BLOG 13: It takes a village to go on a voyage

By Emily Fewster

The final day of the two-week long voyage is here, the ‘rock and roll’ tour of the Tasman sea is coming to an end. All the precious rock samples are tucked up safely in their carefully labelled buckets, ready to be transported to the University of Tasmania for further processing. We are rolling about in a cross-sea and high winds, steaming back to Hobart, the lab and back deck all cleaned up and the research mission accomplished. Seamounts have been mapped, rocks have been collected.

As the Educators on Board we (Chris and Emily) have been reflecting on our journey and feel privileged to have been a part of such an amazing, cohesive team full of colourful characters who were wonderful to work with and so generous with their knowledge.

We have come to the conclusion that it really does take a village to run a successful, scientific research voyage. Supporting the scientists on this voyage were a dedicated, skilled and patient team including:

• Ship Master, Mike Watson and his deck officers who kept us on track and steered the RV Investigator deftly through 16 dredge operations.
• The Chief Engineer, along with his team of engineers, keeping the ship and all its systems going.
• Field Operations who looked after and tweaked all the equipment used, of particular note, the massive diamond saw on the back deck.
• The amazeballs galley stewards and caterers who kept us well fed and happy.
• Geospatial Mapping team quietly mapping the sea floor the whole journey and making 3D images and fly-through movies of the seamounts visited.
• Francis the one-man IT Support and Data Acquisition and Processing Team
• The Seagoing Instrumentation Team who kept all delicate monitoring equipment in tip top shape,
• and of course, the Marine National Facility team liaising between all the various teams to ensure the scientific objectives of the voyage were met.

Last but not least we also need to mention all the friends, family, colleagues and ground staff back on dry land who supported and enabled the 47 people who undertook this voyage.

Thank you for the experience of a lifetime.

Educators on Board IN2018_V08