Journal Entry
 Dr. Ray

Dr. Ray Sambrotto wears many hats on this mission.

Ray Sambrotto is the PI (principal investigator) for this expedition. His job, besides doing investigations in the lab, is to coordinate the entire BEST mission. He has to meet daily with the Coast Guard Officers, check accountability and coordinate sampling, but there is lots more.  He is constantly on watch to fix potential problems that might arise. And they do arise.

 Dr. Ray

Dr. Sambrotto works with two scientists, Drs. Cal Mordy and Nancy Kachel to coordinate sampling.

So we needed a point of contact, to run communication and requests between the very busy scientists and us. David Hyrenbach, from the University of Washington, is acting as our liason with the scientists on the BEST cruise. There are so many scientists and so many projects, we needed organization to help us learn who is who doing what and when and maybe why.

 David Hyrenbach

David Hyrenbach is our education liason.

He steered us in the direction of creating a table of rotation visits to the various scientific teams on board. We used the theme of 'Energy and Matter Transfer Through the Ecosystem.' We divided all the teams into where they fit in the ecosystem.

Easy enough?

But in reality, it doesn't work that way. Some scientists might have equipment malfunction. Some might have sample contamination or lack of a sample. There are many ways things can go wrong. And they do. When that happens, they go to a holding pattern and regroup.

 Huddle

Sometimes things go wrong. Scientists have to regroup and go to Plan B.

All scientists suffer setbacks. It matters not that you have had extensive meetings, done problem solving, and communicated with everyone that needs to know. This is science.

And anything that might happen will happen.

 Cal Data

Taking data is an important part of doing science.

In science, you need to have a backup plan, and then another backup plan. If something happens to Plan A, continue the experiment with Plan B. If Plan B goes down, take up Plan C.

 Cal Mordy

Dr. Cal Mordy was my first rotation scientist. He is testing the water for certain nutrients. The data he gets is important for many of the scientists on this mission.

And so it goes or doesn't go.

 Seal Guys

Making observations from the bridge is an enjoyable task.

After all, this is science.