FeMO3 Dive Cruise 2008
Report Day 13 -- Saturday 4 October 2008 -- Thompson's Slosh Tank
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FeMO3 Dive Cruise 2008 |
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The trade winds picked up today and I was asked if I ever get queasy or seasick. Mostly I don't unless I've just got on the boat and it’s moving around a lot or I do something to make myself queasy. One thing that makes me queasy is to fight the roll and pitch of the ship – instead move slowly and wait for the roll or the pitch. Once I strung a pendulum from the ceiling to see how far it swung. Watching it made me sick instantly – I had to lie down for 20 minutes (Ugh!).
Mostly the movement is just kinda fun (unless it's too noisy or you're trying to sleep). The Kilo Moana (the FeMO 2007 ship which has two hulls) had a motion that included a kind of a jerk that might have caused some problems for me but I got used to it pretty fast. The R/V Thompson has this nice easy, long and irregular roll that is easy to deal with. The entire 03 deck forward the bridge is a slosh tank (notice there are no windows in it). The tank has baffles in it and it is about 3/4 full of water. When the boat rolls, the water up there first counters the roll (because of the inertia of the water) and then slowly sloshes to the other side. I've been up on the bridge when the roll seemed to correspond to the slosh just by chance and we took a big roll. We seemed to be hanging right over the water but it was a nice gentle roll and the next roll practically didn't happen. If you stand up there you can hear the water sloshing back and forth. It's kinda weird to think that they would flood so much of the ship, especially up high, but it works.
Jason went down early this morning to map Pele’s pit. (Amazing as it might seem, there is no detailed accurate map of the pit. Locations are based on land marks and given by directions. “Dive into the southeast corner of the pit, follow the bottom to 1100 meters depth and turn to the right at 1100 meters until you see a cliff. Continue north along the cliff until you find the marker.”) The mapping is done using sonar. The data is stored as a computer file that is then rendered into a map by map making software. To record the data Jason has to zigzag back and forth across the bottom of Pele’s Pit until the whole area of the map has been covered. Mid afternoon the control van lost communication with Medea. (Medea has thrusters, cameras, and transponders so her position can be located exactly.) Medea and Jason were brought back aboard for a quick repair and were back in the water shortly after 6 pm.
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