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Heading east in 20-foot seas.
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Swing of the Yo-Yo
by Peter Tyson
July 18, 1998
In our final three days, the emotional yo-yo that this voyage
has been just kept on yo-yoing.
On Wednesday evening, with news of yet another storm on the
way, we rushed to get ROPOS ready for a final dive. We were
pumped up by our successes over the past week and fully
expected to pull off one final, glorious dive. Our target was
the stump of Finn, which had astonished us on the most recent
dive by revealing a beehive-shaped, five-foot-tall cone of
sulfide that, in a matter of days, had grown up on its stump.
The goal of this final dive was to place a "stump probe" over
what remained of Finn. The device would measure temperatures
at seven points on the chimney for a year or more before it
was retrieved.
Alas, the weather had the final say: no dive. By Thursday
morning, we had 20-foot seas, with winds gusting over 30
knots—the roughest conditions yet. Delaney waited until
just after noon before deciding that it was time to batten
down the hatches and head home. We spent the next hour lashing
everything not already bolted down. If it's hard enough to
keep your balance now, we were told, wait till we're underway.
Expedition members took their Dramamine and watched as the
crew put heavy-weather procedures into effect. We saw why as
soon as the captain fired up the Z-drives, propelling the ship
due east at 13 knots. Those 20-footers reared out of the south
as if in a bad dream. I stood in the staging bay, which was
half-boarded over, and watched waves break over the starboard
rail and rush across the fantail like waves up a beach. The
ship groaned as it leaned into foam-flecked troughs. The yo-yo
dipped. As with the previous storm, people sullenly retreated
to their cabins for a touch of the horizontal. It would be at
least 14 hours before we reached the calm of the Juan de Fuca
Strait. The heavy seas, queasy feelings, and an unspoken
disappointment seemed to cast a pall over the entire ship.
Juan de Fuca Strait, early Friday morning.
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But Friday morning the yo-yo started back up. After three
weeks of mostly cloudy days with occasional lashing rain, we
woke to a glass-smooth sea and a blue sky overhead. The air
was balmy. We were back in the Strait, and back to feeling
proud of what we had accomplished. We paused in Port Angeles,
a lumber town perched at the foot of the Olympics, to pick up
the sulfide chimneys, which the CCGS John P. Tully had left in
a shed there. We also welcomed on board a number of
luminaries, including Ellen V. Futter, the president of the
American Museum of Natural History, which had put up much of
the $3 million-plus spent on this expedition; Dan Evans, a
regent of the University of Washington and former Governor of
the state; John Noble Wilford, the New York Times science
reporter; and my boss, Paula Apsell, the executive producer of
NOVA. All had come to help usher our prizes triumphantly into
Seattle.
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A press frenzy takes over the fantail.
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Within minutes of sidling up to the University's dock around
noon today, the ship was swarmed by three or four television
crews, a handful of newspaper reporters, and dozens of
colleagues, family members and friends, eager to admire the
structures laid out on the fantail. The weather—sunny,
70s—couldn't have been more pleasant if the university
PR staff had personally choreographed it.
The yo-yo rounded the top—at least for John
Delaney—at a press conference held in the nearby
oceanographic building just after lunch. Richard L. McCormick,
president of the University of Washington, introduced Futter,
who gave an eloquent speech on "the challenging and highly
successful venture" that "beautifully represents the human
quest for knowledge." What her speech held in pragmatic
praise, Delaney's held in an outpouring of emotion. Sweeping
about the room like Caesar at the Forum, he volubly thanked
all the key players of the expedition. As he introduced
Veronique Robigou, fellow oceanographer at the university,
colleague on many a research cruise, and founder of the REVEL
teacher program, he said, "I'm likely to get emotional" and
suddenly got all choked up. As the TV cameras zeroed in and
flashes flashed, he put his arm around her and mumbled his
thanks and praise. Quiet and unassuming, Robigou had stayed
out of the limelight on this cruise until dragged into
it—like the chimneys themselves.
The Thompson sails into Seattle.
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Tonight the university is throwing a barbecue, and then all
those people whom the Thompson had brought together will go
their separate ways. Only the memories will remain. Oh yeah,
and four big rocks.
Note: Watch for the NOVA film on this expedition, airing next
April.
Peter Tyson is Online Producer of NOVA.
The Tug of the Thompson (June 23)
The ROPOS Guys (June 25)
In the Juan de Fuca Strait (June 27)
Special Report: A Visit To Atlantis (June 29)
Dive 440 (July 1)
Rescue at Sea (July 2)
What's Your Position? (July 4)
Phang! (July 5)
20,000 Pounds of Tension (July 8)
Four for Four (July 11)
Thrown Overboard (July 13)
Was Grandma a Hyperthermophile? (July 15)
Swing of the Yo-Yo (July 18)
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