22 February 2003 - 09:47

(below transcribed from paper. See also photos.)

Tues. 18 Feb. 02003. - 09:00

I'm on the R/V Bellows! We haven't left the dock yet. Note to self--Leatherwod & Reeves's Sierra handbook preface has some incisive comments on marine mammal books--worth quoting. I'm starting to get excited... the smell of sunscreen, the taste of brine.

10:00

Saw some 'phins in Tampa Bay. Got photos of a bow riding Tursiops there. None since. Sleep now.

18:30

Seven sightings today total. One a turtle, but the rest 'phins. Very cold on the bow. Glad I brought long underwear, raincoat. Wish I'd brought gloves, heavier jacket, knit hat. No one else was prepared for this much cold either. Lots of spray over the starboard bow. Often too much spray on the bow to take photos/video for fear of damage to the equipment. The last sighting was of a pair of Stenella frontalis (Atlantic spotted dolphins) bow riding. I haven't been the first to see any yet. There are five of us (Tom, Nelly, me, and two other students for whom I have no pseudonyms. Call them M and S). So we do three on duty, two off, switching on the half hour. Port watch, then starboard, then data recording, then break, break. So far I've spent my breaks asleep. Still very tired. How much of that is the drug? The Scopolamine patch is a big improvement over pills. The drowsiness is not nearly as bad, and the motion off-ness is quite subdued. At the moment I can't imagine actually getting much work done on a boat though. I'm so tired! My bed is warm, dark, dry, and completely non-queasy. We three volunteers share this cabin under the bow. I have one top bunk; there's one other and a bottom bunk. M is asleep(?) on her bottom bunk now--word is she feels ill. She didn't come to dinner. The food is good. The chef is the same one from when I went out on the Suncoaster almost two years ago. There's also the captain, the skipper, and two red tide researchers (C and J), and that's it.

Wed. 19 Feb 02003 - 10:00

I slept for ~12 hours last night. Breakfast was good--cinamon rolls, eggs, and french toast. I slept well. Today is both calmer and warmer than yesterday. I still feel a little "off," especially down here. I still feel sleepy. We've reached the middle grounds and started doing transect stations. They're having some problems with the CTD. No dolphins yet. Next trip I should bring a flashlight. Also rain pants. On watch this morning I replayed RHPS in my head. I almost have it memorized, but not quite. My first break I wrote here, took a short nap, and listened to Duct Tape Aesthetic. In a few minutes I'm going back out. Sleep makes me feel better. So does Grant. We're out in the blue water now. No flying fish or sargassum though--apparently the flying fish are much more prevalent in the summer.

13:00

Still no dolphins. Two turtle sightings--loggerheads. Lunch was the ever wonderful fresh fruit salad and veggie melts (also navy bean soup, chips, and cookies, but I didn't have any of those.) The weather is still lovely. Roughly one foot swells, 1 - 1.5 Beaufort state. So calm. I think we just left the last station on this line and are turning around. Nelly's been talking about dolphins and dolphin people that she knows to me. It's so hard to be productive on the boat, but I'm doing a good job of observing. Sometimes I really enjoy being out here. Other times, not so much. I don't know that I'd want to do this for weeks at a time. I must say, it's better than being in an airplane! The "off" feeling is similar, but I can move about and the air is good to breathe, and I can go out into the sunlight. And also the food is good. So this is much better than flying.

When I can think on anything in particular for very long, of course I think of Wheel, and of Girl. I wonder what they're doing? Wheel was going to clean the house yesterday. ... my scop patch is a little itchy... not like a bug bite is itchy, but like when your scalp itches and you scratch it. It's hard not to scratch the patch.

Say, today is Nootropil's birthday. I hope he has a good day.

15:30

Still no dolphins. Not one all day. We're headed away from the setting sun, so it's cold again up in the bow. Not quite as cold as yesterday was! But cold enough. My ears are cold. It's still very calm. I've been singing songs in my head. I wish I had something useful to think about, but maybe this is better for me.

20:00

Dolphins! The next and last shift for today, the water was very smooth... not completely flat, but smooth in texture, no breakers, no sharp edges. All rounded. There was some bad glare, as were were going into the sun, but that also meant that it wasn't as cold. It was so nice that I saw dolphin splashes and fins on my starboard watch when they were perhaps 800m or more away. We headed towards them and they came to bowride. It was a pair of young adults (mottled) and a pair of calves (~one and ~two years old). Cute! I took as much video as I could. We had to re-attract them twice. The babies were bold, coming over to us on their own, leaping out of the water. Yay! The adults were more cautious, and eventually pulled the calves away from the boat.

Then there was a pretty sunset, followed by dinner (salad, rice & beans, cake & cookies). Now I am alert enough to take a shower before bed. Oh! And right after dinner I was alert enough to look at the stars. Beautiful!

Yes, and I just took a shower, brushed my teeth, put on my nightgown, set my alarm clock. I feel like a real, functional human being again. I even read a little during one of my breaks. Maybe I really could get used to this! It's shortly after 20:00. I'm listening to SysOp's Collection tape #2 and then sleeping. Here's to more dolphin sightings tomorrow!

Thurs. 20 Feb. 02003 - 15:45

Today has been even more balmy and calm than yesterday was. Less than 1m waves, neither cold nor hot. What's better, I no longer feel "off." I feel perfectly normal. I feel good. I feel better than James Brown. Unfortunately, we haven't seen any dolphins today. Not a one. Several turtles (all loggerheads). A pair of balloons. No 'phins. Apparently I missed a very brief mom/calf Sf sighting last night around 21:00. Today, I've been out front all day looking, except meals (potatos & waffles for breakfast; pizza, fruit, salad & cookies for lunch) and stations. This is my day to help out at stations. I help to lower and raise the CTD. I help to lower the sediment sampler. I read speed and depth of the phytoplankton sampler off a box in the lab, keeping Tom aware of the important number via the intercom, while he's up top working the winch. I think I may have gotten a little sun. There are lots and lots of gannets. So cute! It sounds like we might be going back early--tomorrow instead of Saturday--to try to avoid a big storm. I wish we could stay out longer--I want to see dolphins! I suspect we are at the wrong place and time for them.

C has a bunch of radioactive isotopes for her work in the lab, so we're not allowed to eat or drink in there (seems to me that'd be a good rule anyway, but apparently they usually do snack in the lab). I'm not exactly sure what she's using it for.

It's so frustrating looking out there, knowing, seeing that we're sitting on top of this huge complex world teaming with life and information, but not being able to look, or go down into it.

21:15

We finally saw dolphins! The day is complete. In fact, right after that last entry, as I was on my way up top, a few were sighted. We lost them right away though. I think Tom may have been the only one to really get a look at them. But then a short while after that we had our biggest sighting of the day--at least four (but maybe five or six) large spotted dolphins on the bow. They stayed their for five minutes (of summertime?)--and I videotaped as best as I could. One had a scar on 'his' head--maybe useful for identification. I definitely got it on video. After the second to last station, just before sunset, Tom and I were still out there watching. Nelly had already taken the equipment in. I heard a blow, and saw a large dolphin surface close at starboard only 20-30m away. I pointed 'him' out to Tom, who saw him when he surfaced a ways to port. Then we could see that it looked like there was another. They didn't come over to bowride though, and we lost them. Nelly came back out, and the three of us kept vigil until the sun was completely gone. Then dinner (noodles with peanut sauce, chinese cabbage salad, stir-fry peppers, apple pie for desert). Man, our chef is my new hero. Mmmm. Then we watched Good Morning Vietnam and right almost at the end of the movie the captain says, "Hey guys, we've got mammals!" Tom, Nelly and I pile out the starboard door of the wheelhouse, which was already open. Two large dolphins were swimming beside the boat, pale shapes in the water in the ship's light. Nelly rushed off to get a flashlight. They were so magical looking. A twitch of one's tail set off a sparkle of bioluninescence. I watched for a moment, but couldn't resist taking a picture (my little camera takes good pictures in the dark, and I knew that Nelly often beamed her massive flashlight on dolphins in the dark, and if that didn't scare them, I figured this wouldn't either.) Tom looked up at the flash, but didn't say anything. The dolphins pulled into the boat for a moment, but then resumed their previous position. We watched for a while longer before Nelly returned with a flashlight. She shined it onto one of the dolphins just as it was surfacing. Spots! A very mottled individual. These robust animals were S. frontalis. All three of us had guessed they were Tursiops, so it's a good think we checked! ... except short seconds after the light hit them, they swerved under the boat and were gone. Still, I'm so glad I was there--bright stars overhead, deep dark inky water... and a pair of dolphins.

I think I've really hit my groove. I'm inspired. I'm focused. I was alert all day. I only took the one <30 minute break. I was scanning. I was on. This is what it's all about, baby! (Except, there should be more dolphins.)

Fri. 21 Feb. 02003

This is the life! Except for the, y'know, lack of dolphins. Last night I had a nightmare that I woke up this morning, went outside, and saw land really close... and then the boat docked behind Sarasota's Hollywood 20, near that big melon-colored building, and the trip was over. (Yes, I realize that there's actually no water there, but there was in my dream.) I was frantically trying to orchestrate another trip to out where we know the dolphins hang out. I was very relieved when I woke up this morning and it was just a dream. We are, however, headed back. We should get in after dark tonight.

Breakfast was pancakes, eggs, and really tasty apple nut muffins (I had three). It has continued to be calm, although in the past half hour or so the sky has filled with pale gray clouds. Comfortable temperature, occasional white caps. No dolphins. We did the last three stations already, so that's done.

I'm really not entirely ready to go back. I love it out here. I could stay for weeks yet. I guess a long trip would be a little different--we'd eventually run out of fresh fruit! And we wouldn't be able to avoid rough weather. Even so! I want to get a boat. I want to gather up all my friends on it and just go away into the ocean. And the next time I come out on one of these trips, I should remember to bring Hawaiian to study--this is ideal for it.

13:20

Well! I went upstairs at 12:00 for lunch, and in the half hour that I was gone, we hit a thick gray fog. Poor sighting conditions! I had lunch (meals past coming back to take their bows--the pizza, the cabbage salad, the biscuit melts, the cake and cookies, the beloved fruit bowl). Then I went out. Visibility SUCKS. 800m tops, but really more like 500. Everything is gray. Spray over the starboard bow--Tom got soaked. If one is dry (which I still am), it's pretty comfortable still. We're headed back--should get in around 20:00, Tom says. When I get back home I should back up these irreplacable favorite cassette tapes (Fraggle Rock: Music & Magic and of course, Duct Tape Aesthetic).

15:00

Still lousy sighting. Comfortable though. We're doing two on/three off instead of vice versa now. Tom insisted that I take a break, despite my protests--I rather like it out there. We're going off effort as soon as we're in shallow water (20m or less)--where we wouldn't expect to see any spotteds regardless.

16:00

Well, at some point they gave up entirely--there's no one out there now, and no equipment. S is studying upstairs. Tom and Nelly are in their cabin with the door closed. M is sleeping upstairs in the wheel house. I feel a little weird about sitting up there alone, staring into the even thicker now fog. Normally I like coming off as eccentric, but I've long since decided to aggressively tamp it down around my professional colleagues/seniors.

20:15

Well, the Sunshine Skyway is drawing progressively closer. The fog cleared up just as it was getting dark, around 18:45. (Before then it had been so thick that everyone was taking turns standing out on watch, to alert the captain if anything was suddenly seen to be in our way). I watched the sun set below a cloud bank. Dinner was lasagna and caesar salad. I read Cryptonomicon for a while. Everything is very quite as people unwind. S and I watched the lights draw closer and gossiped about marine mammal people. M joined us after a short while. Now we're packing up our personal things. Some hours to go and I'll be back home at Bayshore house with Wheel. o/~Back to life, back to reality...o/~. Sad not to have any dolphins on this, our last day. This is in fact, to date, the only day I've been out looking for dolphins all day and not seen a one, either in the Gulf or the Bay. Ah well. C'est la research.