by Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Fog is deceptive. It descended on the R/V Sally Ride as we moved from Puget Sound to the open Pacific. Our world was compacted to a small circle of visible water and the echo of the foghorn in the yellow clouds. As we stood on deck, tracing the skyline for a sliver of sunset, my eyes wandered upward and found a fog ceiling above us. We were surrounded, isolated, and blind. Fog is deceptive; it makes you lose perspective. The longer I’m at sea, the more it strikes me that everyday life can be like that fog: deceptive.
Jeff, one of the ship techs on board the Sally Ride, chuckled to himself as he gestured to the wide surface of the ocean, laughing gruffly that being out here on the water really gives you perspective. He commented that all the little things that clog daily life, things like cars, local politics, petty drama, the hunt for the shiniest, newest thing… here, all of it feels so unnecessary. All the things that fog your perspective melt away on the water.
That shift in perspective covers more than just material things, it touches on the differences between people as well. Research vessels attract people from varied walks of life; men from the navy, from the ship academies, from tech-centered jobs, to all around academics. Our collective goal, to maintain a vessel to produce scientific data, melts the fog. It melts the deceptive ‘importance’ of the little things that fog and isolate us; regardless of backgrounds on the Sally Ride, there stands a mutual respect and focus on the task at hand.
Today, just after crossing the boundary from Washington to Oregon, the fog has cleared and there’s a little light on the water. It stands for me as another reminder that science gives us the opportunity to brave through the fog in search of a new perspective.
– Cameron Stacey
