Daily Update: Out of Oreos but still rolling
April 14, 2001
By Amy Nevala

Chemist Eric Olson marks the passage of time on the ship in the vegetables that are served. Today’s lack of lunchtime lettuce told him one thing: “We’re at the halfway point of the expedition. Get ready to eat a lot of cabbage.”

In addition to finishing the lettuce during the past two weeks, we have emptied two cases of Oreo cookies and ate all the green peppers. Still, we remain well-supplied with other sustenance for the 17 remaining days at sea.

Today we were on the move again. Despite several hopeful signs of a hydrothermal plume at 24°S, none proved strong enough to justify further exploration there. We formulated another strategy, and steamed north seven hours to an area in the rift valley of the Central Indian Ridge near 23°S that was studied by German scientists 18 years ago.

"The plume signals we were chasing at 24°S did not provide a strong target, so we decided to give up on that site and move on to the next closest site," said Chemist Marvin Lilley, one of several scientists who worked long hours doing CTD tow-yo surveys over the last three days to track the plume.

We arrived at 23°S before dinner this evening and immediately deployed the CTD to begin searching for hydrothermal plumes. With only two weeks remaining in the expedition, finding another plume site is a priority if we are to have enough time to map it and then find the seafloor vents and sample them using ROV Jason.

Warm rain slicked the decks today, though weather reports from South Africa show that our wet weather systems should ease within 36 hours. That’s good news for those of us with bruises blooming on our thighs and shoulders after the rocky seas sent us colliding into the ship’s metal walls and doors.

In the galley, the cooks battle the seas using special bars set up to steady simmering saucepots and boiling water.“I’ve cut myself, I’ve burned myself,” said Steward Mirth Miller, holding up bandaged fingers. “We’re losing our patience with this weather.”

Losing their patience, perhaps - but going strong in providing tasty and nourishing food for all 58 of us on board.

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