Dispatch 6: A Day in the Life - or - Twenty-Four

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Jeffrey Charters

September 20, 2010

01:37. Rick is busy taking care of his moorings and whatnot, getting them ready for deployment, so I decided to step in and take care of business. I don't think I've yet seen a dispatch written that details the daily life of a scientist on the ship in detail, so here it is. Today is September 20th, 2010. My day started with some hot chocolate and some chemical analysis. Usually my day would end at midnight, but with samples piling up we decided to slack a bit during the day, and make up for it here. With some much appreciated help from co-worker Chelsea Stanley, we were able to analyze a batch of samples in less than an hour and a half. Things are looking good on the ammonium front!

I expect tomorrow to be yet another busy day (every day is a busy day) so it's off to my room to pull out the computer and start writing for a few minutes before hittin' the hay. My room is on the "main deck" which means the deck below the one most people would think of, and in the interior of the ship. This means no windows, but it also means when we get into the ice I won't be kept awake by the sound of it scraping along my walls. I'll finish this up with a few minutes of reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" followed by some much-needed shut-eye.

11:22. After waking up, I decided that since I haven't gotten much real exercise since I got on board, I would mosey down the hall to the pretty well-outfitted gym we have on-board. I rode on the exercise bike for a while before hittin' the weights for a bit. A quick shower follows, and now I must run upstairs to attend our daily science meetings, where our Chief Scientist Bill Williams will bring us up to speed on the latest issues.

00:12. So after entering my data into a spreadsheet (and a short catnap) it was time to run a new batch of samples, aided by watchmate Chelsea. As we were finishing up we got to a new station and got to head out on deck to help with CTD and zooplankton collection. After subsampling from the bottles and a short steam back south, it was time for more CTD duty! Our lives on the ship do not vary too much from day-to-day. Eat, sleep, cast, sample. Sometimes you sleep. Before the final cast of the day though, I ran down to the mess to get a delicious ice cream treat from the bottomless pile of treats in the freezer. But now it's time to finish writing and get to bed, ready to start another day.

I'll have to write another episode of 24 once we get into the sea ice - it's always more fun when there's ice around!

Last updated: October 7, 2019