Helen FieldsScience Writer

Sunday’s post is about the sounds on the ship – each picture links to an associated sound. Chris suggested it because, well, we were stuck. There was no sampling on Sunday. The ship steamed northwest all day to escape a storm. The TV in the science conference lounge was, as I mentioned, on the NFL draft. I mean, seriously? Spending all day watching boys get picked for teams? Swooping the cameras around does not turn that into compelling television.

We had some ideas but they were all going to require a lot of work, on a day when most people were taking it easy. Heck, it was Saturday, and the Coast Guard celebrates the weekend, more or less. That’s why the sound post was so brilliant: Chris already had about half the sounds and we knew how to get the others, then he took some pictures of everyday objects and I wrote about them and, ta-da, we were done.

And the post turned out great. It’s a big hit on the ship and I’ve been getting nice comments from land, too. I’m proud of the posts that have explained tough science, but it’s nice that a quick little dispatch about our daily lives can work out well, too.

Of course, I also like it because I’m in one of the pictures.