Two nights snuggling in Snug Cove? I have to be honest, I feel we deserve it. Realistically we could spend one week, maybe even two just getting a handle on all the fancy electronics.
As the days progress, and we just start to get a handle on everything we gave ourselves to do there is the very start, really just a bud at this point, that the idea of turning our rowboat into a researching/communication device is pretty cool. At this point it manifest itself large in sighs and resigned laughter—which is a decent step up from the rage and frustration of where we have been for the last month.
Let me take you through some of the basics of our shipboard schedule as it pertains to these topics:
Science:
- YSI Cast Away (every two hours)
- Data Logger (to take in all of our water and weather data): Download every six hours
- NOAA Weather Reports: Fill out every six hours
- Sleep Study: M,W,F fill out sleep forms twice a day. Twice a week wear the M1
- Download Data to FTP so we back it up
- Bonus: Hydrophone. Use when quiet and we suspect compelling mega fauna are swimming around us
Film:
Get ten minutes to Shaw TV every day. Back it up (This is time and tech intensive)
Shore Communication:
- Communicate with our ED Otto Loggers so he can facilitate our connection with shore (and many other sundry tasks to make sure our shore infrastructure breaks while we are at sea)
- Facebook twice a day
- Twitter as able
- Blog once a day with pic
- Test some live streaming with schools
- Test our Yellowbrick as communication device
Nav and Weather (most important as this directly pertains to our safety)
- Stay on course
- Read Angie and her crew at UW weather teams weather reports
- Keep Nav Guru David Burch updated as needed.
- Keep Dan Heyl and Matt Netting (our electrician gurus) updated as need, thus far it’s all been working bomber.
NOTE: I assure you I am probably missing something and hopefully some of our shore team can get into the awesome details of what all this stuff does.
Considering I had trouble brushing my teeth on the North Atlantic this might have been a bit ambitious, but as I wake up I see every one ready to give this everything we have, and I’m becoming ok that we gave ourselves an overwhelming amount to do because if anyone can do it I think it’s us. Rick is down with Dr. Fritz Stahr (who generously took his time to come out to Snug Cove from Seattle last night) to install a new pump to feed our water instruments. Markus is filming and Adams playing a bit of mandolin before he makes breakfast.
Again, I really want to emphasize that if you’re reading this about the four of us it’s because a lot of people have helped us. To get an idea of the brainpower, skill, and support behind us check out our Sponsor page, Marine Tech Team page, and Educational Advisory Committee page and many others.
The great thing about the Inside Passage is that we have places to stop off meaning we can leave sometime today and test the effectiveness of our scheduling and ability with the technology. If it seems like we need to take a bit more time, we can.
Why am I doing this to myself have been a popular question over the last few months. Late nights have been mandatory and weekends nonexistent. I know I am not the only one on the crew that has felt that way. We must love rowing, but there is more to it.
Sometime today we head out. Not sure when. Thanks for watching. We will keep you posted.