In the Hole

Woods Hole that is. Arrived here on Saturday, and am already having to start to think about leaving on Friday. It's one of those things, no matter how much time I set aside to visit the Hole, it is never enough. So many way to ambitious work goals for this week too, so far i've only ticked a few off, maybe some more tomorrow and thursday. We'll see. So far i've -

- got my dry suit qualification (all be it in a VERY leaky dry suit on the first dive!)

- finished up some budgets, still have to submit those tonight

- had the first of a few pre-cruise meetings for next years Antarctic adventure

- organized (at least some of) the Iceland trip

- met up with many friends

- met up with SEA folks about some adjunct type work (working a cruise a year potentially gaining 3 months of salary - a huge help when having to find your own salary)

The main ones yet to be touched are primarily papers, and tomorrow i'm meeting a student all day if necessary, so hopefully that'll be ticked off a little at least....

A mock up of the inside of the new Alvin submersible. Alvin is being slowly replaced with parts to be able to go deeper (at the moment it only goes to 4500m) and go longer and more efficiently. The first step is to replace the sphere, the main body of Alvin. So the new Alvin body (to arrive sometime next year) is going to be slightly larger than the old one, have 6000m depth capability and is going to be configured somewhat like the above - spacious!

The main meaning to my being - corals! Deep sea ones to boot, these are from Iceland!

And of course, relaxing with friends, G&Ts and some beautiful views across to Martha's Vineyard.