Yesterday August 9th, was a day-off for the fishing crew. Science continued with other sampling. This scientist enjoyed a day of personal care, that included a 10 hour sleep, reading, working out and then topping off the day with a few gins. Oh yah! and the best bowhead whale sightings yet! They were feeding only about 100m from the ship and seems oblivious to the fact that we
were right there. It was beautiful to watch as they vented, and now and then breached the surface before taking a dive with a showy flip of their caudal fin!
After 21 days this ship is starting to feel pretty small. I spend sometime on deck while fishing. On the aft deck sorting fish. In the lab on the 2nd level aft deck. In the mess either eating, or hanging around trying not to eat stuff. In my cabin sleeping. On the bridge whale watching, however I try not to spend too much time up there as it's not large, and also although the
scientists are allowed in the bridge you are only allowed there if you are quiet and out of the way. The captain is an interesting character, who's in a good mood most of the time. The other day I was on the Bridge, and he was joking that all the bad weather we've been having is my fault - women on ships are bad luck, and a woman on the Bridge (not so long ago a complete
no-no) brings the winds and bad weather. But then he went on to tell me of a couple of Coast Guard female Captains in the fleet. Don't worry, I don't think this will be my next occupation.
August 10th, today we continue sampling in the high priority whale feeding area. We fished today, with not a great catch, but successful. Had work all wrapped up by 4pm. Gave me time to put in an hour on the bike, and shower before a yummy lamb supper. We eat very well, in the three weeks I've been here we have not eaten the same meal twice! (I probably already mentioned this, but as food is such a critical element of our days it's one of the only things that really changes day to day and everyone can talk about. Well, a few social drinks in the lab around 8pm turned into an all night roaring party with some of the crew joining us after their shift for drinks.
We all crammed into our tiny little lab space, drank, listened to the music on my laptop, and then someone showed up with a guitar! It was a great time had by all. Luckily for many of us, today was another non-sampling day, as today's effort was primarily put into some bottom acoustics work - this meant an opportunity to sleep off last night's fun.
Only a bit over a week on the high seas to go! we'll be streaming back up the river on the 18th, and in Inuvik on the 19th. Some of the science crew have flights for that day, others like myself leave on the 20th. I will be wrapping up making sure our gear gets shipped that day, and then after lunch on the 19th a few of us have made arrangements to rent a truck. We're going
to road trip it (for the afternoon) down the Dempster Highway, if you kept going it would take you to Whitehorse - but that's days away. That idea got tossed out there - but its time to get home.
I'm sorry I'm back logged with responding to every one's personal emails.Thank-you so much for dropping me emails, its great to hear from all of you!
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