no disrespect, but did receive a lot of stares. Chinese authorities who boarded the ship were shocked to see a woman working onboard.
What’s the hairiest situation she’d seen at sea? She said nothing really scary had occurred while she was on the water- yet. Her instructors told the class that working on a ship is 99% boredom and 1% sheer terror. But she says she’s never really bored and keeps occupied watching movies and conversing with fellow crew members while at sea.
Michelle is a licensed AB (Able Bodied Seaman), but as she acquires more time at sea, and takes more tests, she will someday earn a captain’s license. An AB must spend at least 365 days at sea before becoming eligible to take a test to upgrade his or her license. She’s not quite sure when she’ll earn her captain’s license.
This year, Michelle has been at sea for all but two weeks. She expects to have a month or so off at the end of the year. She likes working research vessels better than the container ships. Container ships run on set and tight schedules, and there is little time to go ashore in foreign ports. Only bad weather can derail a container ship from its schedule. Research vessels are more flexible, and more interesting.
Michelle has some advice for other women who might want to pursue a career at sea- be prepared to take some ribbing and teasing from the guys.
Today we have done a few casts with the CTD. The fluorometer (one of the sensors on the CTD) measures the presence of chlorophyll in the water, which indicates how much plant matter, or phytoplankton, is present in the water column. This sensor has been very temperamental this cruise and Rob has tried to fix it repeatedly. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Math Problem:
Eddie and Mark are preparing sea bass for dinner tonight. When they bought the fish, it weighed 32 pounds. After it was filleted, the cooks had 14 pounds of flesh. What is the percentage of flesh to carcass?
Trivia Tidbit of the Day:
Many scientists consider octopuses to have the most complex brains of all the invertebrates. Invertebrates are animals without a skeleton or a spinal column. Octopuses learn rapidly and have distinct personalities.
