This morning, while we were watching transponder recovery operations, someone on the upper deck called "Whale!" We looked around, and saw not a whale but a pod of dolphins. They came right up to the ship, maybe twenty in all, swimming very leisurely, checking us out. Their bodies are like mottled gray porcelain, each cutting through the waves like a circular saw blade with one tooth. Sometimes a head appears, the bottle nose and wry smile clearly visible. They like to swim in unison, as many as six breaking water in parallel, perfectly synchronized.
Clearly they were curious about us, and being so close to Japan with its voracious fishing fleets, their behavior was quite unusual. I wonder if they knew that we were not a threat. Jon says they can interfere with operations, because they talk back to the transponders, matching frequencies with their sonar. (Pranksters! I bet they laugh their heads off the whole time.)
I feel that their appearance is a powerful omen. In the animal spirit work that I've been doing, Horse and Dolphin are the two spirits that keep returning. They seem to be teaching me about holding and using internal power, in their swiftness and ease. (I also noticed that, when I wandered into the movie room, "The Black Stallion" was playing on several different occasions, which hasn't happened with any other film.)
Testing of the hole cutter continues. It's installed on Jason, but apparently isn't working too well, it keeps binding and stalling. I spent most of the day helping pack video gear, mounting and removing stuff from racks, and rummaging in the hold for boxes (the aft science hold is piled high with boxes, in a sort of three dimensional maze).
Chuckle of the day: each of the video racks has matching covers that fasten onto the front and back. The covers are labeled Front and Back, for reasons which are not clear to me (they're identical), and before I knew that we were supposed to pay attention to this, I had put two Back covers on the rack I was working on. Naturally I told everyone that I had made the Beast With Two Backs, which was entertaining, especially when I got more covers from the hold and ended up with four Backs! Much ribald humor ensued. (Maybe you had to be there.)
Tonight I got to watch a night launch of Jason, which is really neat because the vehicle's lights are very bright, and they make the water glow all around the stern section of the ship. A beautiful and eerie effect.
I made time during the evening to watch "La Femme Nikita" which I had heard good things about. It's intense and quirky, with great acting by the lead and others. People tell me that "Point of No Return" is an exact scene for scene remake of this film, but I can't imagine it's as good.
However, Jason has had a cascade of problems before reaching the bottom, and has been recovered. Apparently the compass housing got flooded, which fried something on the computer chassis, and then they replaced the compass with another one which turned out to be broken too. So Willy grabbed a simple mechanical compass and fastened it to the basket, where one of the cameras could see it. Our motto: Just get it working!
So the second half of this watch was Z time, sending Jason down for the last time.
1200 - 1600 At the start of the watch, there was some blather about how much more work to do. (Robin, the chief scientist, said we could go until 0200 the next morning. I'm not sure if he was joking or not, but he came close to getting strangled -- by all of us!) But sanity prevailed and we started the recovery process.
As so often happens, just when we are about to wrap everything up, more problems appear. During this recovery, the cable needs to be washed (since it'll be stored on its drum for a while) and there was some delay while the techs went looking for the washer. Then, when the cable was wound up to the point of a minor splice, the washer broke one of the strands, which required some hasty wrapping with tape and so on to keep it from jamming in the winch. Finally, we got it all taken care of, and recovered the fish at the end of the watch.
After dinner, we had a group photo opportunity on the stern, while the last of the transponders was being recovered. Then we had a ceremony for the fourty-four people who lost their lives aboard the _Derbyshire_. A wreath was prepared with a simple plaque. The doctor, very sharp in his British navy uniform, and Glenn (the _Thompson_'s captain) gave readings, and threw the wreath over the side, where it sank slowly and somberly into the depths. (It was a Christian ceremony, but what do you expect. I found it moving.)
And now, at long last, the order has been given. Set course for Yokohama, warp eight, engage!
Spent some good time with Willy and Buddha in their berthing van, having a little end-of-job party.
We spent all day tearing down computers and equipment and packing them into boxes. Apparently, there are more computers than boxes (however that happened) and some of the racks ended up being blanketed in big pieces of foam rubber and wrapped with duct tape. Low tech indeed.
After dinner I watched the sunset from the foredeck, and encountered the first sign that we are nearing the mainland: bugs! For the first time since the trip began, there are little insects like black flies around, being annoying. Darting swallows circle the ship, eating their fill.
No chance for exercise today, but I've done plenty of lifting and so forth. I looked into the movie lounge, and saw _The Black Stallion_ playing yet again. (This makes four times, Horse definitely wants me to get a clue.) Finished reading _Alvin Journeyman_ by Orson Scott Card, which is fun.
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