Life at Sea, Part 1

I served my country in the US Air Force. I was in Okinawa at Kadena Air Base, during Desert Storm, but never went to Iraq. I never had to be away from my immediate family for more than a couple of months at a time. One reason I left the military, was so that I didn’t have to be away from my family, even for those couple of months during deployments. I just don’t like it. In fact it makes me miserable. So, I separate from the Air Force, finish my degree at Texas A&M, then something draws me into the job, where being away for two months is exactly what I end up doing.

The 18th century English writer, Samuel Johnson wrote,"Going to sea is like going to prison, with a chance at drowning besides."

There are definitely similarities between ship board life and prison. Times and technology have changed since those days for both sailor and prisoner. These days we have air conditioning, refrigerated food and hot and cold running water. They had to sleep below deck in the cold with little fresh air, or on deck in the heat, eating salted meat and dried biscuits. They did their business at the the head,a seat with a hole located near the bow (or head of the ship) where waves could wash away the waste. We have vacuum toilets. We navigate by Global Positioning Satellite. They used the stars. We have satellite internet and phone service. They had no communication until a port was reached where a letter home could be sent with a returning ship. Can you imagine, no word of a loved ones safety and well being for months. Steel hulls versus Oak, a hammock below deck versus a bunk in our two man room, and on and on. Captain Cook’s 1st voyage aboard the HMS Resolution (namesake for the JOIDES Resolution) took about 3 years. We are only away from home for a little over two months. But, still I complain.

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We are at the third site of Expedition 320 (PEAT03) located at:

10°30.997’N, 138°25.175’W

Updates on drilling operations can be found at JOIDESResolution.org

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In these days, technology changes so quickly it’s hard to keep up. There was a time, before I started at ODP, when personal communication was limited to a sort of teletype system. Personal messages would need to be typed up, then sent out by the ships radio operator.  Keeping personal messages private, was impossible. In the 10 years I have been with the program, we’ve gone from strictly email communications, messages going our twice per day to immediate email delivery and VOIP telephone. Back then, if you needed to ask a question of a person on shore, you could send an email, but the earliest reply would be twelve hours later. A conversation could last days at that rate. During the first ODP leg I sailed, I got word via email of a family emergency. I was able to call over the Inmarsat telephone at about $3.50 per minute. Five minutes was all I could afford, just long enough to find out every one was ok, but that my truck was totaled. Today we can email back and forth at will, make a daily 15 minute voice call and I can post to my blog on one of the limited number of internet stations.

The past couple of weeks we have made a 4 day transit to the first site, a short transit between site 1 and 2 and drilled 3 holes at each site near 200 meters below sea floor in around 5000 meters of water depth coring all the way. Coring is good. Scientist are busy taking measurements in the labs, technicians are busy operating the new equipment in these labs, and the ETs (Electronics Techs) are busy repairing a broad range of everything. There are a lot of new pieces of equipment, and every space in the lab stack is new space so there are bugs to be worked out. Overall, it seems to be going very well. Unforeseen circumstances is what this group handles best, and they always get the job done.

Transits seem to be a bit rougher. When on site the ship can be turned into the waves to smooth out the ride, but underway, we must steer a course for the next location regardless of wave direction. All the rocking can be good for sleep, or it can be bad. a slight rock puts me to sleep, but when there is a large roll back and forth I wakeup tired if I sleep at all. It seems that I try to keep myself from rolling out of bed, so i tense my muscles and grit my teeth. Wedging myself between the wall and rolled up blanket or an extra pillow can help. 

Everything creaks as the ship moves, I can hear what sounds like ball bearing rolling around inside my ceiling. At times the sound can seem like creaking of an old sailing ship’s wooden hull, or at least what that sounds like in the movies. I lay in bed and imagine the hardships that those 18th century sailors endured. I wonder how they could be away from family for years. Then, my mind turns to those in today’s Navy, as well as, the Army, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, away from home and in harms way. I know these guys miss their families, they fear for their lives, but they do their job to keep us safe. I don’t know how I would handle that situation, but I think I would.  I am embarrassed that I complain about my situation, when compared to those men and women.

Samuel Johnson also said,“When any fit of gloominess, or perversion of mind, lays hold upon you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaints.”

I’ll try to keep that in mind, if i can block that damn creaking sound out of my head.

Flickr Tags: dean ferrell,JOIDES Resolution,Ocean Drilling Program

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If you like this blog, you might like my music as well. It’s mostly about people I’ve met, things I’ve done, places I’ve been or dreams I’ve had. (sometimes nightmares) Visit me at deanferrell.com have a listen, maybe buy a song, or just leave me a comment. I’m trying to raise a little money to get into the studio. Thanks, Dean