Boat time (and swimming!)
MTF: Smartfood (best snack ever) and flying fish
LFP: Broken Hydrolite and Seasick Steph
Long day! We were up at 5:30 am, on the boat by 7:30 am and returned by 7:00 pm to the boat. As of 9:00 pm we are still working (hopefully sleeping in a bit). Anyways, we got lots of data, which is the good news. The bad news....the hydrolite rod broke. We managed to duck tape it together enough to finish off the day but fixing it more permanently will be interesting...Poor Richard he has spent all evening trying to fix the GPR computer (lots of soldering and rice for trying).
So today we spent the morning "mowing the lawn" in the ava (deep passes) between the motu (reef islands along the atoll). Basically we do a check-board pattern with the boat within the pass so we can get good coverage of data. We were taking CHIRP (subbottom profiler) and Bathy (single-beam Hydrolite). The problem with getting data in passes when going perpendicular to the main wave direction is that the boat rolls alot. So if you are at all prone to seasickness...not a good situation. All of us were feeling a bit underweather, but Steph got the worst of it. We stopped on a small motu to try to get high-resolution topo on it by walking around with our Trimble. It was a perfect time to have lunch on non-moving land. However, in terms of getting lots of topo data...we ran into issues. A lot of the motu on this atoll are highly vegetated and the vegetation is rather impenetrable especially if you are trying to get a satellite lock for high resolution topo data. But the island was rather cute overall and it took us about an hour to circumnavigate it by the beach. A couple of interesting things about motu on atolls. First off, they are COMPLETELY made of coral rubble. Imagine lots and lots (millions) of pieces of old corals all jumbled together and that is the beach. There is a bit of pink sand in between but the main sediment is cobble-sized rubble. Oh we saw lots of crabs and some very scary eels (think Princess Bride crazy screaming eels). The best part of the island was that we found an intact in situ relict coral head for constraining past sea-level curve.
The day finished with crossing two more passes. It turns out the best place on the boat for curing sea-sickness is near the back holding the hydrolite handheld device where you can brace yourself on the ladder and look out at the horizon with the wind in your face. Luckily all of us were much refreshed by our swim back to the boat from the island. It was the first time I've gone swimming since we got here! Though yesterday I got enough salt-water on me to count! But the water was truly glorious (as long as you firmly forget all about the scary eels and tiger sharks (they are very rare supposedly)) -- the colors here of the ocean are almost out of a movie or a drawing. On the way back we saw these crazy flying fish. Now I've seen "flying fish" before. Up until now I would have said it was a slight exaggeration to call them "flying" fish because they mostly glided like 3 feet from wave to wave. Well it turns out we have a very different species here in the Pacific. First off these are much smaller than the ones I've seen in the Caribbean. Then they fly (literally fully out of the water) for at least 100 feet! They keep up with our boat going basically full speed (15~20 knots). It's scary but very cool. Anyways, here is the wikipedia quote about them.
"Flying fish can use updrafts at the leading edge of waves to cover distances of at least 400 m (1,300 ft).[7] They can travel at speeds of more than 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph)"
Enjoy the photos and feel free to post comments.
LFP: Broken Hydrolite and Seasick Steph
Long day! We were up at 5:30 am, on the boat by 7:30 am and returned by 7:00 pm to the boat. As of 9:00 pm we are still working (hopefully sleeping in a bit). Anyways, we got lots of data, which is the good news. The bad news....the hydrolite rod broke. We managed to duck tape it together enough to finish off the day but fixing it more permanently will be interesting...Poor Richard he has spent all evening trying to fix the GPR computer (lots of soldering and rice for trying).
So today we spent the morning "mowing the lawn" in the ava (deep passes) between the motu (reef islands along the atoll). Basically we do a check-board pattern with the boat within the pass so we can get good coverage of data. We were taking CHIRP (subbottom profiler) and Bathy (single-beam Hydrolite). The problem with getting data in passes when going perpendicular to the main wave direction is that the boat rolls alot. So if you are at all prone to seasickness...not a good situation. All of us were feeling a bit underweather, but Steph got the worst of it. We stopped on a small motu to try to get high-resolution topo on it by walking around with our Trimble. It was a perfect time to have lunch on non-moving land. However, in terms of getting lots of topo data...we ran into issues. A lot of the motu on this atoll are highly vegetated and the vegetation is rather impenetrable especially if you are trying to get a satellite lock for high resolution topo data. But the island was rather cute overall and it took us about an hour to circumnavigate it by the beach. A couple of interesting things about motu on atolls. First off, they are COMPLETELY made of coral rubble. Imagine lots and lots (millions) of pieces of old corals all jumbled together and that is the beach. There is a bit of pink sand in between but the main sediment is cobble-sized rubble. Oh we saw lots of crabs and some very scary eels (think Princess Bride crazy screaming eels). The best part of the island was that we found an intact in situ relict coral head for constraining past sea-level curve.
The day finished with crossing two more passes. It turns out the best place on the boat for curing sea-sickness is near the back holding the hydrolite handheld device where you can brace yourself on the ladder and look out at the horizon with the wind in your face. Luckily all of us were much refreshed by our swim back to the boat from the island. It was the first time I've gone swimming since we got here! Though yesterday I got enough salt-water on me to count! But the water was truly glorious (as long as you firmly forget all about the scary eels and tiger sharks (they are very rare supposedly)) -- the colors here of the ocean are almost out of a movie or a drawing. On the way back we saw these crazy flying fish. Now I've seen "flying fish" before. Up until now I would have said it was a slight exaggeration to call them "flying" fish because they mostly glided like 3 feet from wave to wave. Well it turns out we have a very different species here in the Pacific. First off these are much smaller than the ones I've seen in the Caribbean. Then they fly (literally fully out of the water) for at least 100 feet! They keep up with our boat going basically full speed (15~20 knots). It's scary but very cool. Anyways, here is the wikipedia quote about them.
"Flying fish can use updrafts at the leading edge of waves to cover distances of at least 400 m (1,300 ft).[7] They can travel at speeds of more than 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph)"
Enjoy the photos and feel free to post comments.
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| Legan -- see the relict reef in the foreground! Plus the pretty water. |
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| Our crew lowering the dingy to take us ashore |
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| Chris enjoying the amazing water |
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| Having a little too much fun with the Trimble GPS |
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| The poor GPR console -- it's filled with rice and drying |
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| The best place to stave off sickness -- plus learning the Hydrolite system |
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| Fossiliferous rock! |
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