let the ops begin... maybe

How many people can we fit in the rubber boat?


05 Oct 2007
day 10
cruise day 5 - more ROV testing, more plankton, more diving

This morning's schedule is:
0700 test deployment of RopeCams
0800 Bongo tow net
0900 SCUBA dive: Divers: Horgan, Stone, Madin, Caloyianis, Lee
1100 ROV launch
1600 ROV recovery
1630 RopeCam deployments
1900 VPR cast
2100 SCUBA dive: Divers: tba

The RopeCam test deployment did get done this morning and since no one seems to be frantically working on it, it must have gone okay. I guess I could look in the lab to see if Ralph or Mike are working on itŠ

Well, things look calm in the lab. Russ, Bill, and Cabel are processing some of the plankton from the tow they did this morning, though. They have several gymnosomes and right now a baby squid is under the scope. Bill tried adding a gymnosome to the small kreisel, but it went half way around, went behind one of the curved pieces that deflects things from going into the corner, and promptly got stuck in a small pocket between the plexiglass and a tiny piece of silicone rubber sealant.

So, it's already 10:10AM and the SCUBA divers are preping themselves and the rubber boat now. I should go take some photos.

They loaded the boat with tons of camera equipment, 5 divers, and 2 Navy Seals. And off they went. They'll probably be back in about an hour. Then it'll probably be lunch time and then we'll deploy the ROV.

I have been working on formatting an excel sheet to take notes during the ROV dives. I'll probably squish in the back of the control room again and try to take notes. We'll see how that goes.

We finally got things rolling with the ROV at 1PM. The ROV was lifted and put into the water. As we tested some controls and the focus of the camera, we started seeing what looked like part of a bubble in the bottom of the screen. "What's that?? Is that water?? All stop! All stop!" After they spent all that time yesterday with Nick and Lee's help fixing the back focus on the HD video camera, now the housing was leaking and had water in it. At least we still had picture, so we knew the camera was still working and they hadn't unhooked the ROV from the crane, so it could be quickly recovered and put back on the deck. Sigh. Another challenge.

After another session of opening the camera housing and replacing the glass dome (where the camera looks through into the water), the ROV was back in the water around 5:30PM. Things were going well until we got down to about 250m. Then the dome started fogging up. Sigh. After a lot of debate, Toshi decided we should come up some and see if it cleared up. I think we came up to about 100m and the glass was okay. Then we went back down and it wasn't as bad as the first time and we finally spend some time with ROV down underwater. The good news is that the picture is amazingly crystal clear now that they fixed the camera.

We took turns having dinner and rotating in and out of the little room. We tried to find the bottom, but it was deeper than the ROV is rated to go. We went to the max depth rating for the vehicle (2800m) plus some to end us up at 2820m. The tether and the cable got twisted up, so a lot of time was spent trying to untangle it. The ROV was brought back on deck around midnight. I finally went to bed when the ROV was about 40m down and ascending.

Unsurprisingly, the night dive was cancelled.

we're here!

Greg Stone gets video of the ROV taking it's first dip in the Celebes Sea.

04 Oct 2007
day 9
cruise day 4 - we are here

The alarm went off around 5:30AM this morning because we thought we'd be on site at 6AM and work would start then. Before anyone moved in their bed, Caron said that she had been to the bridge at 2AM and they said we wouldn't be on site until 10AM, so we decided we weren't in a hurry to get out of bed. We were still up in time for breakfast at 6AM, though, and then hung around until we were on site at 9:45AM.

When the boat stopped, absolutely everyone, including kitchen staff, went out on deck to watch the ROV set up. The Navy Seals were outside in full camouflage: one with a gun, one with a pair of binoculars looking around the boat, with the other two wandering the deck.

It was quite hot today and the strong sun beat on all of us standing on deck who were anxiously awaiting the ROV's launch. We are about 5 degrees north of the equator, much closer than before. We couldn't ask for nicer weather for running equipment or for the photographers to take photos, though.

The first test dive for the ROV didn't happen until 11AM, so we waited in the sun for a long time. Before the ROV went in for the first time, Michael Aw and Greg Stone went in on scuba to take photos of the ROV while it was underwater. Nick and Lee stayed on deck to video from above.

I was sitting in the back of the very small control room with 3 others: Joe, our ROV pilot, Emory and Russ. I was trying to figure out a way to annotate the ROV video logs in real time. During the first dive Joe realized that the camera for the suction sampler jars wasn't working right and we couldn't see if things made it into the sampling jars or not. They think that it was an overheating problem, so they brought it back on board and I think they put some ice on it to cool it down while we ate lunch.

It was almost 1PM when we began ROV test dive 2 and we had actually waited about 20 minutes for it to get started, so I ran upstairs to get something to do in the meantime. When I came back there was a picture on one screen and I asked if we were in the water and Emory and Joe said no and that the picture we were seeing was from the first test dive, but it turned out that the ROV was indeed in the water and no one outside had said told Joe. Then Joe switched on all the equipment and his monitor didn't work. All the other ones did, so he drove a bit using the other ones until Toshi figured out that the monitor's connection in back had come loose. All 3 photographers had jumped in the water to take photos and video this time and we got video of them taking pictures of the ROV.

Things seem to be working well, so they decided that they would turn the test dive in to a real dive to at least 75m, but of course, the fathometer/sounder? on the ship had stopped working that morning, so we didn't really know how deep the ocean was at that location. Then when they tried to put the clump weight over the side, the winch wasn't working. During this dive, Emory and Russ decided that there was something wrong with the HD video camera, too. It wasn't focusing properlys. And even though the bridge said the bottom was at 100m, we went to 154m and never saw the bottom.

The big problem for the day is that the HD camera is not focusing correctly. I think the ROV crew and Nick and Lee are in the lab working on fixing it right now. HmŠ Russ also just finished towing a bongo net, so he'll be in there with the new plankton sample soon. It's going to be busy in that lab tonight. I think Cabell is also dropping his VPR right now, but I don't think he'll need lab space.

Being crammed in a little room for over 3 hours was hot and apparently tiring. I'm falling asleep as I am trying to write this.

calm waters

Calm water and the aft deck of the boat.

03 Oct 2007
day 8
cruise day 3 - transit, Sulu Sea

This morning was the sunniest day so far and it isn't very humid. The weather and the water have been wonderful since that first night after we left harbor.

Sounds like we are going to send people off for a shopping trip in Zamboanga at some point during the cruise. I guess primarily we need more food and Larry said we might have room on the list for personal items. I don't I need anything, though. Some people are unhappy with food - sometimes it is fine, sometimes it is not. I think the catering company isn't used to feeding so many people and so many big appetites. The portions are small and I don't think much of the food is familiar to many of us, so it can be a little disconcerting especially when you're working so hard and sleeping on a boat, the last thing you should be worrying about is if you'll get enough food. We have rice three meals a day and that's okay with me, but I definitely know that is out of the ordinary for everyone, including me. Sometimes the rice is not cooked well, but most of the time it is okay. Peggy said she found a cooked maggot in her rice. After what I saw at the fish market, I'm surprised I can get the fish at dinner to my lips, but I think if I think too hard about it, I won't be able to eat anything at all.

The Navy seals were on watch this afternoon as we passed by certain islands. They stood outside on the bridge level and were keeping a close eye on the boats between our ship and the islands. I guess they are worried about pirates or being attacked. The seriousness with which they take their job is comforting, but at the same time it is somewhat disturbing that it is necessary that they do so.

We had a brief update meeting at 10AM today and then at 2PM we had the SCUBA diving meeting.

Russ took another plankton sample tonight and there were lots of cool things swimming around in it. There were lots of diatoms, too. I think they are still in the lab identifying stuff.

The bioluminescence tonight is not as bright as last night, but that may be because there are a few more lights emanating from what look like fishing boats. It looks like there are several fishing boats out and we are not that far from one of the islands right now. We did spend a large part of today in open water, though.

The big news is that we should arrive on site tomorrow at 6AM and the first work schedule (subject to change, of course!) is posted outside the mess hall:

0600 on site
0630 ROV test dives
During the morning sometime, rig block on crane for deployment of VPR and bongo nets, set up kreisel in lab
1500 (or after ROV deployment) test RopeCam deployment
1600 SCUBA dive. Dirvers: Horgan, Stone, Madin, Caloyianis, Lee
1900 Bongo nets
2000 VPR

full steam ahead

Calm waters viewed from the bow of the ship.

02 Oct 2007
day 7
cruise day 2 - transit, Mindoro Island

Our first full day at sea! Luckily, the water has been pretty calm since we've been tucked between islands. The big island to the west is called Mindoro Island and we'll be in its protection for a while. The word is that we've lost some time because of the large tidal surge from the tail end of the second low depression that passed through the Manila area. It may not be as rough on the way back throughŠ unless of course there is another storm here in 2 weeks. I guess it was so rough the captain asked Larry if we could turn around and go back to the dock.

At 10AM, we had our first full science meeting. I have notes of that somewhere. We did introductions of ourselves and Nick and Lee got it all on film. Larry had our route and pointed to the map a couple times for the camera.

I wandered around and tried to get answers to one of the first two questions we have received through NOAA from the website. I went around to the photographers (Emory Kristoff, Nick Caloyianis, Michael Aw) and asked them about their underwater camera equipment and I got way in over my head! Mostly what I got back were numbers and letters of cameras and acronyms for types of lights and funny names of companies that make underwater housings. It was fun and I might have learned something from them. I'll probably need to hear it all about 20 more times before I begin to understand it, though.

At 2PM, we had another meeting led by Mon who summarized the fisheries of the area and Bill who talked about some of the literature that he brought along that pertains to the region and kind of science that we'll be doing.

I think Russ threw some bongo nets in the water to collect some plankton. There was a flurry of activity in the lab to photograph and identify organisms.

Some time in the afternoon, the ship got stuck on fishing line and the navy seals jumped in to fix it. It didn't take long at all and we were on our way again.

Tonight we were able to see bioluminescence at the bow of the ship. It looked like welding sparks bouncing off the ship, but bluish in color rather than reds and oranges. I don't think I've seen such large bioluminescence before. Some people saw dolphins riding the pressure wave off the bow. When the dolphins swim through the water, they also leave behind a wake of glowing bioluminescent organisms. I haven't seen that yet, but I hope to one of these nights.

let the adventure begin (please?)!

The first group photo opportunity of the trip.

01 Oct 2007
day 6
cruise day 1

The day started at the same early time of 6AM. And as usual, we had no idea what the plan was for that day - except for that we might actually be leaving dock. At first, there was word that there was going to be a short ceremony at 8AM with NAMRIA and a few other officials. Talina and I watched as people showed up at the dock and came aboard. Just after 8AM we heard that there wasn't going to be a ceremony because the Director of NAMRIA, Rodolfo Agaton, and Press Director, Lida Papa, hadn't arrived, but then they did and so the ceremony was back on. The ceremony was a short ceremony with a few words from the Director, Captain Pascual, Caron De Mars, Larry Madin, and Mon Romero.Š We all went out and took a group photo in front of the boat.

The last thing to be brought aboard today was the MOC 10 trawl frame. It was lifted by crane and tied to the starboard A frame.

Caron offered to let Talina and I tag along to the Embassy (to see a little more of Manila) because she was going to try to mail Nick's broken underwater housing back to the US, which would go by Navy airplane. Afterwards, she had the Embassy driver drop us off at Balikbayan which is a store with crafts made in the Philippines. Talina did some of her Christmas shopping and Caron bought presents for Toshi's and Peggy's birthdays.

Shortly after we returned, we were informed that birthday cake would be at 11AM. When most people had gathered, the lights were dimmed in the mess hall and we sang happy birthday to Toshi & Peggy. The cakes were beautifully decorated. We were then told that we had to lunch before they'd serve us cake!

We actually then heard that departure time would be 1PM. All we needed to leave was Michael Aw, who had been sick with pneumonia for the last few days. We did leave close to 1 PM and everyone was on deck to watch us push off for the 63 hour trip.

We didn't go very far before stopping, though. We tested the ROV just outside the breakwater. After dunking the ROV just barely underwater for about 15 minutes with a full audience, we got a thumbs up signal and applause and a collective sigh of relief erupted from the onlookers who then all quickly dispersed. It was another 20 minutes to get the clump weight secured to Toshi's and Mike's satisfaction.

At 4PM we had a meeting where most of the scientists were in attendance. We talked about the general plan for the trip and that it was going to be subject to many changesŠ and scheduled another meeting for tomorrow at 10AM.

Right after the meeting, around 5PM, I went to bed because it was getting quite rough. Not too long later, Talina came to the room to lay down, too. I actually felt perfectly fine laying down, but my stomach was clearly unhappy, though it didn't hurt. Between 8 and 10PM, there were really large swells that made the whole boat creak and everything in our room sway. Around 11PM, it finally calmed down after we ducked behind Mindoro Island. After that I was actually able to get some real sleep.

anticipation builds

Fish market venue with green buckets used to hold fish until they are sold. Sometimes there is ice in them, too.

Alley-like walk/driveway between two of the fish market buildings.

On the left is Tanigue and on the right is Imelda (not to scale; Imelda are only about half as long as the Tanigue).

30 Sept 2007
day 5

The big news today is that we might be leaving tomorrow around 8 AM.

At breakfast, Emory and Bill were talking about going to the fish market to get bait for the RopeCams and I asked if I could go along, too. I anticipated another slow day and wanted to see a little more of Manila. Talina joined us and we piled into a double cab pickup truck around 6:30AM.

The scenery on the 20-minute drive was interesting. We drove the opposite direction that we had gone for the Mall of Asia (I think) and past large neighborhoods of raggedly put together dwellings primarily consisting of tires and pieces of sheet metal. There was something about the chaos of hundreds of two story dwellings that contained some order. We drove over a large bridge over a wide waterway (river? ocean? delta? water between 2 island? no idea) and none of the bank was visible on one side because the edge of the homes sat right on it. There were a few rickety looking boats tied to small piers attached to a few of the houses. We passed a large gym that was mostly enclosed, but was open on the sides. It looked fairly new and there were people in bleachers watching people play some game that I couldn't see. We drove past piles of shipping containers and these are the large ones like we see in the United States, not the tiny ones that I saw being hauled around in Japan. In front of some of the shacks that were right on the street (no curb or sidewalk), they were selling lots and lots of bananas. As we drove down the street past the Jeepneys, bicycles with side cars, and motorcycles with side cars, I noticed that all the lane lines were all white dashed linesŠ no double yellow lines in sight nor anything to indicate the middle of the road or divide the street into lanes for opposite traffic. It more or less seemed like everyone knew where they were suppose to drive. The most common problem with drivers is that they don't drive in their lanes nor do they go forward when they are supposed to - which results in a lot of honking. There were a few intersections with signals AND people directing traffic, but they seem about equally chaotic to the rest of the driving around here. We passed large piles of trash mixed with what looked like mud (probably decompsingŠ things) and who knows what else was in there. We also passed people (and dogs) digging through the piles of trash and the dogs were trying to eat stuff.

Our driver finally pulled over and dropped us off at a partially fenced off open air structure. There weren't too many people there selling fish, but my impression was that we were early because as the morning went on, more and more fish in buckets showed up. The condition of everything was very poor. There was trash everywhere and green water (I assume it was antifreeze) in the alley-like asphalt laid down between the raised, roofed cement slabs that seemed to be the staging area for the fish market. There were dogs and children, some of which were partially or completely naked, wandering around. The only time I saw anyone attempting to clean up the fish market was when one man stood using a hose to wash down the concrete to get rid of the trash and fish gutts. In the run off water, one small, completely naked boy was having fun running and sliding in the water like it was a slip 'n slide. He would stop, look at us, and then repeat. He was having a lot of fun.

This first stop on our fish market shopping trip only had very small fish. There were thousands of fish, but all of them could fit in the palm of your hand. We saw silver dollar fish and whitefish mostly. Emory wanted to try to find tuna or at least some bigger fish, so we got back in the car and drove a few blocks away and there we found much larger fish. They had mahi and something that looked like barracuda, but didn't have the right teeth that the people called Tanigue. There were also more of these strange fish that looked like cross between carp and arapaima with an upturned mouth. They definitely looked like a freshwater species and looked very primitive. We found out that these are called Imelda by the locals. We purchased Tanigue (later I found out that it was King Mackerel), locally considered a delicacy, and Imelda for a total of almost 100 kilograms of fish for bait. We did all that and returned to the ship before 8AM.

When we got back we helped move more stuff to the hold, while others worked on securing the last few things. One last large thing to secure was the MOC 10 trawl net. That required the crane and a lot of rope!

I worked most of the afternoon on writing the second cruise log for NOAA and since our Iridium phone is misbehaving, we also tried to prepare a bunch of photos in the right format with captions that might be matched with later logs that we send to NOAA. Greg offered to send text through his phone, but we probably can't send photos.

We had an impromptu happy hour with the gin we bought at the Hyper Market and had a toast to leaving tomorrow on Peggy's birthday.

To see all the NOAA cruise logs, go here:
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/07philippines/welcome.html

and use the links on the right hand side.

The weather & shopping

The armored van.

HyperMarket, one stop shopping.

29 Sept 2007
day 4

The big story for today was the weather. We woke up to a low pressure system rolling through (if they get stronger they call them typhoons here in the Pacific rather than hurricanes), with gentle waves rocking the boat and large white waves breaking over the nearest breakwater. We are 40 miles from the opening of Manila bay, which is quite a long fetch for winds to move across and act upon to create large waves: the longer the fetch, the larger the waves. Currently, there is one low pressure storm to the east of us and one to the west that has already passed over the islands. Val, one of the Philippino biologists, thinks that the second one will be done with tomorrow. We hope so because it would be a shame to finally get everything together and then be delayed by a storm.

However, we are having problems getting parts we need to accomplish the set up for the ship. Apparently, the group that went out yesterday had an embassy driver and had the armored van for the day and it tried to pull over to a curb to wait for them to finish shopping and pulled over to a place where a trench had been recently dug and filled, but not packed down tightly, so the two right side tires sunk all the way to the axel - and remember this was an armored van so it was much heavier to dig out than a regular van. That caused a delay in looking for parts at a store where the shopping convoy would eventually find out that they didn't carry the part (or anything like it) anyway.

The new meal schedule went into effect today. Breakfast was from 0600-0700 hrs so we set the alarm for 5:45AM (2:45PM PST). For breakfast, we had 'spaghetti' (definitely regular spaghetti noodles with some sort of sausage, and a thin red sauce) and toast. And it was so early that even Bill had a hard time making fun of it. We had some hot tea and sat around and talked to the few others who had actually stayed the night on the ship with us. The talk was mostly about the storm, trying to decipher the weather warning that was issued, and more about yesterday's failed shopping excursion.

To kill some time, I went out in the rain and reorganized my dive gear and put it in the hold. Then Talina and I tried to be helpful and did manage to take one box to the hold. Then we walked down the dock and back for some exercise while it was not raining too much. We also climbed up the ladder to the largest unused boat onboard to check it out. Not much there to see - it's gutted of most of it's electronics.

Larry, Emory, Bill, Peggy, Talina, and I made a shopping run to the Mall of Asia (huge shopping center across the street from the water that even has an IMAX theater) - specifically to the HyperMarket which was like a full service grocery store and fully stocked Target in one. Our shopping list consisted of everything from ice cube trays, gin, and beer to sponges, paper towels, and bar soap. We also made a stop at Home Depot which is kind of like an Expo (kitchen and bathroom fixtures, sinks, tubs, toilets, saunas, tile, etc.) that also had some plywood. We were there for the plywood. And they had to get it out of the back somewhere. And it took about 7 guys to do it. They also had some lighting fixtures by IKHEA, which I assume is the same as IKEA in the US.

As we shopped in the various stores, people sort of looked at our group kind of out of the side of their eyes because we are definitely an unusual group, but when the armored van pulled up, they were definitely full on staring at us. I will it admit it was overkill just a bit to put groceries from Hypermarket (where I got a small pillow for 1 USD) into an armored van.

Tonight Mon, Mely, and Hildie arrived to the boat. Mon and Mely have 5 sons who live in Manila so they have been visiting them while we are preparing the boat. They thought we might leave in the morning, but the ROV guys say they need one more day. The plan is to leave at 8AM on Monday morning. Caron, Greg, and the National Geographic photographer (Nick and assistant, Lee) are back from their scuba diving trip. They said the weather was beautiful and they got some nice shots of reefs.

Tonight we saw a short fireworks show from the direction of the Mall of Asia. No one seemed to know why there would be one, though. Someone suggested that there could have been a grand opening for a store. Huh.

Still waiting around until we depart. . . hoping there is something productive to do in the meantime. . .

the little stuff

There are two comfy chairs to sit in for the ROV pilots connected to the two large blue metal boxes, which are the consoles.  What you see of the room is all there is to see!

28 Sept 2007
day 3

While yesterday's excitement was about moving the big things - several 6x6x6 foot crates, a wooden box with one million dollars worth of equipment, the 6-ton winch, the ROV, etc. - today's excitement was unpacking the boxes and moving in the little stuff to make ourselves at home.

The guys working on the ROV are fussing with the exact positioning of the winch and unpacking several boxes of equipment.  They have enough stuff to almost make another whole ROV, which makes sense because if you get out to sea, it's often too many days away from land - let alone a big enough city - to go back for parts.

We found out today that the electrical system in the lab only has about 15 watts of power to run everything we've got down there (microscopes, digital holographic equipment, the kreisel, photographic equipment).  It might have to be completely rewired - at the very least it will require several specialty plug connections because I think we have a generator with a voltage converter to step down the voltage from 220-250 to 110.

Being Friday, we want to make sure that specialty parts are picked up today in case those stores are closed tomorrow.  We'll likely make a general shopping run tomorrow for things like hangers, clothesline, shower curtain, adhesive hooks, etc.

Also, now that the equipment to steer and control the ROV is put together in its own little room, it is apparent that no one but the two gentlemen at the controls will be able to be in the room to watch.  There is talk of purchasing a large flat panel television and running a cable from the ROV controls to the dining hall, so that more people can watch.

The big news for today is that the four men from the Philippine Navy are here.  They arrived in full camouflage uniform with scuba gear and various types of guns.  They headed to the deck just above my room (where the 50 caliber machine guns are mounted) to get settled in while Peggy, Talina, and I were fighting with the computer and iridium phone to try to connect and send off our first daily log for NOAA's Office of Exploration.  We ran Peggy's computer battery down, switched to Bill's computer, then the phone's battery was low before we gave up - and apparently the phone requires overnight to charge.

Our (thus far) daily swall is here right now - which, according to the ship's captain, is unusual for this time of year.  This is suppose to be sort of slack time or dry time between the changing of the seasons - if you can call them that.  It began raining around 2PM, but so far, without thunder or lightening.  The rain comes down pretty hard in large quantities.  When it first started today, it was coming down at a 45 degree angle from vertical.  It's pretty much vertical at the moment, though.

Well, that didn't last very long - maybe an hour - and it's back to work for the crew.  They have been slowly emptying boxes all day, putting things away and now the empty boxes are slowly getting stored in the hold via the onboard crane.

Talina and I felt quite useful this morning for a little while helping Erich unpack his lab equipment from the large crates.  He showed us how to access the cargo hold on foot and we stored some of the extra collecting jars in the part of the hold that was set up as a gym with an exercise bicycle, a punching bag, and weight lifting apparatus.  After that, we didn't do much.  We didn't leave the ship and we felt like we just went and ate at the mess hall all day.  So not only do they have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, they have added morning snack and afternoon snack.  Today's afternoon snack is best described as mac and cheese soup.  It looked like the broth of chicken soup, very clear, so you couldn't see the cheese, but it tasted a bit cheesy.  It was actually not bad.

At dinner we talked to Mike (there are two on the trip so far - this one works on the ROV) and he was recounting their tales of attempted shopping for the day.  He said that the "Home Depot" that they went to was more like a store where you buy furniture and decorate your home, not a hardware store with specialty plugs, fixtures, cabling, etc.  Captain Pascual sat with us and we ended up talking about scary animals encounters we've had.  We also were asking him about poisonous animals in the Philippines.  We also found out that he didn't know we were staying overnight on the boat last night!  Oh well, he wasn't worried about it.

The Ship

The BRP Hydrographer Presbiterio.

The big excitement for the day: the moving of the ROV's 6-ton winch.

27 Sept 2007
day 2

I woke up twice during the night, but manage to make it back to sleep. I woke up around 6AM (3PM PST), an hour before my alarm, and couldn't go back to sleep. I did some email because it was my last chance - setting an "out of office" message, unsubscribing from as many listserves as I could.

I finally gave up on entertaining myself and headed to the breakfast buffet around 7:30AM, about half an hour before our agreed up on breakfast meeting time. Naturally, others who could not sleep were already there. The breakfast buffet was just as eclectic as the day before with many of the same things, but with chow mein type noodles instead of glass, and a white sweet tender fruit with tiny black seeds scattered throughout. It looks like it has the texture of watermelon, but it is softer and smoother. The fruit was good and I think I've had it before, but don't know what it was called.

Everyone (except for a couple of people who went to the dock early) was gathered by 8AM for breakfast. After a little chit chat, we all packed up our lives back into our bags and met in the lobby at 9AM. When checking out, all we had to do is tell them that Mr. Kristoff was going to settle the bill. That was fun. It reminds me when Miwa bought me ice cream with the excuse that 'it always tastes better when someone else pays'.

We piled in the van and headed to the dock with some uneasy anticipation in our stomachs. Was our equipment being approved and unloaded by customs? There was some joking about not seeing any mushroom clouds in the direction of the ship's dock, which would indicate an infuriated Emory with a lost temper.

A 15 minute car ride later, through an astronomical number of cars and intense, haphazard driving, we arrived at the harbor. To our delight, the first thing we saw was Erich and Larry standing at one of the shipping containers with doors wide open and a forklift moving gear from the container to the ship's dock. The second welcome sight, about 2 football field lengths away, was the ship. We promptly loaded our densely packed suitcases onto the ship and found that our names were posted on the door of our sleeping quarters. Talina, Caron DeMars (US to the Philippines in Manila), Hildie (one of the Filipina scientists), and I were to be living in "Sick Bay".

As the loading proceeded, we were told that we were over the weight limit for the dock, so we formed a 'bucket brigade' and started handing lift-able items onto the ship, while more things from the two containers continued to arrive at the dock. Much of the equipment went straight into the lab.

Our first meal on the ship was at noon for lunch - rice, beef and broccoli, and chicken. We also had lanzones, which are very nice tasting, sort of citrus-like fruit. They are white inside and are divided into maybe 6 slices inside, some slices containing a seed of varying sizes. They are smaller than golf balls, like loquats in shape and size, with a thin brown and cream color skin. To open, you pull off a small section around where it was attached to the plant and then squeeze - the skin comes apart and the slices are separated by thin septa for very easy eating!

We had visitors today from two Philippino Science schools. They watched a video presentation on NAMRIA (National Mapping and Resource Information Authority) and saw a powerpoint presentation about our research trip to the Celebes Sea. They learned about some of the equipment we'll use and what kinds of things we might see and capture in a presentation by Larry.

The air conditioning on the ship works well, which was a relief since we had heard that one of the two compressors wasn't working yesterday.

The mess hall is small, so we'll probably have to eat in shifts. Probably crew first, then scientists. I wonder how the feeding schedule and the scientist work schedule will coordinate. Within the mess hall, one corner has couches and a television and stereo system.

Around 5:30PM today, a swall came through. It rained pretty hard and everything got pretty wet. A large crane anchored on a barge is now docked around the corner of the pier, perpendicular to us.

It was quite the scene to watch the 12,000 pound (6 ton) winch be lifted by the very large floating crane and then dangle high in the sky as it came over the rear A frame of the BRP Hydrographer Presbiterio. The winch finally made it aboard, but not without the winch tilting the arm of the crane and the barge precariously to one side. Near the beginning of the operation, Erich was worried about the boat tipping over and called up to those of us on the upper deck trying to get good photos. He explained his worry about the ship being tilted over by the winch and that if he started yelling "run", that we should really run fast and far. At this point, I just got off the ship and took photos from the dock. I think I got some nice pics of the barge that I would not have if I stayed on the ship anyway.

When it was finally accomplished, everything on the dock then needed to be brought onboard because of the weight limit of the dock. We scrambled to move things that were already on the boat, so the very large ROV supply crates could be moved aboard.

Shortly after, Bill and Peggy treated Talina and myself to dinner at the Manila Hotel. It was a very posh hotel with live music in the lobby and two large banquets being held concurrently. We went to the buffet which was large, beautiful, and extravagant. Sushi, whole fish, chicken, variously prepared beef, hot pot soups, crepes, salad, sweet and sour chicken, potato leek soup, and about 15 different types of desserts. We were so full when we were done that we were glad to have the walk back to the ship.

We were exhausted around 10PM, but didn't really get to bed until about 10:30PM. We're still trying to adjust to Manila time.

addendum

Photo from the 19th floor out of the other side of the hotel from my room. The boat is off that direction somewhere.

26 Sept 2007
(addendum)

During dinner there was some loud thunder. We saw some lightning and it rained a little bit. It stopped raining a short time later, but the lightning show kept going.

So after dinner tonight, we all sat around and got the scoop. Customs was suppose to come today at 1PM and unlock the vans for inspection and then the stuff could be loaded on the ship. Well, no one showed up today to meet our party. The vans remain closed and locked and loaded. The plan for tomorrow is that we will all go down to the docks at 9AM and do something - collectively tap our feet impatiently? or Peggy suggested that the girls could cry - we'll see. I don't know if the ROV has made it through customs yet, but we've got lots of equipment in those vans - stuff like rope for the rope cams that needs splicing together, the winch to haul things up from depth that requires a large forklift to move it, and many other parts and equipment. I think it includes my scuba gear, too. The plan is to check out of the hotel tomorrow except for one room for internet and phone use and get everyone (and hopefully, everything) onboard the ship. I think the catering for the boat starts tomorrow anyway. If things go according to that plan, I won't have internet tomorrow except in the morning. Then we're committed to the iridium phone. Wish us luck!

And last (because it's best), I found out that Caron, Talina, and I will be bunking in the hospital ward on the ship! Hahahaha - Perfect for me, who has managed to find a way to go on every boat trip (cruising classroom) this year with a new cut on my finger or hand. If I get a cut, I just have to go back to my quarters to patch it up. ☺

arrival in Manila

Photo of the city from my 16th floor room window. Way off in the distance, where the fog and smog come together you might be able to see water - that's Manila Bay. I didn't notice it at first. I can get better photos of the water from the other side of the hotel (the water's closer on the other side).


26 Sept 2007

Hello from Manila!

It is 9:19 AM here on the 26th and my last two meals have both been breakfast (one on the plane and one here at the hotel). Meanwhile, it is 6:19 PM on the 25th in Los Angeles. I think my body is thoroughly confused.

We were about 20 minutes late boarding the Boeing 747-400 and our plane was finally careening down the runway about an hour behind schedule. Surprisingly, we still arrived in Guam pretty much on time, just after 3AM (11AM PST). We sat on the plane for just over an hour while the plane was refueled and we were off again. Guam is a 2 hour time difference from Manila, so after a 3 hour plane ride, we arrived in Manila at 5:30AM. (Did you get all that "time travel" math? I think I got it right). Immigration and customs did not take long, but waiting for baggage did.

Emory had arranged a van for the 5 of us (Talina, Ralph, Peggy, Bill, and myself) from the airport to the hotel. We had a good driver amidst the chaos. There are more motorcycles than in LA, mostly small bikes, and many with two people on each. They drive on the same side of the street as we do and most of the cars here look as they do in the USA… but some of them really do not. I will try to get a photo because it is hard to explain. We passed by neighborhoods with houses crammed right next to each other, many of them two stories tall, each painted their own distinct bright color, and quite run down. I saw white lines painted on the streets, but they don't seem to mean anything to the drivers nor the pedestrians. Even now, I can hear the honking on the street from my 16th floor hotel room.

We arrived at the Shangri-la Trader's Hotel in Manila around 7:30AM - just in time to check-in, get the note that was waiting for us from Emory, and then realize from Emory's note that we had just a few minutes to go meet up with some of the other crew for breakfast.

Breakfast here at the hotel was a plentiful and eclectic buffet. Miso soup, oatmeal, green salad, pineapple, cantaloupe, sausage, toast, prunes, olives (for the salad maybe?), French toast, pancakes, bacon, glass noodles with shrimp, dried mango, chopped green onions, and a variety of chopped up things in small dishes that I couldn't identify nor identify upon or with what they were suppose to go.

The temperature here is not bad (26C or 78.8F), but the sun is not breaking through the clouds either. It is quite humid as expected, but for the moment, it is pleasant enough. I've got to turn up the temperature in my room… I'm getting chilly, though it is currently set at 23C.

We'll meet up at 5PM for dinner buffet in the hotel and hopefully, we'll find out the plan. For now the plan is that we might board the ship tomorrow. As of 24 Sept, though, the ROV was still waiting to go through customs. I may blog again tonight with the updated plan.

our cruise advertisement to our teachers...

Hi all,

Our web site just launched this afternoon, so please visit http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/welcome.html
to find out where the Celebes Sea is, and to look at all the good stuff already posted for
2007: Exploring the Inner Space of the Celebes Sea
(http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/07philippines
/welcome.html)

Every 3rd day Gwen Noda and I will post 2 stories about what is happening, accompanied by a couple of photos, using an Iridium Satellite connection.
We hope that you will contribute to our logs!

This will be a continually growing web site. After the cruise we will post videos, high resolution still photos, and whatever else we have that will make the site more educational and entertaining.

During the cruise we will reply to questions e-mailed to us by students (or anyone who wants to email us).
How to e-mail us? Easy! Open our expedition website. Click on the "Ask an explorer" link and then on "Send it!".
That will automatically open a blank message in your e-mail program, addressed to Cindy Renkas, who will forward questions to us, receive our replies and post both the questions and answers on the website.

Please pass on this information to anyone who might be interested in joining us through the web site.

See you soon -
Peggy
(edits by Gwen)

we are official...

Here is the official email announcement from NOAA:

NOAA Ocean Exploration is pleased to announce that the "2007: Exploring the Inner Space of the Celebes Sea" web site is now live at:

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/07philippines/welcome.html

This expedition will travel to unexplored waters south of the Philippine Islands from September 27 – October 16, in search of the strange, and possibly unknown, fishes, jellyfish, squids and shrimp that live in the dark deep waters of the Celebes Sea. Lying just north of the equator, the Celebes Sea is the center of the most biologically diverse area of the world’s ocean.

The Southeast Asian nations of Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia occupy one of the richest biological environments on Earth. Sometimes called the “coral triangle” this region of islands and ocean basins is considered a ‘hotspot’ of biodiversity both on land and in shallow marine environments. Until now, most of our knowledge of marine biodiversity here is from shallow water environments; the deep sea is almost entirely unexplored. The goal of the 2007: Exploring the Inner Space of the Celebes Sea mission is to learn more about this center of shallow water biodiversity by studying the fauna in the midwater realm and making extensive vertical surveys of the water column.

Web coverage includes Speciation, Midwater Technology, Bluewater Diving, Marine Conservation, and Sea Surface Temperature content essays written especially for this mission. Web logs, including video and images, authored by scientists and other explorers at sea will be submitted via satellite phone to allow others to share in daily activities and discoveries at sea. An RSS feed will also be published for the daily logs. An “Ask an Explorer” feature is available to submit questions to and receive answers from the explorers while they are engaged in the mission.

The Ocean Explorer Expedition Education Module (EEM) available through the Education link on this expedition’s website includes a summary of the purpose of this expedition; lesson plans designed specifically for this expedition; interactive educational multimedia presentations on Ocean Currents, and Food, Water, and Medicine from the Sea; profiles of scientists representing careers featured during this mission; and a list of other resources and links related to the 2007: Exploring the Inner Space of the Celebes Sea mission.

Join this exciting expedition at: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/07philippines/welcome.html

greg stone's blog

I knew I should have waited to email everyone.

Greg Stone of the New England Aquarium will be keeping a blog from the ship, so if you want to follow along, it will be here:
http://www.neaq.org/expeditions/celebes.php

He'll have his own iridium phone, so maybe I can pay for some time on his phone to send something to my blog if something really cool happens. :) We shall see... or maybe I'll just make him post about it on his blog and then he can pay for the phone call!

pirates.

Just in case you didn't think they still existed, here's an online article on pirates from National Geographic. The Malacca Strait isn't that close to where we will be, but it isn't that far away either...
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-10/malacca-
strait-pirates/pirates-text.html

p.s. I haven't read it all yet (it's kind of long). If there is anything scary in it, don't tell me until I get back! :)

and this is what it looks like

After learning how to use the iridium phone today, it sounds as if I won't be able to use it to email stuff to my blog. It's only for NOAA business and emergencies. I'll have to write stuff and post it to my blog later, I suppose. I might have access while on land in Manila my first day and my last day.

the iridium phone...

...has arrived. It is black and looks a little bit like a walkie-talkie in shape and size, but it has a keypad and a screen like a phone. It also has a rather large antenna on it. We've got a spare battery and what looks like a cord for charging. At 8:30am PST tomorrow, we will be learning how to operate it. To send email, it needs to be plugged to a computer via USB and we'll have to load some software onto the computer, too. If I get a chance, I'll take a photo and post it here.

plane tickets part 2

I do, in fact, have round trip airplane tickets and a place to stay once we arrive in Manila... at about 5:30am their time. Departure is set for Mon, Sept 24th around 10:10pm (arriving 2 days later on Sept 26th) and return to LA on Oct 18th around 7:30pm (arriving three hours before we are to leave Manila, i.e. departure time in Manila is 10:30pm on the 18th...) Backwards time travel! :)

I'm a bit relieved... and a bit stressed out in a whole new way. Now I do actually have to pack... for a place that is pretty much on the equator and the local culture is not fond of sleeveless/tank tops nor shorts/skirts that don't cover my knees. It's going to be very warm and muggy!

plane tickets

It sounds as if plane tickets have been purchased! I have been told that I will find out on Monday the exact itinerary, but it looks as though we will be flying the night of Monday, Sept 24th...

excellent!

Excellent! [rubbing my hands together in a Mr. Burns-ish way]
By the way, that's a photo of Bogie. I don't think he appreciated me taking a bunch of photos of him with flash... Sorry, boy.
edit: apparently if i put "less than" and "greater than symbols" around words, it doesn't appear in the published blog on the website. i had to change to the square brackets instead so that my mr. burns comment would appear on the blog webpage. i'll have to remember that.

testing the photo sending capabilities...

I'm attempting to email a photo (taken at the lowest resolution
setting on my camera) to see how it may or may not post to my blog.
We shall see how this works.

we are a go!

Well, the ROV is on the ship which is on its way from Dutch Harbor to Manila. So barring any terrorist activity, major storms, boat failures... etc... we are a go for the Celebes Sea trip! More later.

a long time in the making...

So this trip I've been talking about has been in the works for about 4 years now. It will be amazing if it indeed actually happens.

Four years ago, WHOI (Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution), National Geographic, and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration- part of the US Dept of Commerce) began trying to coordinate a trip to Indonesia. Needless to say, it did not work out. I think the Indonesian government thought the people from WHOI were spies. It may have been because of the federal funding (from NOAA)? But I don't really know. They tried for two years to work with the Indonesian government to get the trip to happen to no avail. They switched their focus to Malaysia, but that did not work either. So far, this Philippines proposal seems the most likely to work. However, I don't think any of us will believe it until we are all on the ship with all the proper equipment and we are leaving port!

So the reason I get to go is basically that they need help. The scientists onboard need help with their projects while we are underway. My boss (and formerly my Masters thesis adviser) and his wife (my other, more immediate boss) had been trying to go on this trip for four years it has been in planning. The reason that I get to go is sort of a "right place, right time" scenario. In the past years, they have had students (graduate and undergraduate) that they could have taken along. But since my boss is technically retired and his graduate students have all finished (including myself) and gone away (excluding myself), he does not have any more students. Since I'm around working for them, they asked me to go. I've known my bosses for 10 years now and have worked for them on and off during that time doing K-12 teacher education, so it's more of a "right place, right timing" scenario. :)

a year later

So, I didn't end up applying for the Teacher At Sea program (at least not yet) and I didn't do much testing of my blog over the last year. But I do think I mostly know how to utilize blogspot now. And I may be going to the Celebes Sea (out of Manila) on a National Geographic/NOAA/WHOI research cruise very soon as a research assistant! There have been countless hurdles, but it looks like we might at least get to the point that we will buy plane tickets. Our tentative departure date is Sept 24th and return on Oct 18th. We should know later today (Friday) if the ROV is on the ship in Alaska ready to sail to the Philippines.