Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 12:39
Forums
Bering Sea Benthic Studies

Dear Ms. Davenport,

I am student in a rather cramped high school and i am wondering how you keep your spirits so high and minds so sharp while being isolated from "the outside world?" I cant imagine being cramped in a ship for a period any longer than a few days. (let alone a high school!) How do you do it?

Ben HHS

Fri, 04/25/2008 - 08:35

Emily S. Davenport

Hi Ben!
It is definitely a challenge being on a ship for a long period of time- and ship life is definitely not for everyone. Luckily the Healy is not a small ship- she is 420 feet long, which gives us a lot of room to spread out. Honestly, everyone on board is very courteous to each other and respectful of everyone elses space- and you have to be if you want to get along with everyone for 6 weeks! There are also lots of opportunities to do fun things to improve morale- every Saturday they do a morale dinner (see my journal about seagull enchiladas, that was the science morale dinner) followed by bingo with prizes and a movie on the big screen in the helicopter hangar! They also show several movies every day that you can watch in one of the conference lounges on board the ship. Lots of people bring games to play, and there is also the chance to play basketball and ping pong in the helicopter hangar. And there is always the gym on board where you can workout...so there is a lot of things to keep us occupied for six weeks, and to give us a break from the science.