7

It's raining!! For some reason, it never occurred to me that it rained on the ocean. I always thought that the clouds got their moisture from the ocean, then floated to land THEN dumped all their moisture on the continents. Of course, silly, why WOULDN'T it rain on the ocean? I don't know. Just never occurred to me. Now, it does and I understand that it can rain anywhere - even the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Well, the drill crew have their parkas out today and the science crew not directly involved in deploying the CORK are indoors watching the operations from the TV. We had the first of several "wrap up" meetings today to inform us all of our post-cruise obligations - to do our science, to attend meetings and to publish our findings.

It's amazing how much time the science on this boat requires. Just to get this expedition scheduled on the JR took 12 years and multiple proposals. And the post-cruise work will take us all the way to 2014 and beyond. Wow, thinking about that just makes 2 months seem like a drop in the bucket.

Today, we're installing our last CORK and I was able to take video of the process from the loading of the CORK to the deployment of the ROV platform. Beth, the other microbiologist, made a better video that I will try to get so I can show you.

Later, we'll take a 5 hour ride to our last study site, Grizzly Bare! At GB, we're coring some more. This time, we're getting sediments! Very exciting for the microbiologists and water chemists on board! This also means we'll have samples on deck every 1 1/2 hours which doesn't seem like very often. But when you think about the crew needing ~2 hours to process each sample beginning to end, it means we're all going to be running around like chickens with our heads cut off! But we'll worry about that tomorrow. :)

Guess what, though! We still have lettuce! :)