Captain has a succinct way of conveying information over the ship-wide PA when he deems it necessary, and he wasn’t wrong. He was preparing to spin us around to get back on heading between troughs after our POB exercise and…we were well advised to heed his recommendation. It has been sporty out here.

I’ve been meaning to write, but sporty sea conditions aside, the days have been packed with work. Yes, a little play, too, but a lot of relentless coding and debugging to add some new capabilities to Sikuliaq’s data logging. Yes, yes, in theory everything’s accessible from shore, but really, there’s stuff you can only do when you’re on the boat, with near-realtime access to the data feeds, and the people who depend on them.

And I’ve been making good progress. Already enough, I think, to justify flying a quarter of the way around the world to get on the boat and ride it back…uh, to another halfway around… nevermind – you get the idea. I won’t dull the sense of achievement by droning on for half a page trying to awkwardly explain what the heck I’ve done. But I’m pleased with it.

We continue bob and sway our way southeast toward the flatwater respite of the Strait of Magellan. We’ve had tailwinds much of the way (yay!) but the sea has generally been “beamy.” That is, the swells coming from abeam, the side of the ship, which keeps us, as I said, bobbing and swaying. Nothing like those crazy YouTube videos, mind you, but getting from one end of the galley to the other still involves planning what feel like suborbital trajectories. And spending one’s days squinting at a little glowing screen in a windowless lab below deck in these conditions is also a recipe for spending more than one afternoon flat on my back in my bunk with lights off, eyes closed, and Beethoven streaming on my earbuds as I contemplate the question of when (if ever) is really the right time to wean myself away from my seasickness meds.

But we have snuck in some fun. Afternoon of New Year’s Eve we had a Man(nequin) Overboard Drill. Technically a “POB” Drill, if the present administration hasn’t focused the might of its attention on re-renaming it, as it has with other pressing issues of national importance.

Where was I? Oh, right. Poor Oscar T. Mannequin seems to lose his footing on a regular basis. And we – by which I mean the actual ship crew, and not us useless science folks – had to retrieve him from another such mishap three days ago.

It turns out that it’s harder than it looks to pull up alongside someone in the water when you’re trying to maneuver a 4000 ton vessel in rain and rough open seas, even when that someone is wearing a full float coat.

Robin had been advocating for the chance to be a real-life POB for the exercise. But by the time Oscar, all 90 or so soggy pounds of him, finally got hauled aboard (video here), I think she was as relieved as everyone else that we hadn’t had an actual human out there, bobbing around for so long.

(I’m sorry to report that, in spite of the crew’s best efforts at CPR, oxygen and AED application, we were unable to get a pulse out of Oscar post-recovery. He was returned to duty at his station in the wet gear locker, but I have no doubt that he’ll revive and return to duty, ready to slip overboard again at the right time.)

Have I mentioned that we continue to eat unreasonably well? This morning it was goat cheese, green chile quesadillas. Last night, tikka masala and baingan bharta. Chocolate Coca Cola cake for dessert. Word to marine planners: much as Napoleon observed that an army marches on its stomach, so does a happy ship cruise on it. And Sikuliaq’s planners have given their kitchen staff free rein to do what they do best.

New Year’s turned into an improvised celebration. It’s kind of hard to have a real “5…4…3…2…1!” countdown when you’re shifting time zones every other day, and the whole question of “What time is it really?” is a judgment call. We were in the equivalent of Central Standard Time on the 31st, shifting to Eastern at 0400UTC, so we just picked a time zone, counted down from the bridge. And never one to miss a training opportunity, captain authorized our third mate to train us in testing and proper disposal of expired pyrotechnics out on deck. Followed by the now-traditional handing out of Italian pistachio cookies by the now-traditional New Years Squid. The nice thing about small, closed communities is that there’s not much to prevent you from establishing your own arbitrary traditions on the fly.

And now? We’re another five or so days from the Strait. A wee bit ahead of schedule, but the cruft we’re bouncing around in is forecast to follow us all the way to Chile. There are a couple of other projects I really ought to dive into right now, but honestly, I may call it a short day. I’ve been staring at this little glowing screen below deck all morning, and Beethoven’s calling.

The last of the calm weather from early this week…