Today was another day of transit for the KA. We did work on the buoy that will be deployed, like making connections between the buoy and the anchor line and are running the electronics check one more time prior to the actual drop off the ship. Rick was also scheduled to observe and get checked out on the deployment, monitoring of the programs, recovery of the CTD so he is ready

to do them with the deck department on the half-degree casts that begin at 2.5 degrees North and run every half-degree to the 2.5 South. The initial run-through was scheduled for 10 AM, but due to the heavy seas, some other items had to be taken care of at that time and the CTD was rescheduled for 2 PM. At 2 the engineers discovered that a fan needed to run the winch electronics was malfunctioning and so we were delayed until 4 PM. Well, as we began to take-up the slack in the CTD line the winch, actually a 10,000 capacity “J-Frame” gave some problems and so the CTD is stowed until the engineers can make the repairs needed to make the cast. Rick is hopeful that the CTD winch will be repaired soon so he can shrink the cups and the head.

While Rick was waiting for the winch to be fixed he read an email from a fourth grade class in Billings asking about pollution in the ocean and what is done to prevent pollution from getting in the ocean from the ship. I asked one of the NOAA Officers what the KA did to reduce pollution and he shared that beyond the necessary practice of removing all plastic from ship waste, the crew of the KA has a recycling program that keeps aluminum cans and recyclable plastic soda bottles out of the “overboard disposal”. The ship also

separates contaminated paper products from clean paper. For this ship, very little is sent to “Davy Jones”, in other words goes over the side. Food waste and some biodegradable paper products are about all that go into the ocean, and only at distances approved by international treaty. The recycling and the materials that are unwelcome in the ocean are bagged and remain on the KA until the crew can recycle and the port can handle the waste.

Just before going to the Mess for dinner I noticed the Ensigns’ working on the charts. It looked to me like they were measuring and checking on test questions, but they we actually updating and correcting the charts so that they could still be used for navigation. Speaking of dinner, tonight we had, well I had steak and lobster, fresh bread, and iced tea. Other options included chicken stir-fry, an vegetarian dish, corn on the cob, mash potatoes and gravy, a great salad bar, and of course several types of dessert.

Rick