It was the best of times, it was the (roughest) of times…
Yesterday the waves reached a height of 3 metres (uggh we are required to write reports about every single object that we find, except these reports are written in UK English… think mobilisation, colour, centre, hypothesised…) resulting in currents too intense for ROV operations and therefore surveying was delayed from 3pm to 12 noon today. That meant that during my entire shift there was absolutely no work to be done.
What to do when you are seasick:
- Make sure something is in your stomach and that you have a bottle of water
- Go outside and look at the horizon
- Stand at the bow and watch as the bow rises over each and every wave crest and falls at every trough. Then, make immature noises “pfff, wheee, chhhhh” as the boat rises and falls.*Anyone who has talked to me for more than 2 hours knows that I make really weird noises and/or talk to myselfI also tried to upload an 11-second clip of the boat keeling in the waves, but apparently Youtube will take 63 minutes to do that. Hm.
- Occupy yourself with something else to do
I was especially lucky that MMT employees have a fondness for board games. Not just your usual Monopoly, but Risk-esque and Settlers of the Catan-like games. After explaining the rules to this game called “Talisman”, my colleague then said, “It’s pretty straightforward.” Right. Any game where the manual is referenced almost once every round and contains tables of attributes that need to be referenced frequently throughout the game is not that straightforward.
Here is how I would explain it: It is like a fantasy-quest computer game (in gamer terms an RPG), in that every player is given a unique character with special powers, attributes, and skills. Your goal is to move around the board, enhance your skill points (strength, wisdom, health, etc) and while you are moving around you can encounter wild animals, robbers, and dragons that you need to fight. To win the game, you need to move into this third special region and access this all-mighty powerful staircase. If you are still interested in learning more about the game (It was really fun!), you can learn about it here
Well, that game took 4 hours. And I can’t believe how nerdy my description of the game was.
*Lately, one of my colleagues has a running joke of calling me “nerd” all the time. After I created a histogram classifying the types of objects we have found, NERD. After creating a GIS map with cheesy road-sign symbols identifying the objects we have found, NERD. After memorizing the Epochs and Periods of the Geologic time scale, NERD.