By Sijia Zou
I never expect any experience at sea that can make me feel so close to “scientific research”. All of the fantastic feelings and knowledge I obtained comes from the OSNAP east cruise, which departed from Reykjavik Iceland and will reach the continental shelf east of Scotland.
As a first year international student, it is pretty challenging to work with a bunch of “English speakers” because I am not a native speaker and cannot understand each word of what they say. Also, I have never been at s
ea with duties! I am really afraid of screwing things up and being useless. My duties are to be a CTD watcher during daytime shift, which means I need to communicate with people operating the winch and deploying the CTD and tell them when to do the deck test, when to cast the CTD and when to fire a bottle. Well, it turns out that I am not good at communicating with someone through a speaker. It takes me a while to figure out what the person says on the other side and I confuse them because of my accent. The worse thing is that I always forget what I should say and what button I should online pharmacy press even though I write everything down and pre-read them before each cast. Despite these disappointing and stupid mistakes, I am so pleased with this job since the working station looks really cool and I am the one that controls the whole process of the CTD cast! I am doing a better and better job and I am pretty positive about that.
Today I am helping to launch the moorings near the Reykjanes Ridge. From knowing nothing to helping out on deck (e.g. carrying Micro-cats, dragging floats, linking the shackles and pear-links…), it took me a while to find out what I can do to help. A favor is always welcomed to people who are at work and you should always offer a hand instead of standing by. If you are afraid of screwing things up and never come up to help, you will never know that you can be important and appreciated.
Besides, it is a super nice day today. I finally see the sunshine through those dark clouds even though it lasts around 10 minutes every other time. Sunny days always make me happy and refreshed. Looking forward to the sound source and another mooring launches tomorrow.
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