Join Hilary Hammer on her journey aboard the R/V Endeavor as she crosses the Atlantic from the Amazon to the Congo studying the black carbon cycle!
My name is Hilary Hamer. I'm a senior at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute majoring in chemistry and biochemistry. From a small town in New Hampshire, I spent most of my high school years as a competitive epee fencer before joining my high school crew team. Combined with summers spent visiting our beautiful Lake Sunapee, I've developed quite the love for water and decided to try some chemical oceanography this summer through the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography's summer internship program. When I first applied, I had no idea I'd be on a ship on the open ocean for two months, but I was very excited to be offered the opportunity, and here I am!
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July 6
We were unexpectedly delayed three days in St. Petersburg. While we were disappointed at being able to see the boat but not board it - it reached port on Wednesday but had to unload and restock - we took advantage of the local area and enjoyed a few hours at the Museum of Fine Arts and walking as much as possible before being confined to a ship. We even discovered a literal block party on Friday night. The town shut down a city block and hosted live music. We learned later that they do that every first Friday of each month. On Saturday, we were finally able to board the R/V Endeavor, and we spent the day setting up air samplers above the deck. Sunday, we left port. We spent most of these two days outside. Before we had totally left Tampa Bay, I spotted dolphins swimming almost under the ship - right along the bow waves. Unfortunately, they were gone before any one else had a chance to spot them. But, after more setup, later in the day there was another group of dolphins off of starboard side riding our wake. We all saw them this time and it was quite the sight with even a little baby leaping in and out of the water! We also saw a couple of flying fish. I had never seen them before and at first they look like seabirds, gliding over the water, but then they dive into the water and you realize that was a fish! We were finally ready to begin sample collection on Monday. However, early in the morning we entered Cuban waters and were unable to collect samples because of legal issues. We spent the day reviewing relevant publications and basic terminology, as well as fighting with the automatic seawater sampler. Today, we finally began to collect samples. We have three types of air samplers, one passive and two high volume (pumped air), and two water samplers, one passive and one filtered, for everyday collection of samples. The samplers use a combination of quartz fiber filters, glass fiber filters, polyurethane and polyethylene to collect organic carbon (including our target, black carbon) as well as the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that we are looking for. Later we will also be doing CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) casts and sediment collection with the multicorer. After leaving the Tampa area, we have not spotted any more wildlife other than some algae. However, yesterday a rainstorm on the horizon treated us to a full end-to-end rainbow! Return to journal index |
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July 9
So, it's been almost a week, what exactly are we doing? We are trying to measure the local concentrations and fluxes of black carbon and monitor the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a type of pollutant. Black carbon is defined as heterogeneous, aromatic, carbon-rich compounds produced by fires, biomass burning and fossil fuel use. More simply, black carbon is basically soot, charcoal, and similar substances. Black carbon is an important research topic for three reasons.
First, black carbon contributes to global warming. When it is deposited on ice sheets, the albedo, that is, reflective property, of the ice is reduced. More light, and therefore more heat, is absorbed which increases ice melting.
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July 10
The food on board is fantastic! 
It is much better than any college dining hall food that I have had, and it even sometimes feels like a gourmet meal. My favorites have been baked stuffed flounder, baked scallops and cut, fresh fruit including blueberries, strawberries, kiwis, cantaloupe, honey-dew melon, grapefruit, grapes, raspberries and oranges. There are a variety choices at every meal. In the morning there is sausage, bacon, pancakes, french-toast, muffins, bagels, cereal, yogurt, fresh fruit, and various egg options. Lunch and dinner vary, but there are always at least two main options (like baked scallops or steak). Kari, the graduate student I am working with, is vegetarian and has had a harder time with the food, but there is a full salad bar at lunch and dinner at least, and the Steward has tried to accommodate her with certain specifically vegetarian courses. When I left land, I thought that I had made peace with my favorite desserts and candies for the next couple of months. However, there is a dessert with every dinner that has included cake, pie, and even tiramisu. There is also an entire chest freezer dedicated to ice cream including many novelty ice creams. At night, there is a variety of candy available. They warn us that food will begin to run out as we get towards the end of our voyage, starting with things like yogurt and lettuce, but right now it is all just amazing food. The Steward does not believe us when we tell her this is the best we have ever eaten! Return to journal index |
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July 13
We arrived at Barbados on Sunday at about 11pm. The crew was all in very high spirits as they know Barbados well and really like it. 
The port security is a little bit confusing with multiple gates/checkpoints to go through, but we managed to figure it out. 
The
island is beautiful. It looks very different from the United States.
Most of the buildings are painted a bright or pastel color. There are
especially a lot of pink buildings. We were surprised to find several
KFC restaurants very quickly in the downtown area, as well as a Harley
Davidson store (with a pink veneer). The people in Barbados are very
friendly and proud of their island. They will share stories and
recommendations and just chat about everything! The beaches are
fantastic, even though we missed visiting Crane's Beach, reputedly one
of the top ten beaches in the world. We all thoroughly enjoyed our
brief time on the island.
In Barbados, our chief scientist, my advisor, Dr. Lohmann, arrived, as well as a researcher with a project from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, out of Cape Cod. The "balance" of power amongst the science part has shifted drastically. Every one has different research needs and we are trying to accommodate all of them with a very tight schedule. Soon, the casts start - both CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) and multicorer. The crew has to prepare winches for the casts which means we need to have a plan for what, when, and how. To an extent, today the "real science" starts. Return to journal index |
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July 20
There are a number of unique challenges that research vessels face. The biggest challenge is this: Whatever you bring with you is all that you have. So, when the food refrigerator broke, and food started to go bad, that was a really bad sign. When our multicorer only managed to bring up 23 cm of sediment after about seven tries (which should have yielded about 700 cm), that was also a really bad sign. There is a lot of creative engineering on board. The crew engineers managed to salvage parts and pieces from other areas of the ship to fix the refrigerator. At one point, the multicorer frame broke, and again, creative engineering was required to weld it back together without quite the proper equipment. Unfortunately, too much food already went bad and the multicorer never collected sediment properly. We need to return to port. Only, because of triplicate delays, we lost our clearance for our intended port, Fortaleza, Brazil. So, the captain made the call to return to Barbados. We will lose a few days' time back-tracking and have to cancel a few sampling sites. However, we need food, and, more importantly, we can get a different corer apparatus in Barbados, rush-shipped from the National Science Foundation. The multicorer device we have seemed ideal. There is a frame inside of which a weighted set of tubes are held on a vertical track. When the device hits the ocean floor, first the frame touches, and then the tubes slide downwards and are pushed into the floor by their weight. The tubes are capped with the sediment inside them before the device is lifted again. The sampling is relatively gentle and should preserve the layers of the sediment in order. This allows dating of the different sediment layers. In its multiple deployments however, the tubes did not seem to penetrate the ocean floor at all. The device may have been landing tilted or closing prematurely. We tried changing numerous features, but nothing worked. The new corer apparatus that we will obtain will be a box corer or a gravity corer. These devices do not even attempt to preserve the order of the sediment. However, their operation is much more reliable. Both function by being dropped full-force into the ocean floor. The force of the collision captures sediment and triggers a closing mechanism that traps it. The relative indelicacy of this type of coring method completely mixes the sediment layers. We will not be able to date sediment layers, a big part of understanding black carbon fluxes. However, the multicorer we have does not work, and having samples of any type is still much better than no samples at all. In other news, we can now add comb jellyfish, bio-luminescent algae, and young squid to our list of encountered sea life. Also, I have now had my first ever swordfish for dinner. Return to journal index |
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July 25
We arrived back in Barbados on Friday morning. Everyone had the chance to enjoy the island one more time, and we restocked and received a grab corer to try. This time I did not venture as far, but enjoyed walking around Bridgetown. On a Saturday, the city is very busy with shoppers and street vendors. It was a really interesting cultural experience to just walk with the crowds and see some of the different stores. We left Barbados at about 9:30 AM today, and it is already out of sight half an hour later. We will not see land until we are pulling into the port at Dakar. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that! This is what our days will approximately be like: Breakfast starts at 7:30 and ends at 8:30. Most of us wake up and go straight to breakfast. When the weather is rough, it can be hard to sleep because you slide around on the mattress. After nights like that, every one tends to show up a little later to breakfast. After breakfast, usually there is some downtime, a chance to fully wake up. We will replace the filters on our sampling devices which usually takes about half an hour. If we are at a sampling site, we will launch the corer. Then, we measure the fluorescence of a number of samples as part of our pyrene fluorescence loss study (to be discussed next entry!). That takes a couple of hours, usually until lunch, 11:30--12:30. After lunch, the corer should be almost back to the surface. We get ready to collect it and process sediment. When the corer comes up, there is hopefully a lot of sediment. We take 1cm layers as samples in separate jars. So far, the multicorer only pulled up 23 cm of sediment. We expected nearly 100 cm per deployment. However, even 23 cm took 1-2 hours to process. The new grab corer samples differently so we are not quite sure how to process its sediment. It should bring up a lot more sediment, so we expect many more hours of sampling and processing. By the end of sediment processing, it will likely be time for dinner, 5:00-6:00. After dinner, sampling filters sometimes need to be replaced again. However, for the most part, science is done for the day. We spent a week taking turns giving presentations about our individual research, from 7:00-8:00. However, we will probably not be doing any more presentations until the end of the cruise. At 8:00, the crew tends to congregate in the galley where there is a television. A vote is held on a movie or television show to watch. (The ship has quite the movie DVD/VHS collection.) Then, we relax until sleeping! When we are not at a sampling site, our day is very different. There is no sediment to process so the afternoon is essentially ours to spend as we wish. Too many days in a row, and this becomes a little bit dull. However, generally this is not the case, and we all came prepared for lots of downtime anyway. Of course, we also will be doing several CTD casts which add some variety to the schedule as well. Furthermore, in actuality the schedule is highly dependent on the day. I tried to describe my 'standard' day, however, the corer is really just launched whenever we reach the sampling site. The time it takes to deploy and recover depends on how deep the site is. So, the schedule really can vary significantly. But, the change of the sampling filters occurs at a fixed time as do all meals, and everyday we have to take fluorescence measurements at approximately the same time. Every cruise experience is different based on what the goal of the research is. I've described my 'standard' day on the ship. Three researchers from Virginia Commonwealth are on board with us, and they have a totally different type of schedule which involves some very late nights and even a couple of all-nighters already. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute researchers were on board before us in the Gulf of Mexico with the unmanned submersible, Sentry. The crew tells us that their science schedule was extremely busy, sleep was a luxury. Every experience at sea is unique. Return to journal index |
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July 29
Some more information about our research on board the R/V Endeavor: The Pyrene Fluorescence Loss Study Typically, black carbon is measured by a process known as CTO-375, or, chemothermal oxidation at 375 degrees C. CTO-375 is based on the principle that non-black organic carbon is less thermally stable than black carbon. Therefore, all non-black organic carbon can be burned off at 375 degrees C, a chemothermal oxidation process. Only the more stable, black carbon remains, and this can be weighed, providing a measure of black carbon. Although this is a 'standard' method for black carbon research, it has flaws. Its foremost flaw is the potential to generate new black carbon from the burning of non-black organic carbon. Pyrene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon composed of four benzene rings in a sheet. As a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), pyrene absorbs to black carbon particles. Pyrene is also a fluorescent molecule -- thanks to its aromaticity. The affinity of pyrene for black carbon, as well as its fluorescence, provides the basis for a measurement of black carbon alternative to CTO-375, one we call pyrene fluorescence loss (PFL). First, we generated a standard curve for pyrene fluorescence. We created a series of different concentration pyrene solutions and measured their fluorescence with a spectrofluorophotometer that we brought on board. This allows us to interpret between fluorescence signal and pyrene concentration. Second, we made a number of identical solutions of pyrene in water at the same concentration. To these, we added black carbon samples that we have collected, in the form of cut disks from our air filters. These samples are incubated in the dark (being entirely wrapped up in tinfoil) with shaking from our shaker table. The pyrene that we added to the samples will absorb to any black carbon. Once absorbed to black carbon, pyrene cannot fluoresce. Therefore, once equilibrium is reached between aqueous pyrene and absorbed pyrene, the difference between the initial fluorescence and final fluorescence represents how much black carbon is present. PFL is a very new method which has only been tested by one lab and only on a select set of reference compounds. Our mission on board is two-fold; to test PFL against new samples which will also be analyzed by CTO-375, and to determine when pyrene equilibrium is established. To this end, we are currently measuring the fluorescence of our prepared samples everyday in an attempt to 'watch' equilibrium establish. The previous lab's work suggested that equilibrium took at least 15 days, but recommended 30 days' incubation. We would like to minimize incubation time for practical reasons, but we need to make sure that equilibrium is fully established before we make final measurements. PFL is not to be considered an equivalent method to CTO-375. It is not analogous, but complementary. We know that PFL will measure a different range of black carbon than CTO-375. CTO-375 burns away all but the most stable black carbon, the soot black carbon. PFL does not remove any carbon from the sample. Therefore, the less stable black carbon -- chars and charcoals -- are included in PFL measurements. We expect PFL to therefore yield consistently larger black carbon measurements than CTO-375. Comparing PFL and CTO-375 measurements help us understand the composition of the black carbon in the sample, in particular, how much soot relative to chars and charcoals is present. Return to journal index |
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July 31
At 1AM, two nights ago, we reached another coring station. We all woke ourselves early from sleep to send the new grab corer overboard. While we waited for the core (it takes about 4 hours for a 3000-4000 meter cast), Eric, a researcher from Toronto University, tried to collect flying fish with fishing nets. Unfortunately, at 5:30 AM the grab corer came up as empty as the multicorer before it, and only one tiny tuna was caught. 
We will soon arrive at our next coring site where we intended to test both corers again. However, today the weather may defeat us. A tropical depression or storm is in the area and the water is quite rough. Under such conditions, both corers are likely to trigger early. Both coring devices have a closing mechanism to capture sediment which is activated by an upward pull on the wire. A strong swell may lift the ship enough to trigger the closing. Of course, if either corer closes before it hits bottom, it cannot collect sediment. We will first do a shallow CTD cast to see how the conditions really are, but it is unlikely we will be able to core. We still have hope, though! Other than the ups and downs of our coring trials, ship life is the same as always. Those of us who have been on board since St. Petersburg are perhaps getting a little anxious for the trip to end. The novelty of not being able to walk straight has worn off, and repeated disappointments including coring failures and never making it to Brazil have downed our spirits a little bit. We also had expected to be in a doldrum area with calm, smooth water and the rough water we have is quite the opposite of that. However, we simply try to reinforce fun on the ship. There is a four-person chess tournament going on with seven-game matches. A couple of times a week, we have movie night and take over the galley and television for whatever show or movie we have all agreed on. Morale may be down a little, but we still have fun. Plus, we have passed the official halfway-mark, so now spirits are actually beginning to rise again, with the prospect of only three weeks left. Return to journal index |
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August 4
At 11 PM last night (two time zones over from est), we arrived at our next coring site. The last site was a failure. The rough weather that day caused the corer to trigger only at about 200 meters down (ocean floor was at about 3700 meters). We have been able to make a number of modifications to the original multicorer apparatus since then. One modification increased the resistance so the device should be less likely to trigger early. We deployed once more at 11PM. Unfortunately, the multicorer triggered early again. We tried a second deployment. It triggered early also, although only about 50 meters above ocean floor! In a change of tactics, we switched to the grab corer, and sent that down. It came back up at about noon (each cast takes about 4 hours), but it had only a small residual amount of sediment in it. It was enough to see that this ocean floor is very different, however. The sediment was all phytoplankton with calcium carbonate shells. It looks like large white sand grains held together by a small amount of brown mud, totally different from the ooze residues we have pulled up at other sites. Now we sit and wait. We are attempting to modify the grab corer. We will continue to try to get sediment, at least for now. 
In good news, while the corers made their trips to the ocean
floor and back, Eric, the marine biologist studying flying fish, tried
fishing for flying fish again. This time, we knew he'd have success as
soon as we arrived on site. Once we stopped, we could see small flying
fish jumping all around the ship. We extended a light out over the
water, then, taking turns with three dip nets, we started fishing! The
flying fish are somewhat attracted to the light at night. They are
really well adapted for flying out of the water, but their sacrifice
was obviously being able to swim well in the water. Their large
wing-like fins do not allow effective swimming. The fish fly, land in
the water, and then just float until they fly again. It was not too
difficult to position a net in their path and catch them. It was all
very exciting. The hardest part was to spot the fish. Those without a
net would be on the lookout, then point out any fish they saw to
someone with a net, and then the difficult thrust of the heavy net at
the fish. (The dip nets are very long in order to reach far into the
water, but that does make them very difficult to maneuver and
relatively heavy.)
In total, 136 fish were caught when the sun began to rise and disperse the curious swimmers. We did not only encounter flying fish, however. Along with four different species of flying fish, several lantern fish were caught which represented about 3 different species. There were also several halfbeak fish. Halfbeaks are the closest relatives to flying fish, but they have underdeveloped fin wings, about half the size of the true flying fish wings. They cannot fly but can pseudo glide along the water surface. Almost all of the fish were juvenile, only about 1 to 2 inches long. Besides fish that were caught, there were a few snake mackeral that swam nearby. There were also a good deal of squid. Whether the squid were attracted to the light, or just attracted to the flying fish, we do not know. It did not take long, however, for 7 to 10 squid to congregate around the ship. The squid ate the flying fish. Although this did take away from our sample, it also scared the fish to the surface and to fly, which made it easier to catch them. At one point, one of the squid was accidentally caught. When it reached the surface, it inked and we quickly threw it back overboard! The squid were quite the sight. They can swim very fast but only in straight lines. When they eat, their tentacles reach up and grab the fish then pull it in really fast. These squid were only about 10 inches, otherwise it might have been frightening to see. Return to journal index |
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August 8
For the past four days, we have been trying to collect sediment. We have moved between two different sites and tried both multicorer and grab corer. Each time a corer goes down, it comes back up empty. Our technicians have made many modifications now, but still no results, and we're running out of ideas. 
On a positive note, our coring attempts have allowed for more
flying-fish fishing nights. Although the flying fish have not been as
abundant as at the first site, it is always quite an occasion. We can
add another couple of species to the list we have encountered âÃÂàboth
mahi mahi and puffer fish. Like the squid, the mahi mahi feed on the
flying fish. After the first night, they have actually been quite
abundant. They seem to come three or four fish at a time and then
circle the ship. Eric actually caught a mahi mahi in his net the
second night (a great gift for his birthday!). The fish was longer
than his torso and became lunch the next day. There have been many
repeated attempts to catch mahi mahi since, but perhaps these fish are
wiser because they stay away from the nets.
Tonight yielded the first puffer fish. They don't look particularly different under the water, but if they get caught in a net and pulled out of the water, they inflate! They exhibit classical sea camouflage, with bright white bellies and dark blue tops. When inflated, their fins become useless and flap wildly, achieving nothing. We made sure to return the puffer fish to the water quickly so that they would survive. When they reach the water, they stay inflated and float like little, funny, spiky buoys before slowly deflating. They're actually very adorable fish! (Much better than dead, preserved specimens!)
August 11
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We finally found the doldrums of the South Atlantic. We expected
to reach them more than a week ago but were confounded by rough
weather from a nearby tropical depression. Finally though, we get a
break from rocking and rolling. The water has been very calm, calm
enough to even allow the chess tournament to continue outside. We have
also felt the hint of fall though! Even only 4 degrees North of the
equator, a cold breeze came through yesterday. Of course, today it is
too hot to stay in the sun for more than five minutes â a description
befitting most of the cruise weather, except for rainy days.
We continue trying to collect sediment with both corers. Yesterday, we had some success when the multicorer came up with 1-2 centimeters of sediment. However, since then we have only pulled up water. Even small amounts of sediment are useful. The surface 2 centimeters are actually of greatest interest, representing the latest black carbon deposition. We had hoped for much more though, so that we could archive it for future reference, and for use in other types of studies. Also, a greater sediment depth would allow more historical analysis of black carbon deposition which may be insightful. At night, fishing continues. Eric caught two medium-sized mahi mahi which again became lunch. We see mahi mahi almost every time we are fishing now. The squid are also always there, as well as lantern fish. We have seen a different variety of flying fish in this area with particularly more half-beaks (closest relatives to flying fish which can pseudo-glide but not fly). Occasionally, we have glimpsed what we think are small portugese man of war jellyfish floating by. My pyrene fluorescence loss study is drawing to a close. I have almost three weeks of daily measurements, and a series of one or two day studies of influencing variables. I am beginning to closely examine the results and write a thorough analysis. So far, the results are interesting, and I have realized several serious problems and tried to determine potential solutions. Although being at sea has limited the research that I could undertake, my results should be valuable for future implementation of the pyrene fluorescence loss method within the Lohmann lab. Return to journal index
August 13
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What a week! On Wednesday, we deployed the grab corer twice. Both times it came back upside down! No one knows how that could have even happened. There must have been some very strong deep currents at that site. There were certainly enough flying fish at that site. During the second deployment, we were able to fish off of the side of the ship with the dip nets. This time was unlike any before. I was in the main lab doing some work when one of the other scientists came inside and reported, `It's like a plague of flying fish out there!' I stepped outside, and it was exactly as you might imagine a plague of flying fish to be like. They were everywhere! Easily you could see 10 out of the water at a time and considering how often they actually jump, there were probably 100 in the water, within a few square meters. We could see this funny, really large, light blue shape swimming around too. As it got closer, we realized that it was a school of young flying fish, easily 100 or more. There was more than one school like that too. It didn't take long for us to detect the predators. This time, instead of large mahi mahi, there were seabirds. I didn't realize that such birds would hunt at night, but there were 10 to 15 of them around the ship. We could hear them calling and occasionally see one at the periphery of the light. They would snatch a juvenile flying fish right out of the air. A little while after most of the schools seemed to have passed, a squid attacked one of the scientists. Well, not quite â but it did launch itself out of the water right at her. She managed to get out of the way, and it hit the wall of the ship with some serious force. That could have been a broken nose. It's not the first squid to launch itself onto the deck, and particularly at someone. We wonder if the orange life vests might attract them, since they are orange too. Wednesday ended with some heavy rain that complicated fishing and the recovery of the grab corer (the second upside down recovery). We do have the luxury of being in tropical waters, so while every one got wet, it was still pleasantly warm outside. Thursday proceeded to yield over the course of two multicorer deployments four sediment samples of about 2 cm. This was the most success with coring that we had seen for weeks. Everyone's mood was a little brighter. However, today had to one-up-it. 
It is Friday the 13th. Today should have been unlucky according to popular suspicion. However, those of us on the cruise might have to revise our opinions of it. This morning the water was perfectly calm. We arrived at our station at about 5:30 AM. The multicorer was deployed. Four hours later, it was recovered. This time there were two samples, 3 and 4 cm each, and a true core 10 cm deep! We put the sediment by 1 cm layers into sealed jars. This was the most fascinating mud that I have ever encountered. After the first 2 cm, it reminded me exactly of agarose gels. It was stiff, but you could slice it so easily, like a slightly stiffer jello. There were some black streaks throughout the mud layers that made it look a little bit like a brown marble. Maybe the streaks were black carbon? It is definitely a relief to get some good samples after so many failed deployments. 
Unfortunately, an afternoon deployment at the same site failed entirely. (This time the sea was not on our side and a couple of jarring waves seemed to have pre-triggered the multicorer.) We are now moving on with raised hopes to another station. We will attempt coring at two more sites before we pull into port at Dakar, Senegal, and many of us fly back to the United States. Return to journal index
August 18
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Tonight we stopped for a CTD cast and some fishing, but that's the last science stop for the trip and now it is onward to Dakar, Senegal. Fishing tonight was unusual. We did not see any flying fish. There was a school of small mahi mahi swimming around and eating all the small fish in the area. Without any other news to report, I decided that it would be a good time to reflect on what stuff I would recommend for a cruise. I made three lists; stuff that I was glad that I brought, stuff that I wish I had brought, and stuff that just wasn't very useful. Glad that I brought:
-A variety of my favorite movies
-A favorite TV series; a single episode of a TV series is a lot
shorter than a movie and better for filling in those odd hours or
half-hours of waiting for deployments during the day.
-Novels; some of the other scientists read every book that they
brought with them, but I found that reading for a long time left me
not feeling very well, so I ended up only reading short stories from
two anthologies that I brought with me. Return to journal index
August 24
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Dakar was unlike anywhere I have ever been before. Of course, I have only ever been to Europe and different regions of the United States, but Dakar was even beyond what I could have imagined. The people are very friendly, but very persistent. People walk the streets selling wares and they will follow you for several blocks even if you say you are not interested. There are also people selling items at booths, and those people who latch on as 'guides.' I was not really scared for my safety, but our money was constantly in danger. The native language is french, which complicates everything too.
We were fortunate to make it to Goree island, Dakar's primary attraction. The island is very small, but very beautiful. There was a lot of art for sale, in contrast to the clothes, soap and shoes in the city. Most of the people selling wares were women, and far less persistent than the merchants in Dakar's downtown. The island has an interesting historical significance as a primary way point for the African slave trade. It also has a beach; Although I didn't personally swim there, a couple of our science party did.
Dakar was a very interesting place to visit, but I was glad when it was time to go to the airport and fly home. It took almost 24 hours for me to travel from Dakar to my home, but that only meant that I was much more excited about being home by the time I got there. It was sad to leave the Endeavor, especially since the crew is still not yet home. I hope that they have a great trip back to Rhode Island – although tropical storm Danielle is probably giving them some rough water. Our trip had its ups and downs, but it was an amazing experience. It was definitely the best way that I could have spent my summer. I will miss the people that I met and even the rocking of the ship despite how hard it made taking a shower. Thank you to the Endeavor crew, Dr. Lohmann, Kari, our fellow scientists, GSO and URI for a truly great experience~! Return to journal index
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