Beautiful Weather

The weather couldn't be anymore perfect for the first trip on my new ship. The HENRY BIGELOW departed Newport, RI yesterday (Tuesday), with light winds and smooth seas. Once we got into open waters and the weather was the same, the captain looked around and said, "There will be hell to pay for this weather. Hell To Pay." Apparently he's a bit on the superstitious side. I don't think you can sail and not be a bit that way.

As far as the actual job I'm getting adjusted to sea life again, which I enjoy tremendously. My watch is the 04-08 (4am-8am and 4pm-8pm). The best thing about this watch is that I see the sun rise and set each day. The bad part...I start smelling breakfast wafting up from the galley with about 2 hours left on my watch, which sets my stomach a'rumbling.

Pictures will follow once we actually start doing some operations. We've had a bit of a delay since the ship we're replacing had mechanical problems (one of the reasons she's being replaced) and we can't compare our data when she's alongside the pier. Hopefully she'll be underway here shortly and we can get to some actual fishing. To fill the time we've been examining the plankton population. Not exactly a photogenic job.

If you want to see where we are check out http://shiptracker.noaa.gov I can't believe this information is public, but it is, so check it out. It's pretty neat.

Off to Rhode Island

I plan on departing for our nation's smallest state on April 3rd to report to my new assignment. Along the way, visits to friends and family will pass the time until my report date of April 11. Until then I'll be packing, getting rid of unnecessary stuff and snowboarding. I'm definitely looking forward to the new assignment and the challenges it will bring.

Next Assignment

I have been notified that my next assignment will be in Newport, Rhode Island as Operations Officer on NOAA Ship HENRY B BIGELOW, a fisheries research vessel. This is to take place around March-April of 2008. I'm pretty excited about the next stage of my career, and looking forward to where it will take us.

Yes, it is fisheries, and I was on a hydrographic vessel for my first assignment, but in the words of one of the fisheries higher-ups, "It's not rocket science. Man has been fishing ever since we figured out there was something under the water that we wanted to eat." So I'm not too worried about figuring it out. Next thing for me is Refresher Training, which begins October 14 at Kings Point, NY and runs until November 9. After that I may augment aboard one of our smaller fish boats to get some experience. Then training (what I'm not exactly sure, but I'm hoping for dive training.) Basically I'm keeping the next few months pretty open for whatever they need me to do.