Steak is the traditional Sunday dinner, and when the weather allows it, grilling takes place on the back deck. It’s an unofficial duty of the Chief Engineer, onboard Sally Ride that’s Paul Bueren. The cooks prepare the meat and make the side dishes – today’s include baked potatoes, mac’n’cheese, squash, plus a cheese platter and cucumber and lox bites. The … Read More
19 Points
It’s a time honored tradition on SIO research vessels to play cribbage. On my first cruise on the since-retired R/V Melville, I entered the tournament before learning how to play the game. If you’re coming aboard, I recommend brushing up on the rules. How to Play Cribbage R/V Sally Ride’s very first cribbage tournament is underway. And don’t think we let … Read More
Veteran’s Day
Today I’d like to highlight some of the military veterans onboard R/V Sally Ride, who work as members of the crew. CJ, an oiler, was a US Naval officer on nuclear submarines for 7 years. He became interested in sustainability and, upon leaving the service, saw research vessels as the logical place to pursue that passion. Erik, the day oiler, was … Read More
Rolling in the trough
The CalCOFI grid lines are famously “in the trough” which means that the ship heading is perpendicular to the swell, and the ship ends up rolling side to side. Roll is different from pitch (the back and forth motion). I keep these straight by picturing the motions in a plane as opposed to a ship. On a plane, everyone knows what … Read More
Adventure on the HiSeasNet
R/V Sally Ride underwent many upgrades and additions during the month of October. The most obvious are two huge domes now on the flying bridge (the deck on top of the wheel house) that add uninterrupted satellite internet capability to the ship. Most other ships only have one dome and, depending on the ship’s heading, the signal to it can be blocked by … Read More
Fun with Flags
If you were one of the over 4,500 people who toured R/V Sally Ride in late October, you saw the ship decked out in her finest – red, white, and blue bunting around the railings, with flags from bow to mast to stern. Called dressing, it’s a prescribed setup when showing off a ship for special occasions like a christening, … Read More
Let’s Science!
The first official science cruise aboard R/V Sally Ride is underway! Just after 0800 the ship left Point Loma. As we left a fogged-in San Diego bay, the restech Keith gave an overview of the ship to the science party, including safety and drill information, situational awareness, and housekeeping basics. There’s a lot to know about, even if you’ve been onboard … Read More
The Talk I was Going to Give…
Tam O’Shaughnessy is Cofounder of Sally Ride Science and Executive Director of Sally Ride Science at UC San Diego. She was Sally Ride’s life partner. The Talk I Was Going to Give for the R/V Sally Ride Commissioning Ceremony on Friday 10/28/2016. Unfortunately, I fell ill with a sinus infection after traveling the previous 10 days and could not attend … Read More
CTDs vs XBTs
A sound velocity profile is helpful for calibrating instruments that rely on a ping sent from a source that reflects back to that source’s location. In some cases, it’s enough to assume sound travels through seawater at 1500 meters per second. However, there are many exceptions and an accurate profile of the water column can shift data points from other instruments significantly. … Read More
WIRED tour and unanswered questions
Scripps Ships Operations director Bruce Appelgate gave WIRED magazine a tour of the R/V Sally Ride while it was docked in San Francisco. It was done via Facebook Live, so there were a lot of questions asked in the comments. The videos below cover many of them, and more have been covered already in other blog posts, but I’m going … Read More