9St Questions and Answers: 9th April 2008
9St Questions and Answers: 9th April 2008
Alex: How heavy are the rail carriage wheels and how much sea pressure can they handle?
About 1260kg in air. Since the railway wheels are solid steel they can handle the higher pressures of the ocean depths without being weakened or affected. It is rusting that weakens steel but the moorings will be recovered before then.
Maria: Do you have washing machines and driers on board for your clothes?
We do – washers and driers, in fact they even feature as part of the safety tour for each voyage with strict instructions that only one cup of washing power should be used per load. Second mate Yoshi regaled us with tales of one unfortunate scientist who used 9 cups and managed to fill the entire laundry with soapy suds.
So its good news - we are never lacking in clean clothes and are a pretty sweet smelling bunch. As an aside we also have a folding fairy on board - some of us have returned to find our clothes out of the drier and our socks all paired (I think it might be Katy Griffin our steward).
Claudia and Nhi: Has anyone in the crew fallen in love or got married to another member of the crew.
No marriages to date – and certainly none are likely on board. Whilst it is often believed that the Captain can marry two people this is not true, to do so he or she would have to register as a celebrant.
Hannah: What happens if someone gets very sick on the ship?
A lot of people do get seasick and most have their personal way of dealing with it – as you can read on the crew and scientists profiles – ranging from over the counter medications to fresh air to dry crackers.
If someone is very ill at sea it can quickly become a serious issue. The key thing is to keep hydrated (that is drink lots of fluids) and if possible eat some plain foods. It is also important that fellow voyagers are aware of the seasickness, so they can keep checking on the individual and their fluid levels.
Generally when people are ill they are encouraged to get up and about – fresh air can help a lot. If someone is particularly ill they can get extra medication from one of the ships officers.
As a very worst case scenario that person may have to get off the ship but this is a last resort, as any detours cost precious time and money.
Most people tend to come right after a few days, and settle into the voyage.
Sarah: What do you do with all your rubbish?
If we are sailing north of 60º organic waste is mulched and is discarded over the side of the ship, where it will break down very quickly (in the far south it must remain on board as in cold conditions it will freeze and therefore remain waste for longer). Where possible other waste is recycled (there are recycle bins on board) or bagged for when we return to shore.
Maria: Have you caught any Muldoon fish yet?
Not many fish at all Maria. We have seen some potential blob or “Muldoon” fish on our DTIS camera tows. To date 3 fish have been caught with our epibenthic sled – a rattail, and 2 deep sea cod.
Hannah H: Do you try to catch fish to eat?
On this trip we are most interested in the animals that live on the seafloor itself, and tend to focus on invertebrates (that is, animals with no back bone). However, on NIWA fisheries research surveys where scientists assess numbers of species like orange roughy or hoki we do fillet some fish for the galley. Di Tracey says that it is “always delicious to eat freshly caught fish”.
Lily: How big do the waves get and how high does the spray go into the air?
Well in bad weather the other day some of the waves exceeded 12.5 m – that is the height of the bridge on Tangaroa. In terms of the spray its hard to say - but definitely higher than Tangaroa and when we are watching out for moorings the windows often need to be cleaned of salt so that we can see.