I look out to the ocean from the weatherdecks and think to myself that this is likely the only place on this planet where it looked the same a thousand years ago. All the activities of this liquid desert take place below. Right after quitting time I rode the exercise bike on the 02 deck and had the ocean to look at. Usually when I ride one back home at the health club, the scenery consists of a parking lot, providing someone is not riding or walking on a treadmill in front of me. Other clubs I go to will have a television where you can listen to the audio on your portable player but have no control over the channel. Aside from the pain of running, it can be a more torturous half hour of cardio if they decide to leave it on Fox News. During my treadmill running days I would envision one inside a booth with a 180-degree screen with choice high definition videos that allow you to run in whatever sitting you wanted. Run across the Grand Canyon or mountain trails of the Pacific Northwest. It certainly beat the mundane scenery at the gym. So today, I had the real thing while riding the exercise bike, a 360-degree view of the ocean while I pedaled my bike. The swells were not high and the roll was enough to be able to swing against it to keep balance. The wind provided constant source of cooling and of course the blue ocean. Today she was on her good behavior and hid her brutalities for the winter. I would close my eyes and meditate and other times I would try to envision what these waters were like over two centuries ago with whales and the wicked whalers in hot pursuit. On the other hand, the French squadron trying to find a route to Asia from the western hemisphere coming to these parts of the Pacific in which undersea mountain peaks could be a few hundred feet below the hull. Too bad, we will not go to French Frigate Shoals this trip, where sailing between the tiny atolls look like sand bars on the Mississippi.
Poor K, as he was under pressure to come with a printout of the crew to put up on the board next to the galley. Of course, the photo of me is the one I do not like. In fact, any photo of me I do not like and prefer that they paste a portrait of George Clooney or Brad Pitt in my place. However, no such luck. The plotter was not cooperating with him and nothing would come out. He asked me to check out the situation and Windows systems being the way it is, I reset it and still no plotter response. Everything showed us being connected except the switch did not seem to be responding. Ta Ta, there was the problem. The network switch had cables but nothing was connecting it to the network, with the aide of the ship’s doctor, we traced it to a…you guessed it, the scientists’ server! Plugged the switch into the network outlet and the scientist’s server into the switch and everyone was happy and K printed out the ship’s crew photo chart to display next to the galley. I still hate my picture and even a new snapshot of me would not improve it!
The photo of the day consists of Gardner Pinnacles. It is not much to look at and wonder what is so important about this place. Like I said previously most of us on the ship’s crew remember and concentrate on two days. The day we leave port and the day we go home. I am sure the web site maintain by the science group will have details on the significance of these two rocks. Certainly when I took this photo from the port side weatherdeck outside my stateroom, there is no beach here and you can see the waves pound on the rocks with it growing in good-sized height.
That is what is distinctive about this monument, as you could feel being in the middle of the ocean and yet something odd pops up like these peaks and wonder if it got lost. Aside from birds and marine life, there are no signs of human civilization ever existing here. How can it? We left this afternoon for a fifteen-hour transit to Maro. We should be there in the morning in time to begin ops for the scientist/divers and we will be camping there for four days. I doubt there will be plenty of objects for me to take pictures. Again, you can say that the photos I take and the contents I write can be construed as the anti-Cousteau. When Jacques was alive, his documentaries always showed the beauty and the glory. This gave an impression that life on a scientific research vessel as such. Yes, it is true if you are fortunate to be a scientist/diver. Missing in the Cousteau documentaries were the people who kept the ship afloat and running so Jacques can make those beautiful documentaries. But I liked the late Jacques Cousteau and when I was younger, you bet I was glued to the idiot-box watching his shows.
I bid you good night from NOAA Ship Hi’ialakai transiting from Gardner Pinnacles to Maro.
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