Sea Log: 2024-03-11

Published

March 11, 2024

It’s port call day! Well, sort of. We1 aren’t going all the way into port, rather we are getting close and then hovering in the water while a small boat comes out to swap some folks. A few gotta get off to head to a conference, and a couple more are getting on the ship to finish out the last week at sea.

Heading into/near Port Hueneme, we passed between the Channel Islands and California coast and it was quite lovely and beautiful. Water was pretty calm too, so it was smooth sailing into port with a gloriously sunny day. Heading back out to sea after we swapped people was a different story; last night was full of rather rocky seas.2


smaller boat pulled up alongside R/V Revelle to swap some people and bring more jars

The small boat that came out for sci-party swaps. Note the XXXL bag3 used for transferring luggage4

sunset over the ocean with streaky clouds

Sunset was very very windy. But pretty!

Answering some of the people’s questions:5

(re bioluminescence) Why only purple glow? Why not blue or green? Is it algae? So far I’ve seen blue and purple bioluminescence on this trip. Not sure why/how there are different colors but likely due to the structure of the molecules involved in the chemical reaction that causes the bioluminescence. I asked around onboard and found some articles (here and here), but probably need more research on this when I have speedier wifi.


Sea fun fact(s) of the day:

  1. Cards Against Disney exists as a game. Beware of playing if you still value your childhood.

  2. Colorful sunsets are a result of light scattering–and since different wavelengths scatter in different ways as they go through “more air” (when the sun is lower in the sky than right above), we see more colors in the sky when the sun is rising/setting.


Footnotes

  1. the whole ship↩︎

  2. Thankfully, this time passing Point Conception I was not seasick, so that was very much a win compared to a few weeks ago.↩︎

  3. Giving major IKEA energy↩︎

  4. Not humans. There was a rope ladder hanging off the ship for the humans.↩︎

  5. Don’t forget, you too can ask away!↩︎