Sunday, our last full day at sea. Somewhat fitting that on the seventh day he rested, and we continued packing up our gear for the long trip back to Maryland. In the last two days the weather has gone from foggy, to clear, to windy and choppy, and then repeated the cycle. Our last time point in the phytoplankton degradation experiment was this morning. It was truly gratifying to collect all the planned samples from the experiment without any major errors. I had trouble sleeping last night thinking about all the ridiculous things that could go wrong before we came into port, but as the final hours unfold I am relieved to see everything go smoothly.
Our lab area is looking almost as bare as it did at the beginning of the cruise, as the supplies are packed into boxes for transport. Rachel’s experience fitting everything together nicely in the available space is more and more evident as I struggle to get things together. Many on board have asked if I am having trouble adjusting back to the regular daytime schedule. It’s actually not that hard when you are already tired to begin with, and can’t sleep because you agonize over insignificant details.
Eating in the mess deck throughout the cruise I have looked constantly at a picture of the Knorr next to the Sydney Opera House. In 2007 my father, sister, and I went to Australia and New Zealand while my sister was on a semester abroad at Victoria University of Wellington, NZ. We even saw a concert at the famous Opera House. In over 40 years this ship has likely traveled the globe many times over. It is humbling to think that I got to be on a small part of the Knorr’s fantastic voyage. One of the other students aboard wondered from which room the explorers located the Titanic with their navigational systems and deep sea cameras. Since I have been around all of the common areas of the ship, I’ll go ahead and tell myself that I have successfully retraced all of the history that has taken place here.
-Eli
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