Helen FieldsScience Writer

More about me! I know, you just can’t get enough! The lovely people over at Smithsonian Magazine wrote a nice little blog post about what Chris the photographer and I are doing out here in the Bering Sea. Well, actually, I wrote most of it – it’s a Q&A.

Today’s dispatch has three, count them THREE, pictures of me. I’m labeled in two of them. I learned from the other one that my hat makes my head look really pointy. It’s super warm, though, so fashion be damned.

Also, I had to use up the caption on picture #7 explaining science, not defending my fashion choices, so I would just like to say here that the fanny pack is the best way to hold my notebook while I’m working on the ice or on deck – when someone says something funny, I can pull off my giant warm mitten and grab my notebook out of the pack.

Look how pretty the sunset was last night.

It’s just so beautiful out here. Something the chief scientist, Carin Ashjian, said when I interviewed her in January keeps coming back to me: “The most memorable thing about being on an ice breaker is seeing the ice and breaking the ice…It’s like nothing you have ever seen before and you hope that you always get to see it.” It’s so true. Ice is just amazing, and it changes all the time. I still have almost four weeks of this to go, and it’s already kind of sad to think that I’ll probably never see it again after that.

On the other hand, getting back home will be nice. People on the ship are friendly, and I *love* the work I’m doing, and Chris and I work really well together, but it’s not quite the same as being surrounded by my people. I miss you!

The day 9 dispatch (appearing Saturday morning) has two – TWO – pictures of me. One is because the coast guard woman who was supposed to let us shoot her stateroom didn’t come through til 9:30 tonight, and we were like, uh, yeah, we already sent off the files for today. For the other one, you’ll just have to look closely to find me. It’s like Where’s Waldo, only it’s easy.

Today (Tuesday April 7) was an ice station – a day when people can go out and do their work on the ice. Chris and I decided today’s story would be about this one scientist who has an ROV – a remotely operated vehicle, like a little tiny submarine that flies around in the water. He puts it through a hole in the ice.

His plan is to use this super-delicate glass oxygen sensor to measure the oxygen super close to the ice, at increments of something ridiculously tiny, like 10 microns or something. Last year he broke the sensor on the first attempt and that was it. Truthfully, part of the reason for doing his story today was because that dang thing might break and he might never go on the ice again. So the whole time they were working, I was totally paranoid about this little piece of glass. It had some thin metal bars around it, but that wasn’t much protection.

One time the ROV came out of the water and the tip of the oxygen sensor was just barely poking out of its cage. It did not look right to me. Everyone was running around adjusting sciencey things, and I was just staring at the probe and worrying.

Ensuing conversation:

Me: Is the probe supposed to be sticking out like that?
Scientist: [Jumps, then grabs the ROV and starts adjusting it.] Thank you so much for noticing that. [Repeated over and over.]
Chris the Photographer: How much does that thing cost? Helen Fields just paid for herself.
Me: You’re welcome, NSF

It turns out I did not, in fact, pay for myself – the sensor costs about $700. But I was still happy to be useful.

Lookit! It’s my home! Also, my disembodied head! I’ve decided this trip would be more fun without a body. So, just head this time.

Aaanyway.

A little ship orientation: the front (uh…bow? I forget) of the ship is to the left. See that big white blocky thing just to the left of my head? Ok, see how it has portholes? The top row, second from the left is my stateroom. Stateroom! Listen to me with the ship lingo!

I share it with two other women, a computer person from Boulder and a bird person from Anchorage. The bird person will spend most of her time in the bridge (the thing with the windows on top of the white blocky thing) surveying for birds and marine mammals. The computer person will spend most of her time in a windowless room in the section of the ship to the right of my head making sure that all the data people are collecting stays organized.

Most importantly, neither of them seems to snore.

At a party on Saturday I learned the German word for steel-toed boots – and, yes, of course, it is only one word – Stahlkappenstiefel. Or something to that effect. Why was I speaking German at the Bering Sea Sendoff? Oh, my friends, you didn’t think I would have only *one* rockingly awesome adventure lined up for my post-layoff year, did you? I found out last week that I’m spending August and September in Germany on a Burns Fellowship.

I’ll work in a German newsroom for two months – probably a weekly magazine or a daily newspaper. The idea is that I work half time for them and half time for my regular freelance clients and anyone else who wants to pay me to write. Anyone? Anyone?

When I say I was “speaking German” I exaggerate a bit – really, these two German guys were speaking German and I was going, “ja!”…”nein!”…”[halting, brief, and grammatically questionable statement]!”

Check it out: my survival suit. (With the steel-toed boots.) I gather I’m supposed to wear this whenever there’s heavy equipment going over the side of the ship. I borrowed it from WHOI, which is nice,  because I don’t want to have to store this dang thing for the rest of my life.

And just in case you’re wondering, no, I have not gained 50 pounds since the last time you saw me. That’s aaaaaalllll suit.

This video gives a bit of background information on the cruise – along with lots of pretty pictures. I’m not in the video, but I’m the person who the scientist is looking at when she’s talking, so, you can imagine me in the room. I went up to Woods Hole in January to do this interview and meet the people who will be editing my dispatches from the ship.

Ok, I’m leaving the day after tomorrow. Holy cow. I’ve reached the point where I’m doing triage on my giant to-do list – the rest of the quizzes will get written after I get back. I’ll file for an extension on my taxes. Ok, but I really have to write those stories for National Geographic before I leave. Gack! Back to work!

Someone said hi! She used my name! I had no idea who she was! Fortunately, I saw her again later before she saw me, read her nametag, and realized I’d just met her last night. So, it was a recent memory. It just hadn’t gotten encoded yet. Or something. I’m so bad at this people thing. Wear your nametags, everybody.