Sunday, March 7, 2010

March 7, 2010
BEST 2010 Science Deployment
And we are off! Today we pulled away from Kodiak. Thankfully it was another nice day, although it turned a little darker as the day wore on. It grew quite darker in fact, with winds picking up, and the seas so rough that hardly anyone got any sleep at all. We found out if the ship really was secured for sea. Mr. Verlinden had warned us to really make sure everything was secured, and the way to know if it was good enough, was if you could pick up the ship and turn it sideways and shake it, and the stuff wouldn’t move, it is secured. About 2:15 we had a really big role, at least 35 degrees, I think maybe more. You might wonder how it is that I know the exact time of said roll. Well, our room was not quite shake proof. We have some white stackable drawers tucked in a corner secured with ratchet straps (not secured enough though). One came tumbling down with a crash!~ While I was still groggily pulling back the curtains my roommate, Strang, was out of her rack so fast she looked like the Road Runner, just a blur. She caught the second one from falling, and by that time all four of us were up and helping to secure it. We spider webbed it to the wall with ratchet straps and it didn’t move an inch after that.

It was hard staying in your rack (bed) to get any sleep though; you woke up with every roll as your body tensed to stay in position and not go sliding out. There are several different tricks that I have heard people use to stay put. I think I might even use the topic as one of my papers for English class. The crew uses everything from binders, to boots, to pillows and blankets shoved under the outer side of the mattress so that there is a lip that you can’t roll over. Some shove one leg in the crack between the bed and the wall. The really smart ones have memory foam on top of their mattresses and that is doubled over to create a lip, as well as something that you sink into. Thankfully most things stayed fairly secured down, although even the helo that we got on board today slipped a little sideways in the hangar during the night.
~SN Klineburger

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