Hi All...

Well I'm off to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean until the end of December. I'll be on the research vessel Knorr. Hopefully we'll have some kind of internet connection but maybe not. Just wanted to wish everyone fun riding and hope you all enjoy whichever holidays or special events the comming season brings.

Save the fun coaster brake discussions until I get back ;-)

Take care...

Jim

wow, jimv, what're you and your shipmates after?

When come back, bring pie.

My wife made some Knorr Leek & Potato soup the other day. It's delicious! Bon Voyage and Happy Researching!

It's all hydrothermal vent work at a site called TAG. They're like chimneys on the ocean floor that belch superheated water and mineral rich sulphide 'smoke'. They're fragile and really cool. We'll be sampling and sticking all sorts of probes in them ... yike....well the ROV's arms will do the actual work. Anyway, it's an alien landscape 4000m below the surface....If you do a search for 'hydrothermal vents' and jason (that's the ROV) you should find lots of cool pix (some I may have taken myself 8-)

Jim

Are you a Geologist? It reminds me of when I studied MORB's

Have ya some fun.

Sweet, you get to drive Jason? Rock on, dude. Have fun.

No, I'm an electronics engineer, But when I'm at sea with Woods Hole, I pilot Jason. .... really a glorified truck driver if you think about it .... We deliver the science gear to the work site and do the 'probing/sampling' but there are always science folks hovering about. The most fun is using Jason's 2 hydraulic arms ... it's all serious to the scientists of course but it's also fun for us. There are three watches and I'll pilot 4:00AM-8:00AM and then again at 4:00PM-8:00PM, 7 days a week. Each watch has a pilot, navigator, engineer, data-logger, sonar-operator and watch leader (scientist).

Jim

It is pretty sweet, thanks. I flew the old Jason on it's last mission in Papua New Guinea when the whole 9/11 think happened. I planned to retire (from going to sea that is) with that Jason. But I did some of the design work for the current Jason and was talked into going out on the seatrials .... ooops, I got hooked on the new one. It's much bigger but handles like a dream. Oh well, a few more years.

Jim

awesome. sounds like a fun 2-month getaway.

but look out for sea monsters.

I can only wish for a job like that. Sounds great!

Will do! Well this is it folks, hopefully I'll be able to check in from sea otherwise see ya in December!

Take care...

Jim

Good luck on your new departure, Jim! he he!