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.
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.
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