Looking Back

Olin Hall was pretty much my home for 4 years.  Math, Astronomy, Physics.

So here I am at 1am when, instead of sleeping, I'm here on the internet.  Often I would consider what I do on the internet at this hour wasting time by checking emails that never come, browsing music, surfing Wikipedia, updating facebook, etc.  Tonight I was about to go to bed when I ran into a facebook group that I was invited to join.  It was made for my graduating class at Denison and the idea, at least in the short term, is to update everyone on what we're doing.  It brought a wave of nostalgia crashing over me.  Sure Ohio isn't my favorite state, but boy do I love Denison University.  I have a lot of loyalty to the University of Miami, but Denison to me has a much more special place in my heart.  Since graduating, I've only been back for 2-3 days which was to visit for graduation in 2010.  I'm still in touch with a handful of people from Denison, some on a regular basis and others I'll talk to every year or so.  By and large, there's no one from Denison with whom I would consider myself in good communication.  I have a history of not keeping up with people.  My whole life I've had this issue.  However, that's not the topic of the night tonight.  Tonight, I'm simply trying to express that I miss college life.  I miss being an undergrad at Denison.  I miss the friends, the close proximity, the schedule, the opportunities, the clubs, the knowledge to gain, the scenery, the friendliness of the school and surrounding town, the professors, and really having a defined role in all of it.  My mind is just drifting through memories of my time there in no particular order.  I'm thinking of my work with the Physics department, the concerts I played, my freshman year dorm, spending time in the observatory, track meets, roommates, dining halls, classes, and then much more specific experiences.  I poured all of my effort into doing my best during those years and because I was so fiercely devoted to giving it my all, I am now all the more attached to it.  Denison will forever be my alma mater no matter where I go or what I do.

Music Revival

I finally got a couple marine science grad students together to play some trios with me!  One is a violinist and the other plays the cello.  We have another violinist in the mix but she's in Texas right now so we'll have to wait for her to get back.  We're meeting up next Thursday evening at my house to play together and I can't wait!  The last time I played music with anyone else was December of 2010: over a year and a half ago.  From the day I picked up a viola until now, today literally marks the longest amount of time that has passed since I have played music with anyone else.  It's not the longest amount of time since I've played alone, but definitely since I've played in a group.  Crazy.

Pulley Ridge

Hi Friends,

Mike and Casey goofing around on decompression.

I'm now safely back in Miami after a fortnight's adventure at sea was cut short by 3 days due to the impending tropical storm/hurricane Isaac that was coming in from the Caribbean.  Overall it was a successful trip and it is the first of about 5 trips that I will be taking for this project.  As I might have said before, the capacity to which I was a part of the team was as the support diver for the rebreather dives.  The way I work as a support diver is by getting the team in their gear which includes a rebreather, lift bags, reels of line, clips, hoses, 3 extra stage deco bottles they clip onto their left sides (see the photo from the last post), and collection tools.  Each of the four divers has the configuration slightly different so although the beginning phase was slow, I was setting them all up in a flash by the end of it.

Rebreather team

I honestly don't really know much about the science that was going on during this research cruise.  I do know that the rebreather team, other than the three dives it took to set up the instruments on the moorings as mentioned a couple posts back, were diving to collect samples of specific fish, corals, sponges, and algae.

Me on deco, photo credit Casey

Yes, the cruise was a success all things considered.  Sure we had to go home 3 days early and cut our productivity, but for the time we were out there we were working very hard and very well together.

I got home Saturday evening and spent that night and all day Sunday with Christina at home taking shelter from Tropical Storm Isaac as we were hit with rain.  She had work today but when she got there they told everyone to go home after an hour or two because it was too rough to take any boats out and a little too dicey to be taking down all the hurricane shutters yet.  So... she came back home to me and we're spending time together by finishing a movie we started yesterday, making dinner, learning more salsa moves, and now reading.  Well, she's reading while I'm posting this update.

We had up to 10 silky sharks at a time.

Work is going to kick off tomorrow in full swing.  As I've mentioned, we're teaching two classes this semester (same course but 2 different sections) so it will be much more demanding than ever before.  Tomorrow the students are not having their pool session tomorrow since we need to go over a few lecture sessions before we can get them in the water so the whole day will be spent getting everything situated for the semester ahead such as packing everything away from the cruise and figuring out space for all of the new gear that we had to purchase to accommodate the double enrollment.

Sharks all around us!

The semester ahead will be busy so I hope I find time here and there to keep everyone updated!

Quick Update

Casey and the shark.

I'm really tired so this is going to be short.  On the dive today (which remember, I'm only a support diver so I'm not seeing the bottom) we saw a 6-7ft silky shark and a pair of adult dolphins.  They came and went throughout the decompression, never seeing the shark and dolphins at the same time.  It was the first time I ever heard dolphins communicating underwater.  A very cool experience.  Things are going well and I'm having a great experience.

Out to Sea

Research Vessel F. G. Walton Smith

I’m back out to sea for work yet again, for the last time for many months to come.  We came on board Tuesday the 14^th at 6:30am.  The Walton Smith was under way less than an hour later.  Tuesday was spent getting familiar with the boat, watching a required UNOLS video, going through a boat orientation, having science meetings, and setting up our gear.  It was a slow day and I was very tired for most of it.  Yesterday was the first diving operation.  I’ll spare the details but a couple enormous weights are dropped and 2 rebreather divers descend to 180ft (50+m) to attach some instruments to them and connect a line between the two weights.  They will send up a buoy when they are on decompression which is the cue for me to descend and meet them at 100ft (30m).  I take information from the divers about their well-being and the decompression schedule, ascend and relay the information to the boat, then drop back down to be with the divers for the remainder of their ascent.  The dive I completed yesterday was to 98ft for 61 minutes.

By the end of the day yesterday we set up the second site with the two massive weights and the plan was to complete the dives on them this morning.  Everything was set and the divers entered the water on time.  Within 5 minutes, they surfaced with a current that was unbeatable even with torpedo-like scooters with which to fight it.

We are now in transit to Pulley ridge where we will set up the third and final mooring site and do a dive there.  By sunset, another part of the project will start up that involves me to dive to about 30ft (10m) to set up what is called a light trap.  It’s an apparatus that involves a net and a flashlight that will be set up at sunset and retrieved at sunrise to trap larval fish.

Hopefully we will be able to make everything happen according to plans from here on out!

A Taste of an Update

A couple quick things before I drift off to sleep:

Christina is great.  We spent most of the day together today starting out by going to Panera then a bakery then after walking around for a bit we came back home, she left for a little while, then picked me up after dinner to hang out with friends before coming home to briefly practice salsa.  We've been learning salsa moves over the internet.  She knows how to salsa while I have no clue.  We put in a couple hours a couple weeks ago and tonight we managed to recover all that we had learned and even start learning a new move.  I must say, we look good.

Photo: www.halcyon.net

Pending an official notification from RSMAS, I have been moved full-time to the dive office now.  There are a lot of changes that are taking place there this semester in addition to my move.  For the first time in the school's history, we are running two courses in the same semester and as a result we are expanding our inventory.  Instead of getting the standard backplate and wing, Halcyon has agreed to provide us with a custom orange and green version of their standard setup, which is shown here.  It will probably make more sense once we get the new systems in and I can take a picture of them and post it here.  Until then, either use your imagination or if that fails, just forget I said anything for a month until they come in and I can post a new photo.  The bottom line is that a diving program using Halcyon gear is already unprecedented.  Once we have custom orange and green wings, we're moving into a league of our own in terms of gear inventory.  Other changes are taking place but it's too late to list them.  I'll explain in full detail once information is made public.  Until then, hang tight.

Sometimes I get a Feeling

Do you ever have the feeling that you extend genuine invitations to people to visit and not only do they never visit but they never even respond back even after it turns out they were nearby?  I have plenty to keep me busy without visitors but I do sometimes get the feeling people are avoiding me.

...Just like I'm avoiding my blog.  I'm serious, I'm going to work on it and be better.  I've been out in the field and a lot has been happening with my job.  I won't post anything about that until it's official though.

I'm driving 5 hours with Christina this weekend to visit some of her relatives and I'm very excited about it.  As with everything else, I'll post about it later (but this time I have no choice since it hasn't happened yet).

Stay sunny!

Breaking In

What would field work be without a few hurdles?

I’m down in the lower FL Keys helping with a PhD student’s project on bicolor damselfish.  The hardest part about the work is that we are collecting live samples.  In other words, I’m fishing.  …with aquarium nets.  …on scuba gear.  …chasing spry little fish from 1-6cm all over the reef.  Obviously there is some difficulty there but we’re using a strong anesthetic to help us sedate the fish.  It’s still difficult but without it there would be no hope of catching any.  There have been other issues such as equipment breaking, not having what we need, weather not cooperating, etc but for the most part we have been able to anticipate most of those problems.

The problem that I never expected happened even before getting in the water.  When we got to the hotel (more of a motel/restaurant/dive center) at 9:30pm, we were given a set of keys and told to go to room 24.  Hungry and exhausted, we were surprised when the door opened an inch before being stopped by the chain that can only be locked from the inside.  Perplexed, we returned to the key givers and explained our situation to which we noted a facial expression similar to ours.  Thinking through our options (which included yanking the door open and breaking the chain, at the suggestion of the hotel staff), I decided to break in through the window to which the hotel staff did not object.  Prying the window slats open, I managed to pop the screen out being careful not to knock over the lamp in front of the window.  Weaseling my way up to the window, I slid in head first and face up into the lowest open window panel.  It’s not the first time I’ve gotten into a locked room and I’m sure it won’t be the last, but it was one of the most rewarding.  It turns out that it's a suite with two entrances so the back door we were trying to access had been locked then the previous guests walked out the other door.  The keys the hotel gave us were ineffective on the other door so we weren't sure which door connected through.  At any rate it was a fun little adventure.

Since then, everything has been working smoothly.  The other non-fish collecting news I have is that I bought a 3-piece collapsible spear for shooting lionfish.  The benefit is that it can break down and fit into a small space that I can keep with me on every dive without any hassle at all.  I’m excited to try it out for the first time and I’m sure I’ll have photos to come.

In bed by 11:45, awake by 6am for a long day of research.  Goodnight!

P.S. I’m still behind on posts so keep an eye on my earlier days to see any new posts.

Coming Up

Okay so I'm at work right now but fear not, I'll get some more posts back up.  I still have the rest of the posts from the fish counting cruises to go and also a phenomenal trip up to Mystic.  I'll get caught up but not while I'm at work.  Look for new posts before this date as I will be back-dating them.

On the Way

Wow!  It's been so long that I'm not sure my blog recognizes who I am.  Don't worry, I have a whole bunch of entries that I just need to transcribe from pen and paper onto the computer.  I'll back-date them so keep an eye out.  It might happen tonight but it might also not happen for another couple weeks.  Hopefully sooner than later.

The exciting thing to report is that Christina is joining me in Mystic for three days!  This is sort of old news since she made the decision over a month ago but it's exciting because it's coming up on Friday!  I'll certainly have a lot to report about when that happens.  Until then, stay safe everybody and don't forget to smile at someone today.