Gray daze

This is where Bryon and I do our visual survey observations.

 You would think that standing and looking at nothing all day would be easy but I assure you it is not. As I think I wrote (I'm really not sure anymore - the days are blending into one) I am now watching for marine mammals and recording my observations. So far my data sheet is pretty sad....even the Coasties were commenting on how desolate it's been. We went way north and were only 15 miles from Canadian soil so Bryon and I thought we'd have a great chance of seeing lots of birds and maybe belugas or bowheads. After a late night writing a report, I drug my tired self out of bed at 5:30 am and went up on watch. Bryon was a little smarter and slept thru his alarm. We packed it in at around 3 this afternoon. A few birds and that's it.

This new sign appeared last weekend on the scientist level of the ship - a very popular way to pass the time on board is humor and jokes. If only we had a sauna on board. And how 'bout the arrows to the bars and lounges!

My colleague Josh did put some sonobuoys in today. These are floating microphones or hydrophones that you toss into the water and they telemeter the acoustic data back to the ship. We have a computer terminal up on the bridge so I can see what he's recording and we can coordinate our acoustic and visual observations of marine mammals. All he could hear was a Shell Oil company ship doing an really loud acoustic survey in the area. I'm sure things will pick up. As we move further west we should run into many species as they migrate south for the winter. Keep your fingers crossed!