by Annaliese Meyer
13-Jul-2017
60˚ 18.866’ N 171˚ 15.836’ W

1200 hours: We set steam from Dutch Harbor two days ago, and have been making fast headway towards our first station. Dutch Harbor was absolutely breathtaking, astounding, astonishing – my adjectives are woefully inadequate when attempting to describe it. We lapsed into movie comparisons as we sailed through the sunlight that filtered through mist, wrapped ‘round rolling mountaintops. I think the closest we came in terms of comparisons was walking out of the Shire, the Cliffs of Insanity from the Princess Bride, and the song-bound hills of the Sound of Music. Continue reading Cruising Big Blue ’17: The Life Aquatic →

by Annaliese Meyer
07-Jul-2017
52˚ 56.101’ N 143˚ 27.889’ W Continue reading Cruising Big Blue ’17: Mostly Regarding Food →

By Annaliese Meyer

05-Jul-2017
50˚ 23.840’ N 131˚ 12.998’W

0800 hours: At breakfast this morning, I made to introduce myself to the crew member sitting next to me. Rather amusingly, he informed me that we had, in fact, met about 8 hours earlier when I had been blearily starting a new sample in the aft lab and he had been checking in as part of the midnight to noon watch. Given my reindeer pajamas and bemused 1 am expression, I think it was fairly obvious I hadn’t been entirely conscious at the time. I’m reluctant to let my samples run all night without supervision, and every couple hours I have swap to a new 20 L carboy filled with seawater. The result is an alarm set for every 2 hours through the night, and lots of short naps through the day. I also have a secret stash of chocolate covered coffee beans for when times get desperate – I might also use them to make friends with the night watch crew. Continue reading Cruising Big Blue ’17: Out of Sight of Land →

by Annaliese Meyer

One snowy, early morning in January of this year, I was sitting in a first-year Earth and Oceans Sciences class, clinging to my coffee cup for dear life. My professor, Dr. John Dower, then began saying something that completely dispelled any need for caffeine: he was describing the opportunities for undergraduates on research cruises. Wow, I thought, this is something I absolutely need to explore. I had never before considered that I might be able to go out to sea during my undergrad, but the possibility was suddenly real. Continue reading Cruising Big Blue ’17: I Need to Explore →