The crew and technicians on board Langseth are taking a well earned break in Astoria Oregon right now. They sail on Wednesday next week, north to Alaska, for a cruise led by Sean Gullick and Gail Christeson of UTIG - the last cruise of the year.
Steve Goldstein and I had a very important meeting on Wednesday morning with the chairs of the basic science departments within Arts and Sciences - talking about our research professor initiative. I think we made good progress - there is a growing understanding of the uniqueness of Lamont, and of the priority associated with the development of new positions for our superb research staff.
I had a surprise visit from Walter Roest on Thursday - someone I had not seen in decades - who is now head of the Extended Continental Shelf project for France (headquartered at IFREMER in Brest). As this is part of the Law of the Sea activity and the US has yet to ratify this, we are (as usual, I fear) lagging the rest of the world in facing up to this new global reality.
Hanna is barreling into Charleston SC (where my son lives) as we speak, and it seems tomorrow night in the marina in Stamford may be more exciting than I want it to be, so I think I will tie a few extra ropes around a few large pilings and stay at home!
Stay out of the rain tomorrow,
And have a great weekend anyway,
- Mike