Tag Archives: Meyer

Monitoring, Oceanic

Come to Papa 2017

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By Annaliese Meyer

Aboard the CCGS John P. Tully
26-Aug-2017
49˚ 34.030’ N 138˚ 40.010’ W

1615 hours: I fell asleep yesterday to the scent of roasting coffee beans emanating from the aft deck. It was 11 am, and I had been awake for just over 24 hours. We had just finished sampling at the famed Station Papa (P26 on Line P, 50˚ 0.000’ N 149˚ 0.000 W). The sampling that Brent, a PhD candidate from the University of Southern Florida, and I were performing required at least two hours of filtering between casts, and by the time we finished filtering one cast, it was on to the next. Needless to say, even the promising odour of freshly roasted coffee couldn’t keep me awake at that point. More on the origins of the ‘Aft Deck Roasters’ (soon coming to a CCGS ship near you!) later. Continue reading Come to Papa 2017 →

Monitoring, Oceanic

Cruising Big Blue ’17: Caffeine and Bittersweet Farewells

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by Annaliese Meyer

27-Jul-2017
48° 27’ 43.6” N 123° 18’ 32.8” W

1050 hours: A good night’s sleep and several cups of coffee later, I’ve made it back to the office at UVic. I’ve already succeeding in getting sunburned in the half-day I’ve been home and I’m somewhat pleased with that fact. Despite the midnight sun we sailed with for the last couple weeks, it’s been a while since we’ve had any sort of heat. It’s almost like we were in the Arctic or something. Weird.  Continue reading Cruising Big Blue ’17: Caffeine and Bittersweet Farewells →

Monitoring, Oceanic

Cruising Big Blue ’17: The Life Aquatic

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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 →

Monitoring, Oceanic

Cruising Big Blue ’17: Out of Sight of Land

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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 →