Final floats and arrival in Guam
We successfully deploy the last four Argo floats and come into port in Guam
We have reached the end of our journey across the Pacific! In the past few days, the Thompson crew and I have deployed four more Argo floats (two core floats and two BGC floats), and docked at the Jose D. Leon Guerrero Commercial Port in Guam, in the Mariana Islands of the Western Pacific. I’m happy to report that all of our remaining float deployments went smoothly – water releases worked, floats were delivered safely into the gentle waves, and Argo teams back on land have been receiving initial profiles from the floats.
The remaining two BGC floats were adopted by school groups in the United States. Morris Elementary, in Cypress, California, named their float Iter, after the Latin word for “journey.”
Iter, the fifth BGC float deployed on this trip, in the lab; photo credit: Cora Hersh
The sixth and final BGC float of the trip was adopted by Baldwin Middle School in Baldwin, New York. They named their float BMS Ocean Adventure Buoy.
The BMS Ocean Adventure Buoy about to be deployed as the last float of the voyage; photo credit: Cora Hersh
Once we docked, I moved out of my room on the ship so that it could be turned over for the next group of scientists who will be boarding the ship shortly. For those wondering, apparently the little plover that had been hanging out on deck did manage to fly safely to shore. Since then I’ve had a little bit of time to explore the area around my hotel, which is in the touristy Tumon district of Guam. Hot and tired after walking around under the tropical sun, I ended up wandering into a shop and ordering something called Taiwanese snow ice, which as it turned out was intended to be shared amongst several people. It was very tasty – I did my best but was unable to entirely finish it.
My towering frozen treat of snow ice, with a side of taro balls; photo credit: Cora Hersh
As I write this, I’m waiting in the air conditioned computer lab of the ship for the local shipping agent to come take away the water samples I spent so many nighttime hours collecting. With any luck, they will make their way safely to Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California where they will be analyzed.
This will be my last cruise update – thanks for following along!