ABOARD THE JOIDES RESOLUTION, ON THE BERING SEA– Today started with an early (actually 10:30am our time) fire drill. Everyone reported to their assigned life boat stations with our emergency gear on. Hard hats, safety goggles and life vests are required every time. While we did that, the fire team (members of the crew specially trained to fight fires) met in the laundry area to run through a mock fire scenario.

Captain Alex

Captain Alex talked with our life boat group, and explained the importance of the immersion suits, and that we are not expected to wear them if we are going into the life boats. Apparently there have been cases of individuals using them in life boats getting overheated and suffering from other problems as well. And there isn’t a whole lot of room to remove them when you are inside the life boat.

The life boat rations, in a lovely display the catering guys put together for us.

Since the life boat rations were going out of date and being replaced, we got to sample them at dinner. They have a pleasant smell that reminds me of coconut. The taste however is more like cardboard. And they are very dry. I hope there is a lot of water in the life boats if we need to use them!

We are finishing up at site U1341 tonight, and heading out to the last site on Bower’s Ridge. This one is the shallowest of the three on the ridge at 850 meters, so the pipe should be in place by morning, and it could be a quick turn around for each core recovery. We’ll have to be on our toes to get everything processed.

By popular demand I am posting links to some video blogs I’ve been putting together to document some of the living and working spaces on board the JOIDES Resolution. It is a very informal tour, originally intended for a small audience, but since so many people liked them there, here they are!

This is a tour of my stateroom:

This is a tour of the main deck living accommodations:

This is the rest of the main deck areas, laundry and galley:

This is the lower tween deck, and the entertainment facilities there:

And this is the forecastle deck, labs and office space:

I hope you enjoy these, and if there is something you want to see, let me know!