day shifter by day, night shifter by night..

In lieu of a blog I’ve written a few haiku, on sampling and science, second chances, friendship, bryozoans, boxing and a few things in between. Many thanks to the wonderful occupants of JC257.

Days and Days 1
Seasick scientists
Seek secrets of the deep on
A shuddering ship

Moon spreads over sea
Squid fire in inky blue
Equatorial

I’m starting out sick
And stumble through the setup
When I find my feet

Sea a steady state
Pacific, phthalo blue
Soaking in the heat

Blasting with laughter
Lunch with our night owl pals
Camaraderie

Cold Lab
a sample to sort
sponges sit in seawater
hair and makeup next

Cold room corralled off
Black coral slips down the tank
Black umbrellas out

A Bathy-pathes
Lecture in architecture
Falling into place

Sponge City
Sweeping seafloor, a
Sponge garden surprises
Sympagellita!

Rattail frolics
In a Dr Seuss garden
Of cauliflower

Dark Room
Swaying and unseen,
Sea pen now brings down the lights
Unbelluvable!

Dive By
Die by slurp-push-claw?
A slippery star evades
Crinoid wont be caught!

Cockatoo-cumber
Charismatic, transparent
Wears its inside out

An Amperima
Sea pig eating till the end
Tiptoes on tube feet

Samples
Array of eggs: fix! 
Add formalin with borax:
Two solutions mix

Pig laid out in lab
Savage snails suckered on
Spilling innards out

Sampling
Coherent currents
Conductivity at depth
Surface to sea floor

Go back for fish traps
Choose now but lock down later
Irreversible

Sampling target moves
Time constrained, we’ve getting there?
Wriggle room to prove

Slow swell is seething
And winch losing its bearings
On a shaking ship

Coring and mooring:
Lost comms and imploded floats
But we find new hope

Gravity core plumbs
Depths of the seabed (if its)
The last thing we do

Hump day
Ten days left to go
But let me not count the days!
Sun filled, boundless days

Boxing
Ikebana rocks
Sea throws up its secrets on
Deck. We live to box!

Slicing the box core
Chocolate pudding layer
Stirring the cold mud

What goes wrong
Eject, log, protect
And remember the laser!
All what I forgot

Forgotten sample
Or even lost, missed record
A lesson in attention

Lunchbreak to winch breaks
Bad backs, better tempers and
All the mistakes we make

Chaotic cabins
Or a poltergeist perhaps
Clanging on the pipes

Equipment breaks down
But we don’t have an option
Improvisation

The day develops
From mistakes to minor wins
The trajectory

Wait for after (shift)
And (even) better data.
All we have is now

Miscommunicate
Breakdown. Headache and heartbreak
There are no mistakes

Side scans and subs
Holes, hills, cliffs and dips
We’ll fill in the triangle
But multibeam missed

Sub panic attack 
Lets see how far we can get
will Rocsi come back..

Early resurface
Speak in channels or panels
To make her braver

Whats your deep-sea spirit animal?
A bristly brozoan?
Anomalous anemone?
Trying tunicate?

Crinoid with a taste
For freedom perhaps?
Or a slurped sea pig!

A classy glass sponge
Sympagella umbrella
Hola Holascus!

Arts and Crafts

Clay ball rolls about
Dorodango dalliance
Dance with abandon

Days and Days 2
Flying fish skim wave
Container on horizon
Of an endless sea

Awake midday, sun
Already high in sky but
The ship never sleeps

Scanning now for sharks
As the moon tips up and down
Ancient stars apart

Dust settles on night
But I’m opening my eyes
To a sky full of light