After 2-3 days of travel and loading of the R/V Neil Armstrong, 15 ADEON Science Crew set sail this morning at 08:30 sharp.
The ADEON Cruise 4 Science Crew includes Chief Scientist Dr. Joe Warren, 3 Research Scientists, 1 Artist, 9 graduate/undergraduate students, and me (Lead Principal Investigator of the ADEON project). This is our 4th project cruise out of 5. Our day started bright and early with a 07:00 safety meeting in the main lab where we learned about the overall rules and expectations of living on an ocean going vessel. This was the first of 3 safety and orientation meetings that happened before lunch. We were given information on how to identify and respond to the main emergency alarms that are possible to hear on the ship. The general muster alarm signaling any number of emergencies such as a ship board fire is a 10-sec long whistle or alarm. Man-overboard is 3 short alarm signals, and 7 short blasts followed by one long alarm is the signal to abandon ship. All good things to know in the case of an emergency at sea.
During the last safety meeting, all science party members that have never sailed before were trained on donning the emergency survival immersion suits, commonly referred to as Gumby suits, even though they aren’t green. Our never-to-sea before members are artist Wendy Klemperer, Jake Norry (Nova Southeastern, graduate student), Katelyn Castler (Stony Brook University undergraduate), Cassidy Bell (Stony Brook University undergraduate), and Emmanuelle Cook (Dalhousie University graduate student). By the time they struggled into their Gumby suits, they were out of breath and heated, as getting into one of these suits isn’t easy. They also experienced firsthand how warm they are, which is important if you find yourself in the water during an emergency situation. Now that everyone has either refreshed or learned the safety material for the first time, we are ready to have a safe, productive, and fun science cruise!
Jennifer Miksis-Olds (ADEON Lead PI)
