JOIDES Resolution, The World's Most Important Research Vessel

I've been vague about what the JR is and why I am on it.  The JOIDES Resolution is a drilling ship that for nearly thirty years has traveled to every corner of the world's oceans doing scientific research.  It is the flagship of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, a consortium of about 16 member nations, funded by national government research dollars (e.g. your tax dollars!), that undertakes basic scientific research that requires drilling capability in the deep sea.  You could think of it as the oceanographic equivalent of the International Space Station.  Through recovery and analysis of deep ocean sediments and rocks, the JR has made possible fundamental discoveries in plate tectonics, Earth's climate history, the deep biosphere (did you know organisms live in rock miles below the ocean floor?), earthquake hazards, mineral resources, etc. etc.

A typical cruise length for the JR is two months (the boat can spend 75 days at sea without reprovisioning).  A party of about two dozen scientists will come on ship (having applied from institutions around the world) and undertake their expedition, aided by about 100 additional people who work on the ship (drillers, deckhands, caterers, lab techs, engineers, mates, etc).  This particular week is one of those extremely rare moments when the ship is underway without every spare bunk being gobbled up by a scientist----a between-expedition transit from the Pacfic to Atlantic.  The ship's operators kindly allowed four of us to tag along, a science writer (my dad, Chet Raymo), a journalist (Amy Mayer), and an artist (Wendy Jacob).  I've spent four months at sea on this ship in the past, am very involved in the program, and pitched/organized the idea.  I have little idea what these three talented people will produce from this experience, but rest assured I will link to it here when it happens.

The JR is an incredible international treasure for the world of science but, as she spends nearly her entire life at sea, few people have heard of her.   Soooo...if you want a little more insight into some of the science that has resulted from deep sea drilling you can shoot over to my dad's blog Science Musings.  Here you can see some more of this impressive facility....next stop, the engine room.....

 The engine room controls seven 16 cylinder diesel engines for a total of 5200 horsepower.  The control panel in first pic runs the propellers, drill floor, lights, AC, water distillation, etc., namely the entire ship.

The engine room is a thing of beauty.  Seriously, Martha Stewart would approve (is that color Turkey Hill sage???)----look at that tool rack!  What I can't convey is heat so great the handrails are hot to the touch and noise so loud that one can only communicate with hand signals.

The derrick you saw before....we can drill holes many kilometers deep into the Earth's crust in the deepest parts of the ocean with a shipboard dynamic positioning system that can keep ship on station (within a few meter circle) for months at a time.  

The only pool on this ship....the moon pool goes through the center of ship below the derrick.

 Over 15 kilometers of drill pipe is onboard.

 The rig floor with the trap door over the moon pool closed.  Tomorrow, the Bridge and Galley.  (Still looking for the craft room  ;-)

Transiting the Panama Canal

 The JR passing through Miraflores Locks (thanks for screen cap Tom!)

It is surprisingly low-tech.  Here are rope handlers bringing us the tie line in a dingy.

 Boat is tied to "mules", little cog railways cars, on either side.  They will pull us through locks.

As we get into narrow section of lock the rope from other side is thrown aboard.  The ropes are used to haul on the steel cables attached to the mules.

 

Approaching the second set of locks, San Miguel Locks

 On the Chagras River section.  It's really hard to believe these container ships don't roll over all the time.

 On Lake Gatun, the large artificial lake formed when the Chagras River was dammed.

Going back down to sea level through the final set of locks, Gatun Locks.

The Atlantic in the distance!  Another successful transit over the continental divide and lots of sunburned faces in the mess hall in the evening....

Will it? Won't it?

Apparently we were being buffaloed by the bunkerers.  The refueling (bunkering) process continued through the night due to faulty pumps on the fuel barges resulting in us missing our midnight low tide window to go under the bridge.  So twelve hours later we went under it at mid-day.

 the approach...

The pile of girders that will eventually morph into a fabulous new Frank Gehry museum devoted to the natural world.

passing under the bridge...

 believe it or not, this was incredibly exciting!

We are now at the head of canal but since we missed our morning passage window we need to tie up for the night.  My brother alerted us to www.shiptraffic.com where you can search for Resolution (JOIDES) and see us tracked in real time on google maps.

First Full Day on JOIDES Resolution

Approaching the JR yesterday morning....pilot boat alongside for scale...

Four of us successfully board up rope ladder from heaving boat....felt very "survivorish".  Here's my bag getting hauled aboard.  I think we all looked awkward enough that they later lowered the gangway with the ship's crane to accommodate the departing scientific crew.

 They all seemed pretty happy to be leaving after six weeks at sea.

 A few hours later a fuel barge showed up and began the fueling process which continued throughout the night.  Mid-morning today a second fuel barge tied up and also began refueling us.  Apparently the weight of fuel, combined with this evening's low tide will give us the necessary clearance to pass under the Bridge of the Americas at the entrance to the canal.  From wikipedia, the clearance under bridge is 201 feet at high tide.  According to the IODP website the "air draught" of the JR's derrick, the height above the waterline, is 205 feet!!!   This is gonna be close!

The locks of the Panama Canal

Tomorrow morning we board the JOIDES Resolution, JR for short, for passage through the Panama Canal then onto Curacao a few days later.  I had never really thought about how locks worked before....they are all gravity-fed.  The French built the Suez Canal (1869) by cutting a passage at sea level between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.  They later tried same technique in Panama and failed at that Sisyphean task.  It was the ingeneous use of locks that allowed the Americans to succeed, at a now Herculean task, where the French had earlier failed (with an estimated 22,000 deaths and a near ruined national economy).

(click to enlarge)

 By damming the Chagras River a huge lake, Gatun Lake, was formed that provides a continuous source of water (thanks to the surrounding rain forest) to first raise massive ships to 85 feet above sea level and half a day later drop them back down to sea level.  Tomorrow I'll post pictures of JR going through the locks, lakes, and the infamous Galliard Cut (also known as the Culebra Cut).  You can also follow the progress of ships through the locks live on the Pancanal.com webcam.

Friday morning update:  The JR will actually go through the locks tomorrow, not today.  Today will be spent taking on fuel for ballast that will allow the boat, at low tide tomorrow morning, to fit under the Bridge of the Americas.

Panama hats...

click to enlarge

Las Cruces Trail, The Treasure Trail

Wild carob, chocolate gold...

Today my dad and I hiked 12 km along Las Cruces Trail, built by the Spaniards using native slave labor around 1585.  It was the new "improved" highway, paved by river stones and replacing an earlier trail, over which Inca gold and silver was transferred from the Pacific to the Atlantic enriching Spain and, ultimately, all of Europe.  We walked in the footsteps of conquistadors, Sir Francis Drake, Henry Morgan the pirate, the gold rush 49ers, Ulysses S. Grant and, quite literally, in the hoof holes left by the thousands of mules that trekked across the stones over the centuries hauling Inca treasure to waiting Spanish galleons and later California gold to waiting clipper ships. 

 

Las Croces, the crosses laid in the path....

cute little capuchin monkey

The trail remained in constant use until the construction of a railway by the French canal builders in the late 1850's.  Rough, wet, slippery, and humid (99%?) with the sound of howler monkeys in the canopy and thousands of special little creatures and plants along the trail (including poison dart frogs and tarantulas), we saw no one else the entire hike.  Our naturalist guide Ivan, from Ancon Expeditions, was super!

water filling in the holes worn by a thousand donkey hooves....

 mysterious rock....have no idea how it got here....need a geologist...oh, wait, I am a geologist....

forest gold...

Molas, you've seen them before....

It was only after I arrived in Panama that I realized that these reverse appliqued fabrics, known as molas, originate with the indigenous Kuna Indians of Panama.  The Kuna are fiercely independent and tribal and have successfully resisted, sometimes violently, all efforts to assimilate and westernize them over the centuries.  Walking around Casco Viejo I was struck by the beauty of the Kuna women walking in pairs or selling crafts on the promenade.  I wondered why I didn't notice any Kuna men until I read that only the women dress in traditional clothing....the men wear western clothing.  In addition to being a strongly matriarchal society, the Kuna are also a very slight people, second only to the Pygmies of Africa in size.

I bought some molas and also some of the arm beads which a Kuna woman "wove" onto my arm (it doesn't come off).  If I was a real Kuna, I'd have these full up both my forearms as well as my calves.  The men would admire my slender limbs (ahem) accentuated by my beaded decoration!  My nose ring and tattoo down my aquiline nose would seal the deal!