part 3 in our series, work/life balance

I've mentioned before that the work on the NBP continues 24 hours a
day. When you reach a station, there have to be enough people awake
and functioning to run all the equipment. So early in the cruise, we
broke up into 2 person teams with pre-determined responsibilities.
The crew and the technical team also run on a shift schedule. The
standard shift is 12 to 12. I'm working on a 3 to 3 schedule because
we (Brice, my roommate and partner in tracers/nutrient work) wanted
to see and work with other people. It's working out OK for me. Like
we thought, it's a bonus to work with other people. Unfortunately
(and I may have already mentioned this) the 3 to 3 shift doesn't
match with the meal schedule so well. And I've been really tired at
1-2 pm, but I don't want to sleep that early because I've been trying
to stay up for dinner. But then I'm not able to fall asleep after
dinner. So I'm trying something new and maybe counterintuitive this
Valentine's day, waking up earlier (or is it later?), eating midrats,
and then trying to sleep right after my shift -- forget dinner, who
needs it!

Just because you're "on watch" doesn't mean your constantly working.
Even on a transect, the CTD stations are spaced out so you have a
short break to organize in between. Since I'm analyzing nutrients
(or nuts, pronounced noots) I need long breaks (3-4 hours) to set up
and run the equipment. Over the past 3 days or so (after the RIS
transect), we've had ample time because of the space between stations
and the thick, thick sea ice. In fact, I don't think we've had a
station in 48 hours. Such is life on the NBP -- hurry up and wait.

When you're done with the shift, you're free to go wherever and do
whatever you want within a 360 foot radius of where you work.
Possibilities include the diversions I mentioned in Part 2, blogging,
watching wildlife (the sea ice has been terrific for wildlife --
emperor and adelie penguins, minkes, and a Ross seal (rare)--
watching), science talks (more later) or catching up on non-cruise
related work. I've stayed away from the lounge, but there are a ton
of movies worth watching in there. I'm finding there's not enough
time to take advantage of the off-hours and that I'm spending more
time looking at the cruise data after the watch. It's like reading
encyclopedias or looking at road maps or the weather channel, there's
always a new piece of information to distract you. Anyway, enough
philosophizing, time for my inagural midrats!

Happy Valentine's everyone!

C