7/26/2013: Twenty-four Seven Operations

When working with such a large, capable, affable crew, it is easy to forget that someone is on watch 24 hours a day, every day, making the ship function. It is easy to forget when working in such a smooth environment that someone is working all of the time. The entire ship’s company cannot sit down for a meal together. Someone has to be driving the ship and making sure we are all safe.

 There are three NOAA Corps officers who stand watch in the bridge throughout the day. Each of their watches is 4 hours long & they happen twice a day, every day. During these watches, the officers steer the ship, watch for other vessels in the area, keep track of our location, and generally get us where we need to be. There is also a captain (or in this case, Chief Officer or C.O.), who doesn’t generally stand a watch, but oversees everything going on in the vessel, especially the ship’s interactions with the outside world, such as other vessels in the area. In addition to the officers, there is also a deckhand who stands a watch in the ship’s bridge during the night. During the day, the deck crew works on the back deck setting and hauling gear, etc. However, at night the ship is required to have extra eyes watching from the bridge as well.

During the night the officers rotate who is on watch. The deckhands also rotate who is awake. The engineers rotate who is awake as well, making sure that the engines, generators, water-makers, etc. continue to function. The science crew splits into a day shift and a night shift. I have described a lot of what the day shift does & mentioned what the night shift does. The day shift deals with the traps and the cameras. We get the bait into them, attach the cameras to the traps, get them in the water, retrieve them, and count, weigh, measure & dissect the fish that are captured. The night crew maintains the acoustic mapping equipment to provide maps of the bottom of the ocean so that we can set the traps in areas that are likely to hold reef fishes.

This ship is like a floating city. It really contains just about everything you would need to stay comfortable.  Every stateroom has a head (bathroom) with a shower. The ship makes fresh water from the salt water around us, so there is never a real shortage. There is a laundry room in the bow with three washers and three dryers in it. Plenty of power to run computers, negation equipment, lights, etc. Even satellite TV, internet, and phone service.  It’s pretty remarkable how much like normal life being at sea is. You just get too see some cool things if you look out your front door. Today we saw a leatherback turtle and several mahi mahi. Yesterday we saw a pod of spotted dolphins. You never know what you are going to see at any given moment, which makes it very interesting.