Atypical…that’s how I would describe today. I popped up in bed, almost hitting my head on the ceiling above me, because it was definitely later than I had planned to sleep. Though it was only a little after 0900, I had set my alarm for 0715. Oh well, so much for that. I had planned to have breakfast and see the launch of Alvin, if the weather allowed.

Turned out there was no need for me to rush. The dive had been cancelled! There are distant storms impacting us from two directions — one north in the Bay of Alaska, and one east in the Gulf of Tehuantepec. As of this morning, the sea swells were more than 10 ft and the winds were a sustained 30 knots (nautical miles per hour). Such conditions made it unsafe to put Alvin and its passengers in the water. Liz McCliment and Andrea Nussbaumer were scheduled to dive, but Mother Nature saw it fit for them not to.

Without a dive, that meant that today’s Phone Call to the Deep would change format to some degree. The schools participating in the call would not get their chance to speak through a “line” (actually a satellite signal) leading 2,500 meters to the depths of the ocean. Unfortunately, those are the circumstances in our field. Sometimes not everything is in our control as scientists. To make up for the change in plans for the phone call, we had a larger selection of individuals available to answer all the questions — “to Atlantis” and “to Alvin.” In addition to Dr. Cary and me, they included Pat Hickey (Alvin Expedition Leader), Liz McCliment, Dr. Colleen Cavanaugh, Ken Voglesonger, and Dr. Joe Grzymski. The entire call lasted only about 1 hour and 5 minutes, and it was relatively smooth considering the number of times the phone changed hands. Besides being the last call of the series, this call was also special because we had several important individuals listening — University of Delaware President David Roselle, and Provost Dan Rich, along with Lisa Rom of the National Science Foundation, the funding agency for Extreme 2003. All things considered, the call was a great success, and we still hope to have brought a piece of the deep to all of the classrooms that participated!

The rest of the day after the call was rather uneventful. Since there was no sub to be recovered, there were no samples to process. Shannon’s LVWS was acoustically released from the bottom, and brought back aboard without having a chance to collect more water for analysis. Once that was safely on deck, the ship began its 18-hour steam to the next dive site at 13°N. The rapidly moving ship, the sea conditions, and the lack of new samples meant that work aboard would be minimal. Therefore, the DVD player was constantly spinning through the afternoon and evening, and the lounge was packed with viewers. So far, I have only watched “The Hulk.” I took a brief nap (about an hour long) afterwards, which left me a bit disoriented. Perhaps that’s because it was an odd time to sleep, or maybe because the ship was so rocky. I finally got my bearings, had dinner, and now I’m about to play cards with Chrissy, Joe, and maybe Tim.

That’s about it for the day. I probably will watch at least one more movie before the night’s over. Already, people are becoming more and more sparse as some take advantage of the chance to rest, and others are coping with seasickness given all the bobbing and swaying we’re experiencing. I’m fortunate not to have a problem with motion sickness, and I am actually enjoying the “ride.”

We are in our third week out here on the Atlantis, and the weather has finally caught up with us. There are two storms that are competing for our attention, one coming from the north, and the other from the east. All the decks have been secured, meaning that nobody is allowed outside on deck. Even though the weather is not the greatest and we are experiencing a lot more motion than usual, I am lucky that I have not been bothered by it all that much. I have had very few experiences with seasickness, and I’m not welcoming new ones any time soon. I guess I should thank the Bonine I took earlier; it’s a great motion sickness medication!

The days of the week all seem to run together now that I have been out here a while, but I did manage to remember that today is my birthday! Today I turned 29. Not the big 3-0 yet, but close enough. This is the first time that I have been at sea on my birthday, so this is a new experience for me. Since the weather has been bad, all the work on board has slowed down considerably so I feel lucky to have a bit of free time this day. My day started quite suddenly when I was awakened by a co-worker who very kindly gave me the heads up that my Large Volume Water Sampler (LVWS) was on its way to the surface. This came as a bit of a surprise to me as I was under the impression that the LVWS would be positioned at Bio9 and turned on to collect diffuse-flow water samples by today’s Alvin pilot. When I realized what the weather was like, I knew that the dive must have been cancelled. Since the plan was to move to another dive site today, I was very glad that the sampler was released to the surface and brought back on board safe and sound. I was disappointed that I was unable to get that last water sample from the vents before we head home, but I am very pleased overall with the samples I have processed so far.

Since the LVWS came back to me minus the sample, I took advantage of the slower work pace today. After breaking down the LVWS (with lots of much appreciated help) and storing it away, I worked on a couple ongoing culturing projects that I have started recently using concentrated diffuse-flow water samples. I am trying to culture bacterial hosts and hopefully identify the viruses that infect them. That was about all I could accomplish without falling over due to the rocking motion of the ship. After that, I joined the majority of the science party in the lounge for the tail-end of "Austin Powers II," always entertaining. Many more movies were planned for the day, but I decided to use the time to get a workout in, which have been too few and far between for my liking. I even had time to catch up on my laundry, very exciting!

My daily activities for today probably don’t sound all that exciting, but I truly appreciate the down time. I have been thinking about what I would normally be doing on my birthday if I was not out here….to be honest, I really don’t know what that is! Probably go to dinner and out with friends, or something to that extent. I guess being on the Atlantis instead is almost as good — the food has been great and so are the people.