Dispatches from Sea >>
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| March 2007 |  Laura Preston, educator, UNH/Salem High School, Salem, NH. |
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| April 2007 | |||||||
April 25, 2007
Well folks, it has been an adventure (in it’s own right!) writing this journal over the past month, and it is now time to say so long. Although I have learned a lot about science and ship life, I didn’t get a chance to talk too much about the people on the journey who come from all over the world. It would have made a great place to do a psychological study…if I were in to that kind of thing!
When they are not on the ship, crew of the Atlantis live anywhere from Massachusetts to California…Denver, Seattle, Mexico, Florida, etc. They come together to work on the Atlantis, but some of them also work on other ships, so they aren’t always together. I suppose it’s like changing semesters or quarters for me when I get a new group of students to wear down (just kidding!).
The science group is also from different parts of the country. If you have checked out this web log than you probably took a tour of the rest of the web page and noticed that we are from North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Colorado. These people may or may not work another cruise together, depending on their proposals and work in the future.
Included in this group is my roommate, Lynne Butler, who is what they call an SSSG (can’t really say I know what THAT acronym stands for, but I know what she does!). She is a Marine Technician. She has an ocean science background and normally works on the University of Rhode Island’s Endeavor. Lynne and Atlantis’ SSSG, Dave Sims, assist the scientists with equipment, computers, and anything else imaginable. Lynne is from Rhode Island and travels on many different ships helping scientists along the way.
Then we have the Jason II group. They also live in many different parts of the world, but the group mostly stays together and travels to areas around the globe on different ships, operating Jason II for the scientists who request the ROV.
The fascinating thing about this whole “gig” is that they all have separate jobs and sometimes barely know one another, but they still manage to work together as a HUGE team. Sure there are some differences during the cruise, but for the most part they are an orchestrated symphony. I don’t know if this is typical for most cruises, but it was apparent on this one. So, I leave with the satisfaction of a job well done by all, some terrific memories of a month long journey to a far away place, and a chance to share the expedition with my students and peers.
Cheers!
Laura Preston
P.S. Make sure to check the log tomorrow….a cameo of pictures contributed by all.
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