I haven't used an inch of fabric this week, I'm afraid, although I did manage to finish one of the fingerless gloves I've been knitting:
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| Yes, it really was that color. I never understood the "ultramarine blue" in my watercolor sets until this week. |
Yup, I've been on a cruise! The kind of cruise where you are awake and filtering water at 3 a.m., that is. It was awesome, though. Here was our boat:
There are a few more pictures after the jump for anyone who is interested in what an oceanographic research cruise is like!
Used This Week: 0
Used Year To Date: 18.625
Added This Week: 0
Added Year To Date: 51.25
Net Used For 2011: -32.625
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This thing is called a CTD, which stands for Conductivity (or salinity), Temperature, Depth. You send it down into the ocean on a long, long cable, and you can see the differences in salinity and temperature as you go down into the depths. The gray things around the edge are a rosette of Niskin bottles. They're closed now, but they have caps on the bottom and top that are opened when it's sent down, and as you bring the CTD back up through the water you can send it a message to snap the caps shut. This way you get water samples from any depth in the ocean that you are interested in!
This is what the filter rig I spent most of my time with looked like. We were investigating the kinds of bacteria in the ocean, so we filtered water through filters that would trap them, for later analysis.
It was hard work, but we also got so see some neat stuff, like pretty sunsets...
... and dolphins...
... and a gigantic ship!
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| According to Google, this was a 5,100 car carrier headed for the port of Charleston. It's 600 feet long! |
Looks pretty interesting. I think I woukd be having panic attacks, all that water and no land anywhere in sight. The dolphins are so cool, you captured them just at the right moment.
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