Life on the TGT by Francesca Alatorre

Life thus far on the R/V Thomas G. Thompson has been one of the most exciting experiences of my academic and emerging research career in oceanography. I have a large variety of experience on water-crafts, including board sports, kayaking, outrigger canoeing, and sailing small boats under 14'. But this has been the longest amount of time I have spent on a ship, especially on a ship exceeding 200'. My excitement remains as we work our way into the second week aboard. Thus far, I very fortunately have not had significant issue with motion sickness, but I will count that toward my preventive medication use on occasion. Additionally, this being my first experience on a large ship research cruise, I have also experienced my first few storms aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson. The first occurred during our steaming days to our first station; we waited on station for roughly 36 hours waiting for the swell and winds to calm enough for the CTD rosette to have its first cast.



Figure 1: The CTD rosette in the staging bay, after the test cast.  Figure 2: One section of the ARGO float; my contribution is the smiley face. Photo By Francesca Alatorre

 

I worked as the CTD operator for the first cast. Although, I was under extreme pressure from those above me to make sure the cast went without issues, the CTD analyst walked me through the process and answered all questions I had. Now working on the 17 cast of this cruise, I have grown the confidence I have in my new operating skills, but still will default to the knowledge of my more experienced colleagues. Consequently, the CTD rosette has run into a few rather interesting issues of the past week. Including changing out the bottle-releasing carousel when some bottles refuse to respond to the software, switching out the oxygen sensor when the data came back with too many errors, and some bottles misfiring due to insufficient tension to keep them open when needed. Despite the constant level of stress my shift partner and I feel due to being almost entirely responsible for the water samples most others will use for analysis, I still feel well supported during this wonderful adventure.

One of the activities the student watchstanders had the pleasure of doing was decorating the ARGO floats that this cruise (TN-389) will be deploying. Each float was "adopted" by various schools across the country and each float is decortated per the instructions and ideas left by the students and teachers. My contribution to one of the floats is limited to my drawing ability, pictured is my smiliey face in Figure 2. The final image I have added was taken from the stern of the ship looking toward the bow during a particularly wonderful sunrise just a few days ago. I feel this image captures my excitement to be on such an incredible adventure.

 



Figure 3: Sunrise on the R/V Thomas G. Thompson. Photo by Francesca Alatorre