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Daily Updates: March 2000
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Daily Updates: April 2000
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Daily Updates: May 2000
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View Today's Slideshow!

partly cloudy weather

TODAY'S WEATHER
Blue skies, scattered clouds and light haze
71°F (23.4°C)
Latitude: 18 deg 27 ’N
Longitude: 104 deg 12.6 ’W
Wind Direction: S
Wind Speed: 7 Knots
Sea State 3
Swell(s) Height: 3-5 Foot
Sea Temperature: 75 °F (23.9°C)
Barometric Pressure: 1010.3 MB
Visibility: 5-10 Nautical Miles

what's to eat today?
Breakfast

eggs benedict
oat and raisin muffins
scrambled eggs
oatmeal
dry cereal
bacon and sausage
mango, melon and kiwi

Lunch
minestrone
spagetti
meatballs
italian sausage
salad bar

Dinner
fresh tuna “vasile” with Cajun spices
fresh bread
rice pilaf
stuffing
steamed broccoli
chocolate chip cookies and ice cream

On our Way
March 24 , 2000
By Dr. Dan Fornari

The Research Vessel Melville left the pier in Manzanillo, Mexico, at 0800 hours (8 a.m.) today on a hot and hazy morning. It moved to a fueling pier to take on more than 64,000 gallons of diesel fuel that the ship will need to operate during the our seven-week-long expedition. The fueling took about 6 hours to complete, and then we headed out to sea in mid-afternoon. The seas were calm. Pelicans and gulls were busy hunting their afternoon meal, diving into the ocean for the small fish that abound in these waters.

The days just before departure are busy ones. Hundreds of boxes of equipment stowed on board in San Diego had to be unpacked, sorted, set up and secured, and the empty boxes stowed below. All this took about four days, with scientists and technicians pitching in to help. Andy Maffei of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) helped set up the shipboard SeaNet computer that we will use to send information and images back and forth between the ship and the shore-based Internet Web site that you are now looking at. Andy is one of the creators of the SeaNet system. [Click here to learn more about SeaNet] Will Sellers from WHOI’s Deep Submergence Operations Group also came to Manzanillo to help set up the Argo II and DSL-120 vehicles that we will be using to image and map the seafloor. [Click here to learn more about Argo or DSL-120]

It will take two days to travel to the first area where we will survey the seafloor. Tomorrow, the “science watch” schedule begins and we will start to train science personnel to perform their different watch duties. We hope to be on station and ready to start our mapping work on Sunday afternoon.

As Melville steamed south tonight, we were treated to a spectacular oceanic light show. Moving at a speed of nearly 13 knots, the big ship disturbed thousands of jellyfish, large and small. They created bursts of bioluminescence that flashed brilliant phosphorescent green. A trail of glowing light marked our passage across the dark sea.