We made the northmost buoy today, 15N 38W, but once we were ready to start our way back, there is a hurricane coming from east to south of us. We're now steaming even north to give room for the hurricane, and only tomorrow morning we'll finally start to move south.
The Pacific, from HBO - Not even close to Band of Brothers. Almost boring. You'll not lose anything if don't watch it
Diva, a Brazillian movie - Nice concept, but not well implemented. Boring Mandraque (or mandrake, not sure how did they spell it) - It's a Brazillian TV show. It's OK, I would watch more episodes. Looks like they use a group of nice actors, and open the space for newbies. Since it's a TV show, they need to use those people on each episode so they push longer and slower than could be. It's a good idea to bring a chocolate 85% cacau for a 17 days cruise, and even better to keep it on the side of your bunk, ready for any time. But it's not a good idea to put the laptop charger over it, specially once it's on and hot. Have been being a hell to study and type in the bunk. My back is on the limit. A little table would make so much difference. It's a pretty different routine aboard than I'm used in other cruises. The good thing is that we have more people than we needed, so I can advance on my own work.1/4 of the trip. Pretty boring so far, except by the some work I've been doing. It's a really nice calm sea, and the turtle speed of 10knots makes it perfect for some reading and writing. I don't have a table in my room, neither there is a calm place to do it, it's just too many people aboard. The solution is work lied down on my bunk. That means between half to two thirds of the day in the bunk. How different would it be in the space?
Today I was baptized, for the first time I lost an oceanographic equipment. I was in cruises that we lost gear before, but this was the first time that was a human - mine - failure. A fraction of second, I saw everything happening, but couldn't avoid it. There is certainly some project failures, I mean, could be better planned, but I could have done much better. I'm so pissed and disappointed with myself on that respect. I know that I'm pretty good with this kind of things, specially in learn fast new procedures. I think I was still on the adapting mode, not completely fine with the sea rolling, and that might have contributed to my inability. Worst than the financial lost is not be able to collect the data. This was an underway CTD, and what would guarantee the high coverage sampling near the surface. Another sensor was lost last year, and the backup wasn't arranged on time. Damn it, I still can't believe I did that.
Tomorrow we start to prepare for the buoys. There is a Tropical depression/Tropical Storm on the way to what would b the first buoy, so we're going to change and do the second one first and give more time for the weather get better around the first one.Here it was the first of the cruise. As usual not the funniest one. A lot of work ahead and some adapting going on. The sea is really calm for my lucky, but as so many other times, my stomach wasn't the best even before start. We left from Fortaleza, the same place where I was a year ago, maybe two?! I can't remember. Different group, different ship, different crew. Now I'm in a Brazilian navy ship. I have some good memories from that cruise. That was my first cruise as scientific watch chief, and how I met Ally. Well, this time I did the same mistake, the acaraje is not something that I'm used to eat, too strong for me. umpf, my stomach turned around just to remember of that. Tomorrow will be a busy day, and everything will be better. No medicine, I avoid any kind of medicine while I can.
The first movie was just a terrible - Ceturion. umpf, they did a hard job to make the worst possible. I do enjoy movies, so this kind of shit just excite me to do it. I could do at least as bad as that one, so why not try? I had some ideas while in Miami about some short movies, and short documentaries. I was decided to do it, I even had some reasonably gear, but finish a PhD and prepare a boat for 2000NM solo can make one busy enough. At some point I'll try to write, at least, some scripts, some ideas. So far everybody here see me as probably a young student newbie on the thing. I'm not worried to convince them otherwise, I'm fine with that. "Is this your first time? - No, it's not". It's so good to not be in charge. I remember on Harmony, when I would need to be checking where am I, how is the boat, what's going on, mmm maybe try to cook some food, how is the engine, how are the pumps, the batteries ?? So easy to come down to my bunk and just be sure to wake up for the next station. I'm sharing the room with another one from the scientific party and the Doc. Funny, the Doc looks like the most seasick aboard. He introduce him self as "I'm the one if you have trouble I'll tell the others to pray for you" Really?!? Just give me some rum! Ha, I got a nice and strong hummock at Fortaleza for home, downstairs. I liked most a white one with some details in different colors, but sure would be all dirty on the first party, so I got a green one. Now with the pool table we will be using much more that area of the house. I haven't being sleeping much in land recently, it's time to get it back.
Hey it's me, is that you?
