Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

April 12, 2007

We set sail for the 4th and final leg of the MISTCS 2007 Research cruise on March 24th with high hopes. We were going back to the area we had surveyed during Leg 2 – North East and West of Guam – all around the Northern Marianas Islands. On Leg 2 we had great weather and lots of cool sightings, so we were hoping for the same. We also bid adieu to Chris, one of the observers, and welcomed on a **Real** Oceanographer to help us collect sea surface temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll samples (to look at productivity out here). It was nice to have the oceanographer – Jamie – with us to help look at the data. Julie, a representative from the Navy (and the main proponent and funder of the cruise) also joined us on Leg 4.

Well, shortly after departing it became apparent that we would not be enjoying the same weather we had on Leg 2. Big, bumpy seas and lots of wind...doesn’t make for good marine mammal sightings. We did see some cool seabirds riding the wind – Bonin petrels, Mottled petrels, Pomaraine and Long-tailed jaegers, Masked boobies, wedge-tailed shearwaters, terns, Tahiti petrel, frigatebirds.

As for the marine mammals, we saw a Bryde’s whale with a calf, pilot whales, spotted dolphins waaaay out in the distance, and that’s about it...pretty slow all in all,

BUT!!! I saw a SEA TURTLE! The ONLY sea turtle of the entire cruise (on effort)! It was a tiny little cute juvenile hawksbill turtle, that looked a lot like a paper bag til I looked a little closer – and it swam away!

The biggest excitement of this leg was the Typhoon that passed through the area – Kong Rae they called it. We had to run due West for 2 days to avoid the big swells and winds – turns out the storm hit the islands just north of Guam, but no one was too worried –they get about 5 per year anyway, so no big whoop to them. As for me, it was kinda cool! We never got any really scary weather, but definitely some crazy stuff. Like rain coming at you from all angles, dumping down and drenching everything, but then sun right above head. The clouds were soooo cool too – all swirly and jumbled up, just like you’d think they would look if 75 mph winds blew them in a big circle. Plus the seas were really confused, bouncing us all over the place...and really really humid – and hot...After running for 2 days we turned back north and caught the tail end of the storm, but missed the majority of it. We had to decide whether to go into port in Guam during the typhoon (well actually before it hit!) or stay out on the water. Normally you outrun the storm, if you can. As it turns out the Coast Guard had closed the harbors in Guam and Saipan anyways, so our choice was made for us! Apparently they’d rather have a boat sink at sea then in the port during a storm, to avoid the cleanup...or something like that...interesting...By the way, this was the same day that the tsunami hit the Solomon Islands, but totally unrelated...

All in all, this leg was pretty darn slow. 6 days straight with NO sightings....Makes it pretty boring on the flying bridge, and makes you wonder if you’re hallucinating when you see anything! By the end I think we were all ready to be back in port and heading off to new things...I did enjoy the earlier sunrises, in the end (although it was painful to get up in the beginning) – it’s always nice to start your day watching the sunrise over the ocean and having some seabirds circling around. Sipping coffee...not too bad...

We docked back in port April 13 and had a couple last rounds of drinks in Guam, one big debriefing meeting, and then we all parted ways. Some off the California, Washington, some to Mexico City, some to Cambodia (for fun travel). Me? I was off to Saipan for a couple days, and then Hawaii for a nice 8-day stopover on my way back to California...

The last survey hour of the last survey day Cornelia, Richard and I watched the sunset with Israel Kamakawiwo'ole playing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” on the stereo, Hawaiian style...it was a good way to end a long and very eventful cruise, on a good note...with a rainbow to look over...