Flight of the Phoenix Redux
[This post written 6/17/08; position: lat -57’49”, long -43’40”; temp -11C; wind chill -33C]
I’ll begin by seeing if I can address our latest crop of comments and questions. First, from Orchardgirl (on “The Bridge Wing Catwalk”), who wonders why “it seems that the majority of living stuff in the water is transparent.” I’m guessing that, especially for small organisms, transparency is a survival trait. It certainly makes them harder for predators to see. But I will need to check with one of the biologists to make sure. No idea whether those worms in your garden are related to the Antarctic ones. The Antarctic ones are arrow worms, Chaetegnath, if it’s any help. 🙂 Nick wonders if Qi Gong would help me get going in the morning. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Qi Gong is a form of Chinese exercise. I think of it as sort of a preliminary foundation for more complex forms, like Tai Chi. It is designed to get one’s chi (or energy) moving, and it does a very good job of that. Nick, I have been doing Qi Gong the last few mornings, because it’s something I can do right in my cabin. It takes very little space. And yes, it does help. Thank you for that thought. I observe that most people seem pretty quiet at breakfast. With the exception of Tim Shaw, who is one of the most effervescent people I have ever known. 🙂 LisaB, thanks for your thoughts about Scopolomine. I intend to avoid it like the plague for the rest of my life! Phil asks if we have seen any striped icebergs. Icebergs with blue water stripes or green algae stripes are indeed very common in Antarctica. Toward the beginning of our voyage, when we were further south, we saw a number of the green striped ones, though not close up. I have a few pictures I’ll be bringing home with me…an understatement, heh heh.
My grandfather checked his barometer every morning. It was part of his daily ritual. He drove a delivery truck for a living, and much of his route was in the mountains. He liked to know as much as possible about what Mother Nature had in store for him. For us, yesterday’s falling barometer presaged a big drop in the temperature, and a whispery fall of snow on an icy black sea. This being launch day for our homemade ROV, the Phoenix, I have spent most of the day outdoors in the cold, and am consequently enjoying a hot cocoa and feeling drowsy, so I’ve decided to make tonight’s blog mostly pictures. Above is A43K as it looked this morning, apparently going on forever. It reminds me of a science fiction story I read about a world where the only land on an ocean world was a thin strip that went on forever, encircling the globe. It looks quite surreal. Yesterday’s circumnavigation of the iceberg took over six hours at 12 knots. We have now determined that A43K is about 16 miles long and about 8 miles wide.
Above is a picture of the Phoenix in all its glory, waiting to be deployed. I am still completely astonished that the MBARI engineers — Paul McGill, Alana Sherman, and Brett Hobson — managed to make something this sophisticated on the fly from what amounts to a box of spare parts and a lot of imagination. Add to this yesterday’s victory with the plane and the GPS locator tag, which is currently transmitting the iceberg’s position to us via satellite every six hours.
As you can see above, almost everybody wanted to be involved in the launch. Excitement was at a fever pitch as the Phoenix was brought out of the lab and onto the A-frame deck for deployment. The sea was not particularly friendly, with large, rolling swells and a stiff wind. But many hands made good, steady work, and the Phoenix was soon in the water and on its way.
Even the birds got into the act. Antarctic and Snow petrels swooped low to check it out, and I believe I saw a few Cape petrels as well. I’m guessing they wondered if it was some new kind of fish. In a way, it was, I suppose. Upstairs in the control booth, we watched as the video pictures came in. The Phoenix performed beautifully. We saw portions of the submerged areas of the iceberg today — not in the kind of detail we got with the old ROV, but very serviceable. It’s beautiful down there! We enjoyed a view of horizontal blue striations, and at least one jellyfish. Plus, the Phoenix collected water samples from much closer to the iceberg than the ship could ever get. An extremely good day. And another big round of applause for our engineers! Amazing folks.