Fire drills take on a whole new meaning when you are in the middle of the Bering Sea. Scrap the whole idea of lining up on the sidewalk outside the building! In preparation for setting off into the open water at 20:00 hours (8 pm if you aren't in the military) we drilled. First, there was the man-overboard drill. In the event that you ever here this alarm, you know that you are doing way better than someone else- someone who has fallen into the -1.7 ºC water! For everyone on board, this just means that you report to a certain part of the ship. Then, there was the abandon ship drill. Whole different story! First, you proceed to the area of the ship that you are assigned to. I was directed to the starboard side, aft. This means the right side of the ship, in the back. Once you get there, someone takes role. The idea is then that you would load onto lifeboats with a supply of water and a food-like substance. The tricky part is getting dressed for this boating party though. The outfit that this type of event calls for is called a "Gumby Suit". It is appropriately named because you can move about as nimbly as Gumby in it. It is a super-insulated, waterproof, warm and very buoyant suit that even has a built in pillow, blinking light and whistle. Check out how silly I look in this thing... fingers crossed that we will never have to wear them.
Gumby Suit
Shortly after the drill the Coast Guard crew cast off the ropes and drew up the anchor. We were heading out to sea! I had taken some motion-sickness medicine at 7 pm just to be safe. But the ride out of the Bay was as smooth as ice-skating and I was feeling a bit smug. "Sea-sick? Not me!" A gorgeous 9 pm sun was setting picture-perfectly behind a mountain and the gulls flew around the ship. This whole scene soon gave new meaning to the calm before the storm.
The calm before the storm.
Then came the rocking... and rolling and rocking and more rolling. By 10pm the seasickness medication that I took after dinner was obviously a lost cause. I felt like I was in one of those machines at the county fair that spins you around in circles while you are pressed against the walls. I couldn't even stand up straight and ended up in a pathetic little ball in the stairwell. I wasn't feeling like quite the fearless adventurer that I had been two hours before. Luckily, seasickness is something that the Coast Guard is well prepared to battle. Medic Appleberry gave me a super-painful shot of something appropriately serious and I crawled into bed. When I woke at 10am the next morning we were in the ice and I was feeling better. A bit embarrassed, but better. Hopefully, I have grown sea-legs. They don't look any different though!
Today we are cutting through very thick ice. At mid-morning the ice was still broken up and floating. By afternoon, there were big sheets and right now at 7 pm we are cutting through ice that is completely frozen together like land. The whole ship vibrates as we cut though the frozen water.
By 7 pm it was white as far as the eye could see. This is the view from my window.
The ice got thicker as the afternoon wore on.
Notice the trail that the boat leaves behind!
The sun rises about 9 am and sets about 9 pm. This will change as we travel north!
The bird-watching team has been recording sightings of gulls and murres. They watch from the "bridge", the area where the captain and his crew steer the boat from. Anyone can go up there and enjoy the view. Everyone else has been preparing for the first station where we will drop instruments into the water. I learned how to take sediment samples from the ocean floor. We are using a tool called a "multi-corer" which means that it takes many samples of the same area at once. This is important so that you can find out what's normal for that area and know that you didn't touch down in one spot that was very different from the rest. On the back deck, we practiced where we would stand to lower the machine into the water and how to switch our canisters for two samplings. While practicing where to stand sounds easy, everything is a bit trickier when you are surrounded by ice, being pummeled by wind and snow and wearing a Mustang suit that makes your body three times its actual size. The wardrobe on this ship is not exactly high fashion!
Orange is always in fashion on the Healy!
We are all waiting to get to the sample site now. Everyone is standing watch around a computer screen, as a little green boat inches towards a bright red circle marking the spot where we will suit up, head out and get the equipment overboard. Hopefully all this is accomplished while keeping all fingers and toes to intact and both feet on the deck. Keep you posted!