[Exports_project_office] Final (maybe!) all-hands message before mobilization

[Norm Nelson]

Hello Survey team, 

We are looking forward to seeing you all in Seattle, and hope your final preparations are going smoothly. 
Here are some last minute things for you. 

1) Contingency planning

As everyone knows, this is a big and complex project with many many moving parts and lots of possible problem points. We’re going to need patience and flexibility in case of unforseen events. We’ve built time and space into our schedule to accomodate things, but there still may be some things that happen that impact the schedule and our science. The Project Office would like everyone to think about contingencies, particularly from the point of view of prioritizing sampling - what is critical for the project goals, what is less so, think of alternate ways to obtain the required data, and to be ready to respond accordingly if the Chief Scientists ask for help. We are sure we will be able to work through unforseen events with some creativity and prior thought. Thank you all very much for your hard work to date and on the expedition co come.

2) Mobilization schedule

In case you don’t know, we will be at Pier 91, the cruise ship terminal, just north of downtown Seattle and west of the Queen Anne district. You just need ID to access the pier. The current plan is that the Ride will be on the west side of the pier opposite the Revelle (and the Kilo Moana) on the east side of the pier. It’ll be busy. 

We are planning on having the lab vans craned aboard and connected up first thing on Monday (6 Aug). We have been informed that there may be a little bit of the previous cruise’s demobilization to do on Monday morning, so there may be a little delay at the outset. We will take advantage of this opportunity to make sure we have the tables in the labs arranged as we want before the bulk of our equipment gets aboard. Anyone who is around early Monday can help us get this sorted out with much appreciation. We’re hoping to get everything aboard if not emplaced by the end of the day Monday, so we can have the rest of the week for setup etc. 

There is a tentative all-science-hands meeting planned for Tuesday as well. We will keep you posted. Update: 1630 on the Revelle’s big 01 deck forward (outside).

The optical instrument round robin at APL has also been delayed so assembly of the CTD and ancillary instruments and bottles will be pushed back until perhaps Wednesday. 

Also on Wednesday ship’s consumable stores will be delivered, and we’d like all the science party aboard to assist the crew in getting the stores moved to storage on the ship (bucket brigade with boxes of vegetables sort of thing, if you haven’t done this before, consider this a team building exercise and a preview of what’s going to be for dinner over the next month!). It’s fun, and the crew appreciate the help. Please pitch in if you can. 

Reminder that NASA’s Social Media day will be on Thursday (9 Aug). Two tour groups of ca. 20 folks will be visiting the ship between 2 and 4:30 pm. As mentioned before if you would like to interact with the tour group (or, alternately, if you’d like them to stay far away), please let Ivona know. 

Everyone sleeps aboard Thursday night, no exceptions, and we will sail ca. 8AM on Friday. 

3) Meals aboard  / shipboard etiquette

If you are going to be sailing on board the Ride the ship will be happy to provide meals during mobilization. We’re assuming most people will want to eat some meals ashore, so to help the cooks Mary Jane has prepared signup sheets that they can refer to to prepare accordingly. Please fill these out if you’d like to eat aboard. This is particularly good for lunches as it saves valuable time traveling off and on the pier. Look for the signup sheets on the whiteboard in the main lab. Also note that the in-port meal schedule may differ from the at-sea meal schedule. 

And speaking of keeping the cooks happy … we understand we have some first-voyagers here in addition to the salt-encrusted veterans. We would like our experienced people to help everyone else with the (arr, mateys) unwritten laws of the sea - stuff like eating with dispatch and returning your dishware promptly to the scullery for washing; making sure you have closed toe+heel shoes in the labs and on deck (this is actually a written rule; sandals only allowed in cabins and the lounge) - keep quiet in the halls around the cabins as there are always people sleeping when not on watch - always thank the cooks, they’re the hardest working people on the ship - and no whistling, unless you’re the bos’n. :) We have a great group of people in the science party so we expect we will have a happy cruise, but always have consideration for your shipmates as you go through your day. 

4) Canadian clearance / test station

SIO has informed us that the government of Canada has approved our request to use underway instruments while transiting Canadian waters. The approval doesn’t apparently cover samples. I’ve asked for clarification of this; in the mean time we’ll schedule our test station for the 13th, when we should be out of Canadian waters. This gives us one day free between the test station and arrival on site to solve any problems we may have. 

5) Documents

We are concerned about Internet access from the ship at all times, and in the event that Google Drive is inaccessible we’ve been asked to prepare a folder with some selected critical documents that everyone should download prior to leaving for Seattle. You can find this in the EXPORTS : Platform Working Groups : Survey ship working group : Final documents at mobilization folder on the Google Drive. In there is a notional cruise schedule (overall), a detailed timeline for the first epoch (which shows cast types and relative locations), the current water budget (which includes a listing of samples taken on each type of cast), the current plan for lab and deck layout, and some other informational spreadsheets. Please consider all of these to be somewhat live before the end of the week. 

6) Safety stuff

There were some questions about safety-toe boots. They are not required, however it’s great if you have them, particularly when loading in and setting up gear, and when deploying instruments on deck. And of course, closed toe and heel shoes in the labs and on deck no matter what. 

Another thing that we’d like people to be prepared for that I’m not sure was talked about in the earlier “what to bring” discussions: we’d like everyone to bring a “go bag” with your required stuff in case of an abandon-ship situation. So this means, long-sleeved shirt and sweater, long pants (if you’re not usually wearing them), sunscreen, hat and sunglasses, lip balm wth high SPF. I usually have all this in my day pack, and I’ll stash it under a bench while I’m working, and in the cabin when I’m sleeping. Just one thing to grab along with your life jacket, and if it’s with you during the day you can still have it all if the emergency is between you and the cabin. Our research vessels are the safest ships in the world, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay utmost attention to safety and planning for emergencies. A lot of this stuff will be covered in the departure briefing that will be led by the techs, but it’s nice to think about some of it now before we head for the dock. 

Questions or comments? Talk to Norm and/or Mary Jane. Thanks! See you at the dock. 

Norm Nelson
Earth Research Institute
MC 3060
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106 USA
norm at eri.ucsb.edu
Vox: +1-805-893-3202