Mission Accomplished!

After 3 weeks at sea and 7 (successful!) mooring deployments, we are now safely back in San Diego. Even the dock rock (when you close your eyes and still feel the motion of the ocean) and jet lag are in the past. Now comes the hard part: sitting back and waiting for a whole year until we can go back and collect our data!

A lot of people ask if it is hard to be on a ship for such a long time, but it's really not as intolerable as you might think. Since the ship is only about 300 feet long, we just had to climb up or down a ladder to get pretty much everything we needed, whether it was a snack, a nice cozy bunk, or a place to do laundry.

Although the Revelle can accommodate up to 37 scientists, we only had 12 people in our science party so we each got our own stateroom. The staterooms each have two bunks, dresser drawers, a desk, and a sink. There is a bathroom, or "head" as we call it at sea, shared between two staterooms.

We had three meals prepared for us every day in the galley, which is what we call the kitchen on the ship, and there was ice cream and other treats available at all hours. To counter all the intake of food, there is an exercise room with a stationary bicycle, rowing machine, treadmill (jogging in place on a moving ship can be quite an adventure!), and a stair-stepper. The ship also has public computers with internet connectivity, a library full of books, a lounge with a TV and hundreds of DVDs, and even a Wii!

That said, it is nice to be back on solid ground where we don't have to worry about the seas knocking us over in the shower or sliding our lunch off the table if we aren't paying attention!

We would like to thank to the Office of Naval Research for funding the experiment and Dr. Peter Worcester, the chief scientist, for leading it. We couldn't have done it without Captain Desjardens and the crew of the R/V Roger Revelle, especially the resident and computer techs Josh, Brent, and John. We would also like to acknowledge the hard work of the rest of the science crew:

Rex Andrew (University of Washington)
Scott Carey (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
Jim Dunn (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Matt Dzieciuch (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
Lloyd Green (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
David Horwitt (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
John Kemp (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Matt Norenberg (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
Marla Stone (Naval Postgraduate School)

We also thank you for following along with us in the Philippine Sea! We hope that you have learned a little bit about acoustical oceanography and that you have enjoyed the adventure! If this blog sparked your interest in studying ocean science, and acoustics in particular, we encourage you to learn more about it. The Discovery of Sound in the Sea website has some great resources, as does the Scripps Institution of Oceanography website. Your local aquarium probably has great exhibits, too. Whatever you do, we encourage you to keep learning about the ocean!