Sunday: June 9, 2013
Log Day 8

Alicia Reigel
Graduate Student
Georgia Southern University

Alicia Reigel prepares to collect quadrat data. (Photo: Brittany Poirson)

This year is my first year aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster, and it has been a rollercoaster adventure for me. I came on board so excited with tons of energy for research. But, that good mood slipped away as soon as we left the Savannah River and hit the open ocean. Sea sickness quickly became my worst enemy. I spent the first evening and the majority of the second day sleeping as it was the only way to keep the sea sickness at bay. The morning of the third day I still wasn't myself, so again I missed two research dives. At this point I was thinking just get me off this boat! I honestly wasn't sure I could survive two weeks of being sea sick. So I just crawled into bed and slept the whole third morning.

However, after I awoke from that morning nap, something had changed. I suddenly felt great!! I was so excited, I had lunch, I checked my email, and I even read a little bit of a book! I couldn't believe how much better I felt. So of course, I was itching to go on the two afternoon research dives. It all sounds so promising right? Wrong.

GSU / Invertebrate team departs ship aboard small-dive boat. (Photo: Debbie Meeks)

The saga didn't end there. I began setting up my gear in preparation for the afternoon of diving. I placed my regulator (the apparatus that you breathe from and reads the pressure in your tank) on the tank and opened the air supply. But something wasn't right - my pressure gauge was reading 5000 psi!!! Now if you aren't familiar with diving, most tanks are filled to approximately 3000 psi and if they get much higher than that they can explode. So as the tank wasn't exploding, it seemed more likely that something was wrong with my pressure gauge. Normally this is a very easy fix, if you have another pressure gauge available. Do you think we did? Nope.

Now I was really just ready to throw in the towel. I thought that perhaps the ocean was giving me a sign that this just wasn't going to be my trip. I was so disappointed. All the build-up to the trip and all the great diving I was supposed to be doing; and all I'd done was lay around being sick.

Jenny Vander Pluym (l) and Alicia Reigel (r) and fill air tanks aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster. (Photo: Debbie Meeks)

My teammates and the chief scientist Sarah Fangman wouldn't let me give up. We started emailing the NOAA team on land in Savannah to see if there was any way we could get a pressure gauge brought out to the ship. However, very quickly a better solution arose, one of the ship's crewmembers, Rick, said that I could borrow his pressure gauge! What a life saver! So the morning of the fourth day I was all geared up and ready to go. I did all four research dives that day! What a relief that I was finally over being sea sick and I had properly working equipment. I was also able to identify many of the benthic invertebrate species on my own. I thought that was a huge accomplishment as many of these creatures are totally new to me. The trip was starting to look up!

But wait, the rollercoaster ride wasn't over quite yet. At the end of the fourth day we were notified that we would be leaving the Gray's Reef area and steaming 19 hours straight to Port Canaveral in Florida to avoid the incoming tropical storm Andrea. So much for another full day of research diving. We spent one night at port and are currently steaming back to Gray's Reef as I write this blog.

So, here's hoping that there are no more complications! Cross your fingers for me!