Programs Blog

B Watch

Ship’s Log

Souls on Board

Last night’s watch was very busy and eventful. The first half of our time on the deck was accompanied by fair weather and the wind in our sails as well as a gorgeous sunset. At around midnight, heavy fog started to roll in and completely obscure our vision, as the upper parts of our masts and yardarms of started to disappear into the fog. To make sure that we didn’t have any unwanted run-ins with any other vessel, we engaged the foghorn.

Piercing the silence every two minutes with shrill blast of noise, it made for a rude awakening for anyone still sleeping below deck. We were all split up between deck duty and the lab where we deployed the nueston net and meter net. We caught several jellyfish in our nets, as well as young lobsters in their larval stage (aka “superman lobsters”).

We deployed the meter net using the wire and J- frame to deploy the net 150 meters away from the boat two times. We then deployed the nueston net to skim the surface of the ocean and to see what we could find. When we finally brought the neuston net back on deck, we saw some amazing bioluminescence whenever the net was touched, caused by plankton that use light as a defense mechanism against predators. After our six hours of braving the darkness as well as the sound of the foghorn, we were finally relived by C watch at one in the morning.

All of us, very tired, retreated to our bunks to get a well-deserved night of sleep.