This is a training environment

Author: Delphine Demaisy, C Watch, College of the Atlantic

Bonjour bonjour!

Time for another update on the fun shenanigans happening in the South
Pacific on the Robert C. Seamans! We spent a lovely night with a gorgeous
sunset anchored in Pigeon Bay. B and A watch took care of hourly boat checks
and anchor watch all throughout the night to keep our lovely ship safe and
sound. C watch had the deck this morning and while our watch was spent at
anchor, a couple of us were extremely productive finishing processing our
samples for independent research projects. I spent a couple hours in the lab
going through all the microplastics we have collected thus far with our
Neuston net tows. I was happily surprised to find that a lot of the pieces
put aside were not actually plastic, which left me with a total of 13 actual
plastic pieces collected along our cruise track during these deployments.

At 1300 A watch relieved us on deck and we got underway, leaving our
beautiful protected anchorage to start our journey south to Dunedin, with an
expected ETA of 1000 on Sunday. While we are still sailing close to shore
with the pretty view the South Island has to offer, the wind has picked up
quite a bit in the past hours and our tables in the main salon are back in
gimballed mode! I find it so fascinating to see the tables heel from side to
side to keep level as the ship cruises through the waves.

This afternoon, during our daily muster on the quarter deck at 1430 we were
greeted with, “This is a training environment. Fire in the galley,” a drill
during Julia’s science report. As a way to be ready and efficient in our
response to emergencies at any time on the ship, we go through a weekly
emergency drill allowing all the watches to perform their assigned task and
build in some muscle memory.

As the drill was coming to an end and all of us were making our way back to
the quarter deck, we sighted five beautiful Hector’s dolphins jumping in the
waves close to the ship. These dolphins were the cetacean species I was most
excited about seeing in Aotearoa New Zealand (ANZ). This species is endemic
to ANZ and is distributed all around the South Island. They are the smallest
cetacean species in the world and have a black rounded dorsal fin that makes
them stand out in the ocean and makes you question this idea of a typical
dolphin. They are incredible creatures and were definitely the highlight of
my day!

Last but not least, I have to mention that today is the final stage of the
beard extravaganza that started a couple of days ago. More facial hair is
about to be shaved to leave a couple of crew members with stunning
mustaches. However, today is also Fun Bun Friday, which means that most of
the ship’s company is also proudly wearing the coolest, funniest and most
awesome hair buns! As always, we are having a blast on the Bobby C., taking
all the opportunities to laugh and have fun at sea. Wish you all a great
time too!

PS: Beau bonjour à toute la famille! Je vous aime fort et je pense à vous!
Je profite de mes derniers jours en mer et j’ai hâte de tout vous raconter à
mon retour.

Delphine Demaisy, C Watch, College of the Atlantic