Octopus Odyssey (Leg 2)
The time has suddenly arrived to return to the Sea. Our summer expedition was a tremendous success. The highlight of our work was the much-awaited deployment of five microbial colonization experiments at various locations in the Costa Rican seamount complex. To access this potential bounty of new scientific knowledge we must return to the ocean and collect our experiments which have hopefully been incubating natural microbial communities at the seafloor for nearly six months by now. This time around, the Ramírez lab will not a one-man team, in addition to yours truly, Oscar Manuel (Corpus) Almacen, my first graduate student at Cal State LA, will also join in the adventure of microbial trapping in this benthic mountainous terrain covered in eternal night deep under Equatorial Pacific waves. Follow our adventures, updated daily here!
Nov. 29th
An early morning started the journey back to Central America. As I bid my family goodbye at LAX once again for another long international expedition, I wondered, as always, if this departure, and associated family logistical and emotional trouble, is absolutely necessary. My very supportive clan, and I, concur that, indeed, it is! Who else will help the Octopus Daddy?- my kids exclaimed. I remind myself that a couple of weeks of absence to join an oceanographic expedition to one of the most remote environments on Earth, is, at most, a minuscule slice of what my job would have entailed back in the not-so-distant days of Darwin and von Humboldt, my exploration heroes, ha! The morning takeoff brought our aircraft into a rather thick blanket of Southern California marine layer. When above this layer, the cloud blanket below absconded the familiar sight of Long Beach and its Mary of Teck, Pimugna (aka: Santa Catalina), and, my very own, Valley of Pomona and the bald head of San Antonio. After a few mins, after tacking inland from the Pacific to head to a Huston layover, the marine layer finally gave way to reveal a quiet Mojave. The fifty-five minutes on Texan soil were just enough to treat myself to a good couple of slices of Texan pepperoni pizza. The short layover, perhaps for the best, prohibited any ambitions of indulging in any kind of Texas BBQ! Again, within an hour, I was off on to my Central American final destination. Notably, due to “a missing latch from the airplane lower compartments (good catch on inspection by the pilot!), we had a slight delay in the Texan tarmac. A bit of turbulence welcomed my flight to the Caribbean, soon thereafter, we softly landed in the Panama Pacific. Within an hour, I was at the rooftop hotel bar in Casco Viejo, enjoying a Mojito and a cheerful reunion my my graduate student, Oscar, who had landed in Panama earlier in the day, when, suddenly, a distress call came in. One of our collaborators had left her passport at customs back in the airport and was requesting the help of a Spanish speaker to accompany her to resolve the issue. Duty called, leaving my half-drunk mojito behind, I ventured back to the airport and, gladly for the expedition crew, got this resolved in a few mins. Once back in town, it was time to get some rest, however, with the rooftop bar activities continuing into the early hours of the morning little rest occurred, ha!
Leaving Los Angeles behind…
The one and only Mr. Oscar Manuel Almacen (left) and yours truly (right). First-year graduate student in my laboratory the evening before embarking in his first scientific cruise!
Nov. 30th
With, at most, a single cycle of REM behind me, the time had come to travel to meet up with Falkor (too) again. At 6:15 sharp we loaded a small bus that took the American team of scientists towards the port immigration authority, where after a less than marathonic nine and a half hours following my landing, I officially concluded my visit to Panama. With an exit stamp on my passport, we headed straight to a marina, where our taxi boats awaited. The international (American & Tico) groups re-amalgamated and we were off to meet Falkor at anchor out in the bay. During the short 15min ride, my attention was captured by the rather heavy traffic of never-ending container ships patiently waiting their turn at the isthmus water locks, my starboard side view. For a second I wondered, where is Falkor, and turning my sight forward slightly, to my surprise, Falkor towered above our bow. Within minutes we embarked our luck dragon home for an expected stay over two weeks. Our permitting did not allow re-entry into Panama, we had entered Falkor, which officially represents a slighter of the Cayman Islands. The usual events unfolded throughout the day: safety orientation, and captain’s expectations. Sleep was tormenting me. In a very unusual fashion, I took to my bunk for a mid-day siesta, which, despite being allocated 2h perhaps lasted 15 mins, that, inexplicably served to breath some fresh air into my day. After a science party meeting at 14:00, Oscar and I set up shop, and by dinner time our station was ready to handle, 72 hours ahead of schedule, sediment, and rock deployment collections in the days to come. My sleep seemed certainly disturbed but my spirts remained high. A after catching up with some of the best colleagues one could ask for I could feel my lucidity wanning. I will give myself an hour to peruse checkmates at sea again and, due to Oscar’s adventurous Fianchetto opening with black pieces, I succeed! Ha. This was only first the first many chess battles at sea, of course!
A majestic site awaited us a few miles off shore. Boarding R/V Falkor too!
The Ramírez site enjoying the sites from the wonderful game room on R/V Falkor too.
The usual day one formalities at sea. Safety training for all. Valeria Naranjo-Aguilar and Oscar Almancen, demonstrate safety equipment use.
Dec. 1st
The first night on Falkor was restful! The darkness, quiet, and absence of interruptions, all luxuries back home, make a big difference, obviously, ha!. It was another busy day with science meetings and the always awe-inspiring (particularly so for the first timer on Falkor) tour of the ROV bay. It was great to see the familiar faces, hospitality, and science-focus preparedness embodied by the ROV team led by Mr. Jason Rodriguez (aka: J-ROD). My conversations with the most experienced scientist onboard corroborate my suspicion; this team, particularly in terms of having an open work culture welcoming scientists to become as involve as possible with their operation, is indeed remarkable. Surprisingly, in between managing on-going work back on shore, I was able to log in a few mins on the stationary bicycle in the aft lounge right before dinner. Tonight, would be a special dinner. As it is now tradition on Falkor, our departure from Panama Bay was marked by a ship-wide BBQ. This party at sea is a fantastic opportunity for crew and scientists to get to know each other. After the feast, I started to feel the kilometers cycled on my legs (getting old). I went back to work for a while before being summoned to defend my chess success against Mr. Almacen, a task that I miserably failed at. After being ahead close to two major pieces, leading to the danger of confidence, I crafted myself a fork trap that Mr. Almacen’s knight promptly exploited, leading to a rook capture followed by two pawn failures, leading to my resignation of the game of the day, heading straight to my bunk.
Subastian awaiting the green light for a dive. T-4 days!
Departure BBQ, a Falkor too classic!
The heat from the coals and the setting sun compete for my attention. They both win as Panama recedes in the background.
Mr. Almacen claims victory over his old Professor!
Dec. 3rd
After a good night’s sleep, we find ourselves only ~30h away from our first station. Following another daily COVID test (Neg!), I moved up to the mess hall for a hearty breakfast. At the mess hall, Valeria and I talked bioinformatics up to the next meeting of the day: “Sealog” training which was immediately followed by 10AM Science Talks. Julie Huber kicked off the microbe session with a fantastic presentation, I did my best follow up, ha!. The day was full of work. After a quick lunch we had video annotation training. In the middle of that meeting, Connor, our cruise videographer, with a look of slight concerned interrupted to speaker to tell us that Leonardo, my bunk mate, had suffer a head injury but that “he was fine”. He indeed was fine. After that, Conner came back in with a second announcement a more cheerful one this time: He was going to be in the aft deck taking portraits! I enthusiastically signed up for a field work modeling session a long with a few others. After this short diversion, we were off to dinner and after that a “special talk about boats and Scotland” by our captain. That was quite the surprise of the day. For about 45 mins the captain talked about the history of barge boats on the west coast of Scotland. One of these boats, traditionally called puffers is one of his passion projects.
Science Talks: Dr. Geoff Wheat in action. He likes the fluids!
Geochemical Oceanography model photoshoot.
Leonardo discusses his maritime battle scars with Janet.