Author: Dana Tomlinson

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Dana Tomlinson: Days 26 and 27, March 27, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Dana Tomlinson

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

March 1 – 27, 2002

Date: Tuesday, March 26 and Wednesday, March 27, 2002

Today we started the long journey home. We savored every moment by getting up early, sitting on the edge of the lagoon, watching the wildlife for the umpteenth and last time. Finally, it was time to leave. We took a taxi (truck) from the Red Mangrove north across the island to the ferry.Then we took the ferry across the small strait to the island of Baltra, on which the airport is the only building or business. After we got off the ferry, we waited quite a while in the sweltering heat to get a bus to the airport. Then we flew from Baltra to Guayaquil to Quito, where we needed to stay overnight. The next morning, we flew from Quito to Miami, missed our connection there, so flew to St. Louis and then San Diego.

Our luggage arrived two days later. 🙂

So, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. It’s hard for me to believe that this once in a lifetime experience is over. I am so grateful to NOAA for selecting me. Thanks to Mike Johnson in OGP and Jay Fein at the NSF for the support of the program. Major thanks to Jennifer Hammond, NOAA’s webmaster, for being so supportive and for her wonderful work on this web page. Huge thanks to John Kermond for his mentorship and top-notch videotaping (all of our live broadcasts and videos will be up on the website in a few weeks). Heartfelt thanks to the South Bay Union School District and Supt. Pat Pettit for their support of my trip, the SBUSD Education Foundation for their financial support, to my principal, Dennis Malek, for his support, and to my class for putting up with me being gone for a month.

Thanks to the hundreds of people who emailed me – I really enjoyed hearing from you. And, finally, thanks again to the crew, officers and scientists aboard the RV Ka’imimoana for allowing me to be one of you, because what you are doing is so important to all of us. May you always have fair skies and following seas.

If you’d like to reach me, feel free to email me at dana.tomlinson@noaa.gov and it will be forwarded to me.

For the last time, mahalo and aloha.
🙂 Dana

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Dana Tomlinson: Day 25, March 25, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Dana Tomlinson

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

March 1 – 27, 2002

Date: Monday, March 25, 2002

Lat: 1°S
Long: 91°W
Seas: 3-5 ft.
Visibility: unrestricted
Weather: partly cloudy
Sea Surface Temp: 82-86°F
Winds: light airs
Air Temp: 90-81°F

This day started and ended the same way: bittersweet. In the morning, we watched the Ka’imimoana sail out of the harbor without us. It was scheduled to leave at 9am, so we were perched on my balcony with binoculars. I noticed that the RHIB was missing from the boat, and not too long afterward, the RHIB left the pier and headed toward the ship. Was it more paperwork to be cleared with the authorities? A last minute run to the hardware store for more fishing lures? We could only speculate. But shortly after they returned and the RHIB was back on board, the anchor was weighed and the ship slowly started to move away from us. We watched the ship sail until it was out of sight and wished them fair skies and following seas.

Dr. Mike was also leaving Puerto Ayora this day to go to Guayaquil (on Ecuador’s coast) to visit their counterpart to NOAA. So, we shared his taxi to the airline office in town and bid him farewell as he started off on the long trip to the airport. We took care of our travel arrangements for our departure the following day and then went back to the Red Mangrove, where we had Mariano take us out of their small boat to do some ocean exploration. We traveled to a very small uninhabited island in the middle of the harbor to snorkel with the sea lions and the Pacific green sea turtles. The water was warm – no wetsuit needed (hint – don’t forget to put sunscreen on your back as I did!). The sea life was abundant: numerous sea lions, many varieties of fish, coral, anemones, urchins, turtles. We swam for about 45 minutes there, then headed over to another side of the island where we could see the lava walls from the ocean. They housed blue footed boobies and many marine iguanas.

We tied up the boat to a pier and walked to a salt pond. As soon as one left the ocean, the air temperature seemed to go up 15 degrees. We hiked over rough lava rocks to a crevasse that held water that was much more fresh than sea water as the salt had been evaporated out of it. It was heavenly to swim in this cool water on such a warm day. We then hiked over to the Delfin hotel and enjoyed their pool – as warm as a bathtub. Mariano took us back to the hotel, where we washed up, and enjoyed our last meal in the Galapagos.

Very bittersweet.
Til tomorrow,
🙂 Dana

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Dana Tomlinson: Day 24, March 24, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Dana Tomlinson

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

March 1 – 27, 2002

Date: Sunday, March 24, 2002

Lat: 1°S
Long: 91°W
Seas: 2-4 ft.
Visibility: unrestricted
Weather: partly cloudy with possible rain showers
Sea Surface Temp: 82-86°F
Winds: light airs
Air Temp: 93-82°F

This was a day for exploring the island. Several of us headed off for the short walk from our hotel to the Charles Darwin Research Station. Even relatively early in the morning, the heat and humidity were incredible. We enjoyed the visitor’s center and learned how the Station and other groups are trying to help conserve the islands’ native species, as well as to eradicate harmful introduced species. We then hiked out to see the land tortoises. Lonesome George greeted us – the last Galapagos Tortoise of his subspecies. We also saw numerous other tortoises, as well as terrestrial iguanas. Then, we hotfooted it (literally) so a small beach on the Station’s property and watched marine iguanas swim up to the lava rocks, while we cooled our heels in the gorgeous blue waters. After a rest and refueling, we got into our bathing suits, tightened up our hiking boots (we’re walking over lava rocks here folks!) and started out on a long walk to Tortuga Bay. This beach is only accessible by boat or walking, but it is well worth it. It was about a 2 km walk to the entrance to the beach and then a 2-1/2 km walk over what reminded me of the Great Wall of China – weaving and winding and never-ending! We were walking in the heat of the day and there was no shade on the trail. BUT, as soon as you got to the beach, it was nirvana. The temperature immediately lessened, the water was 5 different colors and just slightly cooler than the air temperature, and the sand! Oh, the sand was absolutely white and like powder. As I ran to throw myself into the ocean, I noticed a meter-long marine iguana just ambling toward an outcropping of lava rocks on the beach. The beach was about a kilometer long, and John and I walked the length of it. It was glorious. That night, as much of the crew as were inclined gathered at La Garrapata restaurant for a final meal together, as the KA was shipping out in the morning. We had a wonderful meal and then I had to say goodbye to everyone.

That was much harder than I anticipated. It was difficult for me to get out much more than, “I had a great time. Thank you,” because I thought I’d burst into tears. I kind of figured that would destroy the credibility I had built up with this wonderful group of scientists and sailors, so I just bowed out gracefully and watched them walk toward the pier to take the water taxi back to the KA. We got back to the hotel just before the skies opened up and it rained an incredible amount. This happened two more times that night.

Til tomorrow,
🙂 Dana

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Dana Tomlinson: Day 23, March 23, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Dana Tomlinson

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

March 1 – 27, 2002

Date: Saturday, March 23, 2002

Lat: 1°S
Long: 91°W
Seas: flat
Visibility: unrestricted
Weather: partly cloudy
Sea Surface Temp: 82-86°F
Winds: light airs
Air Temp: 91-83°F

I arose at 5:30 to see the sunrise off the bow of the ship and our entrance into the Galapagos Islands – a place I’ve always dreamed of seeing. The water was flat as a pancake and the skies were dramatic with the clouds. As we pulled into the harbor of Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz, I naively thought that we’d be going to the other side of the island where the bigger city of Puerto Ayora must be! No, that was it – what looked like a very quaint little town about a half mile away – but so close, we could almost taste it. Anchor dropped!

We’d have to wait about 5 hours to taste anything on land, unfortunately. We needed to provide the proper paperwork to several different authorities and have all of our i’s dotted and t’s crossed before we could disembark. There were 3 of us who were permanently getting off the ship (Dr. Mike, John (the one videotaping me throughout the trip) and me), but everyone wanted to put their feet on land and see what the Galapagos had to offer, since very few of us had ever visited before.

After struggling with all of our belongings (including the ever-present tripod and camera!) into the water taxi, we were finally on our way. Between the KA and the pier, I saw much of the abundant wildlife the Galapagos has to offer: blue footed boobies diving into the sea, pelicans everywhere, marine iguanas on the lava rocks, sally lightfoot crabs scurrying over the lava (you’ve got to love a crab that doesn’t like water!!), herons. We took a taxi to our hotel, the Red Mangrove Adventure Inn, and settled. Then we spent the remainder of the day exploring the small town in the heat and incredible humidity. We ultimately met up with our mates and celebrated being on terra firma!

Til tomorrow,
🙂 Dana

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Dana Tomlinson: Day 22, March 22, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Dana Tomlinson

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

March 1 – 27, 2002

Date: Friday, March 22, 2002

Lat: 1°S
Long: 91°W
Seas: 2-4 ft.
Visibility: unrestricted
Weather: partly cloudy
Sea Surface Temp: 82-86°F
Winds: light airs
Air Temp: 86-79°F

Today makes exactly three weeks on the Ka’imimoana. And this will be my last Daily Log from it. What a day it was. It was truly a perfect day. The weather was crystal clear and warm with very little breeze. The waters are so flat it’s hard to believe you’re on an ocean. Since we are closing in on the Galapagos, we are seeing more animal life: two hugs pods of porpoises and a few different kinds of birds. Seeing the birds is nice. We have seen very few on this trip. Dr. McPhaden feels this could also be an indicator of El Niño since the waters are warmer, the fish may be fewer and, therefore, the birds have less to eat.

Everyone is very excited about reaching the Galapagos first thing tomorrow morning. The scientists have prepped and are ready for the buoy recoveries/deployments back on the 95°W line north of Galapagos. The crew was busy getting their work done so they can have some well-deserved time off (Ian and Dane were welding at sunset down on the fantail – it looked beautiful with the setting sun behind them). All hands worked very diligently on the leg down here and the CO is very glad to be able to give them some quality time in a port most have never seen before.

As for me, this is a farewell to the KA. Dr. Kermond, Dr. McPhaden and I will be leaving the ship here to spend a couple of days on Santa Cruz. I will continue to write my logs, but won’t have access to a computer until I get back to San Diego. So, in about a week, please check the website again for the finale to my trip. I thank Cmdr. Tisch and his wonderful crew of dedicated, professional workers for making me feel just like one of them, and giving me the opportunity to bring the valuable work they do to the world, as well as experience what it is like to be a scientist for a while. This experience can only help to make me a better teacher with what I can bring to my students. Thanks to NOAA for a win-win situation. And now I’m off to pack as much into two days in the Galapagos as I can! Stay tuned……………

Question of the Day: 

Here’s a no-brainer: did I have fun and learn a lot on the KA? You’re darn right I did. It was truly the experience of a lifetime.

Answer(s) of the Day: 

From Wednesday: Amy has 6 hours between CTD’s if she’s doing them every degree. It’s about 60 miles to a degree. And the ship goes about 10mph. From Thursday: Once again, knowing that 1 degree is about 60 miles, when you count up the degrees, you get almost forty. That would be 2400 miles and Mrs. Mackay’s class in San Diego got it almost right on the money. Super job, you all!

Til I return from the Galapagos,
🙂 Dana

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Dana Tomlinson: Day 21, March 21, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Dana Tomlinson

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

March 1 – 27, 2002

Date: Thursday, March 21, 2002

Lat: 1.5°S
Long: 95°W
Seas: 5-8 ft.
Visibility: unrestricted
Weather: mostly cloudy with isolated rainshowers
Sea Surface Temp: 82-86°F
Winds: SE 10-15 knots
Air Temp: 83-70°F

Today was a day of mostly rainshowers, in actuality, with intermittent spurts of sun. The skies were pretty dramatic. The day was a pretty typical day at sea on the KA. The crew members were all doing their chores around the ship. The scientists spent the morning in preparation. Brian could be found splicing nylon cord together, Nuria was inputting data, etc. There is a buoy already outfitted on board, ready to be deployed after the ship leaves the Galapagos and continues to move northward on the 95°W line.

We had some delightful visitors this afternoon – a group of porpoises slowly made their way from the port side forward of the bow, to the bow, and then slowly drifted off to starboard. This occurred while the scientists were visiting the buoy at 2°S 95°W, so the ship was stopped. Once again, the bearings in the anemometer on this buoy were shot, so the scientists switched the anemometer with a new working one. It was a quick trip out and back and the ship continues to make very good time. We will be getting into the Galapagos much earlier than expected (Saturday morning). The cliche is true, eh? All good things must come to an end, for this Teacher at Sea anyway.

Question of the Day: 

This will be the last real question of the day, since I will only be at my noaa.gov email address until early Saturday morning. So, I’ll make you think. Starting at the 8°N point on the 110°W line and traveling down to the 8°S point on the 110°W line, and then traveling east to the 95°W line and going north to the equator, how many nautical miles is that? Keep in mind that 1° is about equal to 60 nautical miles. Get out the pencil and paper and go for it!!

Answer of the Day: 

I even stumped Cmdr Tisch on this one! We’ve decided a round number on what it costs to run the Ka’imimoana every day is about $20,000. It’s difficult to tell exactly. I did find out about how much fuel they use every day. Give up? About 2200 gallons. Fill ‘er up!

Til tomorrow,
🙂 Dana

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Dana Tomlinson: Day 20, March 20, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Dana Tomlinson

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

March 1 – 27, 2002

Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2002

Lat: 5°S
Long: 95°W
Seas: 5-8 ft.
Visibility: unrestricted
Weather: mostly cloudy with isolated rainshowers
Sea Surface Temp: 82-86°F
Winds: SE 10-15 knots
Air Temp: 84-70°F

Today was a day of CTD’s, a live broadcast and a nighttime buoy visit. We are back to doing a CTD every degree, so Amy was a busy girl today (it gets even busier very close to the equator when she does CTD’s every half a degree). Our live broadcast was at 12:30 today as we are now on Central time. That was a bit dicey because John and I didn’t realize that the clock in the studio hadn’t been changed, so 20 minutes before show time, we were still thinking we had an hour and 20 minutes to go! Thank goodness I figured it out when I went down to eat and all the food had been put away because lunch was over!!

It just goes to prove, however, that preparation isn’t everything. We had a large “studio” audience (about 10-12 people standing behind the camera watching) and they all thought today’s broadcast was the best by far. All of the broadcasts will be put on the website as streaming videos in a few weeks when we return, so you can then decide for yourself. We had great guests: Clem, the Chief Steward who keeps our stomachs full of her yummy food (today’s delight: homemade bread pudding), Ensign Sarah Dunsford, Fred Bruns (the only original crew member since the KA has been working the TAO array), our bilingual trio of scientists Sergio Pezoa and Nuria Ruiz and our Ecuadorian observer, Juan Regalado, all topped off by a visit from oiler Ian Price (we’ve taken to calling him “Mr. Hollywood”). It was fun.

The nighttime visit to the buoy at 5°S 95°W was to check on the buoy’s anemometer. For a while now, the anemometer had been sending back low wind readings. The scientists weren’t sure if this was because there really were low winds in the area, or there was a problem. So, a little RHIB ride in the dark with a spare anemometer just in case did the trick. Turns out the bearings were bad in the old one, so they installed a new one (in the dark with spotlights in 8 foot swells). All in a day’s work for NOAA’s intrepid scientists Mike McPhaden, Brian Powers and Nuria Ruiz!

Question of the Day: 

Since we’re doing a CTD every degree, how often does Amy have to get up to do them? Or, how long is it between degrees of latitude going about 11 knots?

Answer of the Day: 

Mrs. Mackay’s class at Emory Elementary in San Diego CA were the first to come up with what the beam of a ship is: the width of the ship at its widest part (on the KA it’s 43 feet). Great job, you all!

Til tomorrow,
🙂 Dana

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Dana Tomlinson: Day 19, March 19, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Dana Tomlinson

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

March 1 – 27, 2002

Date: Tuesday, March 19, 2002

Lat: 8°S
Long: 95°W
Seas: 5-8 ft.
Visibility: unrestricted
Weather: mostly cloudy with isolated showers
Sea Surface Temp: 82-86°F
Winds: NE 10-15 knots
Air Temp: 84-70°F

This morning, the eight Pollywogs on board (folks who have crossed the Equator but have never gone through the Shellback initiation) went through their Shellback ceremony and became official card-carrying Shellbacks. After 3 days of festivities in this proud maritime tradition, the wait is over. I must say, in all honesty, that I had a great time. The crew of the KA put a lot of effort into this and made it a terrific experience. All Wogs that have the opportunity should partake in this if given the opportunity.

We will be reaching the 95°W line at about 11pm this evening. At that time, there will be a relatively rare nighttime RHIB ride out to the buoy here at 8°S to replace the buoy’s rain gauge (the rest of it is operating properly). This is a fairly simple procedure, so it can safely be done at night. We will be doing a CTD at the same time. This way, as soon as both operations are done, we can continue on to check on the buoy at 5°S. And, as on land, out here at sea, time is money.

Question of the Day: 

How much do you think it costs to run the Ka’imimoana every day?

Answer of the Day(s): 

We have lots of them here from the weekend.

From Thursday: No one ever got back to me, so the deepest spot in the Pacific Ocean can be found in the Marianas Trench – about 10 miles deep.

From Friday: The beginning of modern oceanography is generally regarded to have begun with the Challenger Expedition of 1873-76. Check this out – very interesting.

From Saturday: I had two intrepid folks from San Diego give this a really good college try: Bob M. and John W. According to Ensign Kroening, we will have traveled 880 miles to get from the 110°W to the 95°W at an average of about 11 knots and it will have taken us 80.5 hours. (I like to think of this as driving from LA to the Oregon border at 10 mph with the scenery never changing!!)

From Sunday: The first buoy was deployed by NOAA in the Pacific in 1979. It is the very same one that is floating out on the equator at 110°W with Emory’s name on it! Thanks to John W. from San Diego again!

Til tomorrow,
🙂 Dana

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Dana Tomlinson: Day 18, March 18, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Dana Tomlinson

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

March 1 – 27, 2002

Date: Monday, March 18, 2002
Lat: 8°S
Long: 100°W
Seas: SE 4-7 ft
Visibility: unrestricted
Weather: partly cloudy with isolated rainshowers
Sea Surface Temp: 82-86°F
Winds:E 10-15 knots
Air Temp: 86-72°F

Once again, today was a day in transit. The scientists were preparing for the leg between Galapagos and Manzanillo by getting the buoys that they will deploy there ready. The buoys we picked up on the 110°W line are being cleaned, patched, painted and fitted with the hardware so that they can be used on the 95°W line.

Since today was a quiet science day, I thought I’d take the opportunity to tell you a bit about the Ka’imimoana. The ship is 224 ft long and has a beam of 43 ft. It has 6 total decks, but most of us use only 4 of them. It has enough cabins or staterooms (about 20 of them) to house 34 people. There are 4 generators (12 cylinders putting out 600 volts each) driving 2 propulsion motors, each of which has 800 horsepower. Thanks to Ian Price of the Engineering Dept for these figures. The KA has its own website. Check it out for more info about the ship.

Question of the Day: 

What is the beam of a ship?

Answer of the Day: 

Once again, I’ll wait until tomorrow to get past the
weekend backup of emails (I only get them on board twice a day and
they are funneled through the NOAA offices in Silver Spring, MD –
thanks, Jennifer!!).

Til tomorrow,
🙂 Dana

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Dana Tomlinson: Day 17, March 17, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Dana Tomlinson

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

March 1 – 27, 2002

Date: Sunday, March 17, 2002

Lat: 8°S
Long: 105°W
Seas: 4-7 ft
Visibility: unrestricted
Weather: mostly cloudy with isolated rainshowers
Sea Surface Temp:
Winds: E 10-15 knots
Air Temp: 87-74°F

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Clem cooked up quite the corned beef and cabbage feast today. Hope all of you had fun too. We are presently transiting from the 110°W line to the 95°W line, so there are no scientific experiments going on now. Rather, there is a lot of preparation going on by the scientists for the work once we get to 95°W. Let me sum up for you what was done on the 110°W line.

Between Amy, Nuria and I (mostly Amy), 27 CTD’s were performed, 5 of them at almost the depth of the ocean (we stop 200m above the floor). 4 buoys were recovered and 4 new buoys were deployed. 2 buoys were visited and found to be fine. 1 buoy was visited and needed repairs, which were provided. The scientists saw the signatures of El Niño: warmer than normal sea surface temperatures by 1 degree, and a rainfall pattern that has shifted southward and south of the equator.

While the scientists are prepping for future work, the crew was getting their regular work done. And, in the further interest of safety (always #1 out here), we had a man overboard drill. We all mustered in our respective locations and watched out the window as a crew of four rescuers went out in the RHIB to retrieve the unfortunate soul adrift (a stuffed evacuation suit!). After bringing him/her aboard, they promptly took him/her to the Medical room where s/he was treated and released. All of this practice is great for honing the skills if they’re ever necessary. Let’s hope they never are.

Question of the Day: 

When was the first NOAA buoy deployed in the Pacific Ocean?

Answer of the Day: 

I will wait until I get emails again after the weekend. Keep writing!