With the end of the final line comes a major and critical transition in our work: the retrieval of the six kilometer streamer, removal of its 28 depth collection weights (known more fondly as "birds"), the retrieval of the 12 guns and their buoys from behind the ship, and finally, the release and capture of the 16 OBSs which were dropped to the ocean bottom at the beginning of the instrument deployment. While the guns and buoy work will be done primarily by the four gunners, the rest of the work, under the direction of Joe Stennett, the science officer, falls to UTIG members.

Once this phase of retrieval begins, all of the science party will be on 24 hour call until the work is successfully completed. According to present logistical calculations, which are updated daily or as needed by Gail Christeson, this phase should be done by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, July 22nd, with the recovery of the last OBS. Only then can the Ewing begin its departure transit back to Panama City.

Hess Deep Mid-Pacific Ping-Pong Tournament

But before streamer retrieval begins later tonight, everyone has been invited, via an announcement posted to the mess bulletin board, to the 8:15PM finals of the EW0305 Hess Deep Mid-Pacific Ping-pong Tournament. With foresight and experience gained from past cruises, Gail, as chief scientist, also assumed responsibility for the morale of the science party and packed deep inside her suitcase a new ping-pong set including net, paddles, and balls.

Once the OBS's were safety deployed, the science area containing their cases was changed into the local rec room, although the rough plywood playing board rigged to metal legs is less than standard size. Erratic balls tend to end up deep in a maze of boxes, lines, and miscellaneous supplies under nearby science lab tables, and the box seats in the viewing area are atop a freezer on the opposite wall, but great fun has been had by all, science party and crew, in the pursuit of ping-pong glory...and two specially designed ping-pong champion tee-shirts donated by the captain.

For the past three days, the tournament has been picking up steam as the Ewing continued to navigate over its shooting grid, with a double elimination bracket featuring eight doubles teams set up by Gail and her "recreation assistant/head nicknamer”, Steffen Saustrup, also known as our seismic processor. Tonight's final match features the undefeated team of graduate student Alejandro Escalona, dubbed the "wailin' Venezuelan" and Matt Tuchs, the first assistant engineer, now called “Piston” Matt. They will battle Steffen, aka “Sven” and his partner, Mari “Mammal”, who is really Mari Smultea, the lead of the marine mammal observation team.

I’ve reserved a prime Press Only seat in front of Yosio Nakamura’s laptop computer in a far corner of the ping-pong area so that I can take video coverage of this important match. This is “Teach” signing off on location from the Hess Deep Mid-Pacific Ping-pong Tournament.