ISA Training Day 21-22: Sunrise Over the Calmness of Japan Sea

 October 19-20, 2018 around coordinate 41°39'10.15"N 131°33'12.46"E.

My first sunrise as the vessel is moving in Japan Sea.

The first two days on the vessel was focusing on adaptation. Adapt to sleep while moving, eating while moving, and every activities while moving. Luckily, the moving from Slavyanka (especially to the first stop, Busan, South Korea) is less dramatic. And that's a good thing. 

I was not "new" on exploration field, because I've been there before. Doing exploration on the land, however, you always knew that you're still connected to human civilization. Even at the most remote location at the wilderness of the peak-est point of Pegunungan Bintang district of Papua, that I've been to in 2012-2013, I always knew that the helicopter will come twice a month to give us the logistics and some news, since there's no cellphone connection there and the nearest village is two days away by foot. But still, this was new millstone for me, because I'll be in the middle of nowhere with ocean around you for more than 3 months. So, I was not surprised that I had a strange feeling about it. Maybe it's because of the friendliness of the scientists and crews on the RV Yuzhmorgeologiya, or maybe also because of the waves of Japan Sea in the middle of October was quite calm. But, what I knew was my adaptation is quite smooth. 

Starting from eating adaption, especially the time. It was at 6 PM for dinner when the vessel was docked at Slavyanka. The dinner time was pushed back to 7:30 PM. So, we needed to hold our craving for food for 1.5 hour. The good thing is, however, now we have tea time at around 3:30 PM. It was not a problem anymore then as long as we didn't skip the tea time.

Here's the timetable on the dining room (I'm still not sure why it's called wardroom though)

I also took my time to go around the vessel to find the location for specific purpose. Dining room is one deck below us. To go there, I passed the washing room in the same deck with my cabin with men bathroom next too it. Later I was told by Vladimir that I can use the other washing room at other side of the vessel (I think it was more front of the vessel) and I can use men bathroom in the upper deck. The funny thing was they were naked during bathing, like, completely naked. I was not used to this. Well, I was naked when I bathed in the river, but that was 20 years ago when I was little. The shower cubes in the bathroom don't have doors, so only border between to cubes. At first, I used underwear, but then I was completely naked for the next 3 months when I bathed and I completely didn't care anymore. Haha.

Some signs in the washing room

The bed on my cabin. I took the top bunk while Jose is in the bottom bunk.

The full moon I took from my cabin window.

So, that's it for today. Don't forget to read my previous posts on this series and check the upcoming posts here. Thank you guys!