{"id":1568,"date":"2009-08-10T19:52:36","date_gmt":"2009-08-11T03:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mlmlblog.wordpress.com\/?p=1568"},"modified":"2009-08-10T19:52:36","modified_gmt":"2009-08-11T03:52:36","slug":"summer-at-sea-close-quarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/2009\/08\/10\/summer-at-sea-close-quarters\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer at Sea: Close Quarters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Double<\/a>
Double parked: Climbing aboard my survey boat (the Noah's Ark, teal color) with my duffel bag was a bit of a gymnastic feat!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Erin<\/a>
Erin Loury<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Erin Loury<\/a>, Ichthyology<\/p>\n

Klutzes like me have to look lively when boarding a boat.\u00a0 The first rule of thumb is to mind your space, because it\u2019s at a premium!\u00a0 Heavy equipment, sharp things and moving parts can be around every corner, people are hurrying past you to get to their stations, and to top it off, the whole shebang is typically rocking under your feet with the waves.<\/p>\n

Last summer, I spent 10 days at sea aboard an 85-foot fishing boat as part of a trawling survey for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Just getting on board was something of an adventure.\u00a0\u00a0 The whole “Mind the gap” philosophy definitely applies when jumping from pier to boat, to boat, while ducking under railings and passing gear over a narrow-but-steep drop to the water below.\u00a0\u00a0 And I quickly learned once I stepped inside that there\u2019s generally not a lot of personal space.\u00a0\u00a0 Three scientists, three crew, and one bathroom (or head, as you\u2019d say on a boat) \u2013 you do the math.<\/p>\n

\"e<\/a>
Bunkroom for four \u2013 feeling like a packed sardine is probably an appropriate feeling for a fishing survey!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Surprisingly, bathroom time was not much of an issue, but the sleeping arrangements sure were cozy.\u00a0 My bunk became even smaller once I wedged in my bulky survival suit \u2013 about the size of a large sleeping bag \u2013 so that it would be handy to grab should any Titanic-style drama ensue.\u00a0\u00a0 Fortunately, except for one safety drill, there it stayed and provided something of a lumpy backrest.<\/p>\n

\"Home<\/a>
Home sweet bunk - the space to call my own for 10 days.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My first night at sea was probably the roughest.\u00a0 We left port about 4 pm and were steaming through the night to get to our first trawling location on the southern California coast.\u00a0 The way the bunks were laid across the boat caused me to rock slightly from head to toe like I was lying on a seesaw \u2013 not at all conducive to falling sleep.\u00a0 I found myself suddenly commiserating with immigrants of yesteryear crossing rough seas to the new world, enduring seasick nights in their crammed quarters. Oh dear<\/em>, I thought. This is going to be a long 10 days<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Luckily, after my first full day at sea, my nerves \u2013 and my stomach \u2013 quieted down.\u00a0 Between the crew rapping on the walls at 3 am to switch out their turns on watch, to the 6 am wake-up as the winch let out a hydraulic squeal to set the first net, I was more than ready to fall asleep at the end of each long day.\u00a0\u00a0 And never once did I tumble out of my bunk in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Erin Loury, Ichthyology Klutzes like me have to look lively when boarding a boat.\u00a0 The first rule of thumb is to mind your space, because it\u2019s at a premium!\u00a0 Heavy equipment, sharp things and moving parts can be around every corner, people are hurrying past you to get to their stations, and to top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":291,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"MLML Student Life","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}