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Day 11, August 11, 2005 TER daily cruise report
Rain. Towering, closely packed clouds shoulder skylights of deep blue. To the East a shifting gray squall line crowds the ship. 80 miles west of Key West we are rolling a bit but safe aboard the NOAA Research Vessel, Nancy Foster.
The ship has a seasoned crew many of whom we have been working with for years; five NOAA Corps officers, three licensed engineers, a electronics specialist, an excellent cook, stewart and seven able bodied seamen. The NOAA Corps is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States and is composed of commissioned officers whose skills support the agency's science and surveying programs at sea, in the air and ashore. They command the Foster, a sizable vessel (187 ft long, 40 ft wide, a 10 ft draft and displaces 894 tons) adaptable to many types of
oceanographic research. On deck are two cranes, a J frame, two winches, and four different launches, ranging from a 17-foot inflatable to a 23 foot aluminum boat. Using the cranes the crew can pluck these small boats from their cradles on deck and gently set them in the sea along side. This allows us to work in two or three places at once away from the ship and provides access to shallow water, greatly increasing the amount and range of work that we can get done in the 13 days we are at sea. The Foster has berths for 15 scientists and we have filled them all. A motley band, the science party consists of five women and ten men whose scientific interests includes; plant ecology, behavioral ecology of fishes, population dynamics habitat restoration, habitat mapping, oceanic transport processes. Critical for team members is flexibility, an interest in collaborative research and the ability to work within a team.
Tonight we will undertake our second evening/night dive.