|
From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Robbin's Nest - Robbin Whachell I write you from York Beach, Maine, from Diane's beach home. Here is my next installment featuring our visit in Woods Hole, where the crew and vessel the Atlantis II were honored and privileged to have dockage at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) for six days. During our time the active research vessel, Knorr also arrived home. Over three hundred WHOI employees toured the Atlantis II and shared a wealth of knowledge with us...
View our latest Photo Album showing our Arrival and Stay in Woods Hole, MA. Coming soon will be a video of our arrival. (Note: no need to sign up for anything, just click VIEW PICTURES, and then select Slide Show for best viewing)
It felt good to be on land and Woods Hole reminded me of that little village Popeye lived in in the movie where Robin Williams played the lead.
It has lovely old buildings, a small draw bridge and hilly streets along the sea.
It reminded me of Canada…
In my last entry I got as far as letting you know we were finally on our way into port with the help of a pilot, on Thursday, August 9th which meant we had a voyage of seven days – two days longer than anticipated. The day was gorgeously bright and sunny, with a good breeze, making us run for coats and sweaters, but excited about our arrival.
The ride in was shorter than we’d anticipated, which was great, and there were many boats out in the bay, some of which came close to wave and get a closer look.
Our arrival was pretty much as I’d expected. Many people were standing on the W.H.O. I. (
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
) dock waiting for us. Many were on the balcony of their port office watching too.
Diane greeted them with big hugs and Linda greeted everyone individually with a most hospitable hug and a kiss.
We took them back to the ship and there we found Gordon and Eddie trying to get on the wireless WiFi in the area on the side deck.
Eddie was two days off on departing for his holiday. He has been working with the ship since she was purchased.
They were able to get a flight out of Boston that would leave that next morning at 4am.
They left at eleven, just as Loryn and Tohni were getting back home. The girls met some local teens earlier and went out after dinner to hang out with them. I went to bed grateful we were now at our first destination – W.H.O.I. (pronounced Whooey by the locals). We were secure behind the security gates of WHOI, as well in a great part of town. Most places we walked, you could see the A2 on the water.
Our first day in Woods Hole – August 10th
Little did we know that we’d be touring over 300 people that day...
All of us leading our own groups of up to fifteen people – even Nathen was a tour guide.
We woke up to rain and grey skies. It was very cool. I’d hoped to work out after breakfast but realized that many people might be turning up at 10am for tours of
Atlantis II that I decided to hit the showers instead. I was glad I did. It seemed the time just got eaten up.
I started and it didn’t stop until 2pm that day. Four hours of tours and over 300 persons. Many had no idea how the ship was saved, so I’d start there. I also asked who in my groups who may have worked on the A2 and that always helped, as it allowed me an education of how certain rooms were used on the A2, or those in my group who worked on her shared great stories of life on board the vessel. We had so many people that Nathen, Loryn and Diane also assisted. We had to get Kirk and James involved also. At 1pm both Gordon and I had a one hour break to meet with two of the Institution’s administrators. During this time Diane’s sister Karen and her son Michael-Anthony (11 yrs) arrived on board, and Linda and Bob had to leave. Young Michael came to spend the weekend with us much to the delight of Jackie and Nathen.
When we got back to the ship we asked to have the a/c turned off. I took off to the cyber café to attempt to finally post our seven-day log onto the The Bahamas Weekly. I remained there for hours until the younger kids came to tell me it was dinner. We quickly rented a DVD for the children before we arrived back to the ship to an amazing feast of Maine lobster! Bobby, Diane’s brother had arranged getting them that day, and along with fresh corn on the cob and other delights we enjoyed our eats. After dinner Karen said goodbye to drive back to Boston. The kids settled in with their DVD and computers, and Diane and I met Gordon out for a drink. He was out for dinner with two W.H.O.I. scientists, Dave Gallo and Billy Lange, both very interesting gents. We came back and sat out on the deck to discuss the future of Altantis II, recapping our very exciting day – one in which we all put in a team effort in showing WHOI their old vessel they had once used for 33 years.
Day two in Woods Hole – August 11, 2007
We sat in a large room surrounded with monitors and equipment.
We saw footage from the depths of the oceans. Creatures we had no idea existed. Visuals of whales they are studying, and footage of underwater geysers, that turn into black glass after they spew and cool.
We saw the actual photos printed from footage of the Titanic.
I could not sleep, although I did not get to bed until midnight. The morning sun shone brightly into my cabin, and my mind was abuzz with ideas and things I had to get done. After struggling to sleep, I got up after a half hour, left a note on the hall wall, and grabbed the laptop and headed to the cyber café. I was determined to get posting the photos we had taken into an album to show everyone. We have taken a ton but we have experienced so much so far. I settled in with a hot coffee and scone on the outside deck of Coffee Obsession on the main street of Woods Hole. I began checking emails and started my photos. Gordon appeared an hour later – he could also not sleep. We had a good chat about possible ideas about the ship’s future, and returned to the ship for breakfast. We met Dave Gallo and Billy Lange at Billy’s office or place of work at WHOI – a small building (Advanced Imaging & Visualization Laboratory) at WHOI within the woods, an idyllic setting, where one would not know what exactly goes on behind those doors! What we saw that morning blew us away. We were also so very lucky to have such an opportunity. We were told that what we saw has only been seen by a mere ten or so people in the world. (Check our photo album link at top)
The coolest was saved for the last. They showed us their latest technology in wide definition TV and 360 degree imaging – hopefully to be put to use in museums shortly throughout the world. Then turning to a special monitor that had added mirrors or glass we donned glasses and watched new footage taken for 3-Dimensional viewing. Imagine watching sharks and fish in a 3-D view! Spectacular. Finishing our tour Billy showed us his camera-building room, loaded with equipment, and explained the use of different types of cameras.
A few people came out to the ship, although WHOI is closed for the weekend, but they were people who used to work on the vessel and missed the Friday tours. We greeted everyone and welcomed them to walk through as they liked, and to not mind the kids and regular living going on throughout the ship. A local artist dropped by a large box for him that contained a ceramic bowl. A beautifully hand-crafted serving bowl that had all the oceans listed that A2 sailed on painted on it. Apparently this bowl was made from clay A2 crew retrieved from the bottom of the ocean – billions of years old (the clay that is). I went out to work on line again at the café. Bobby showed up once more, and Jackie, Nathen and Michael went with him and Diane to the island where he lives. Naushoun Island, is in the chain of the private Elizabeth Islands (of which his wife’s family owns) on Vineyard Sound across from Martha’s Vineyard. They took the private ferry to the land, got to see horses and then came back in Bobby’s own boat. Patrice made us an amazing dinner with fresh groceries, and we feasted again. Loryn came home with another new friend and he dined with us. I felt exhausted after dinner, as if a cold was coming on. An older couple showed up at the ship after dinner and I greeted t hem and gave them a bit of history on the revival of the A2. He told me he used to work on her. I left them to look around and went to check on the three younger kids setting up a movie up in the lounge. Jackie, Nathen and Michael were buzzed on sugar by this time. They had their treats laid out and were actually not watching a movie yet, but rather had turned on the electric keyboard and had it playing its own numbers while they pretended to play along. Jackie was dancing wildly – her telltale sign of a sugar binge. I laughed and laughed enjoying the pleasure of youth. I went down to put on some tea, and when I returned to them I could hear some lovely music playing. Then I saw the man that had just boarded the boat with his wife seated at the piano. Next he had Jackie sitting next to him trying to teach her some cords. The kids were very attentive as he patiently tried to get Jackie to play along. Diane joined us and he played a special last number “Two Lonely People”, which for some reason really touched my son Nathen, who looked teary- eyed. Later he told me that he was feeling a lot, that it made him think about the world, things in the past, the tsunami and other things we’ve had to endure. Pretty amazing… I hit the bed after that, as I felt like a cold was coming on. It has been a pretty solid pace. I was asleep by 10:30. Later awakened by Nathen who was on his second night sleep walking – the sugar intake had to be reduced!
Day Three in Woods Hole
Sunday was a quiet day overall, but not for Woods Hole . Seven thousand persons had turned out for the Annual Falmouth Road Race they host – actually it starts in Woods Hole. The street in front of us was cut off to road traffic for about 5 hours and we saw from the ship, the start of each group, like ants setting out along the narrow road.
After lunch at Fish Mongers we all went our own ways again. I worked heavily on photos and keeping this journal up – not so easy when we had people arriving still for tours and just the everyday mom duties of laundry, and taking care of kids, not to mention trying to sightsee and have a holiday, etc. Gordon went for groceries with Bobby. That day a special gift arrived with someone who worked on the vessel. It was a complete history of the Atlantis II that WHOI put together the year she was retired. Others came by to show photo albums from times they’d worked on the vessel.
That night Diane, Gordon and I went to dinner at Fire Fly in Falmouth. The restaurant is owned by a family friend of Diane’s. We enjoyed a long dinner tasting and sharing each other’s culinary delights. When we were waiting on dessert, I was surprised to recognize a man walking toward us. .. It was Sam Raymond who played piano for us the night before on the ship! He had tracked us down through the security at WHOI and the cab driver – the clever man.
After a nice visit and many tales, we went out to wait for our cab. It was about 11:30pm and while standing outside, a white truck passed us and someone yelled out, “Hello Robbin!” We were shocked! Who knew me here, and we were a twenty minute drive from the ship? We figured it had to be someone from one of my groups that I toured on the A2. Arriving back to Woods Hole the bar across from where the ship is docked was abuzz with lively music. We decided to go for a nightcap and enjoy the live entertainment. It was fun to see the local talent and watch the young folk dancing.
Day Four in Woods Hole – we leave for Boston
When was the last time the Atlantis II and the Knorr were at the WHOI dock at the same time? If you know, please email me:
robbin@thebahamasweekly.com
Today was a crazy busy day! I got up and started doing laundry. Karen, Diane’s sister was on her way from Boston to collect us. We had the mammoth task of moving eight persons, of which seven of us had luggage within a seven passenger vehicle. I was stressing and so were the kids, as to decide what to take with us. We all moved clothes into soft luggage and much review. Add to this the usual goings on within the ship, people coming and going, breakfast being wrapped up and lunch started. Today, the Knorr arrived back to Woods Hole from a four month voyage at sea. We were excited to see her as she is one of the primary research vessels of WHOI and is the ship responsible for the finding of the Titanic; Atlantis II visited the site a year later to film it with the help of Alvin.
Next we were treated to a tour of the Knorr . She is an amazing vessel and much larger than the A2. It was time for us to leave. We had places to go and people to meet. Diane wanted to show us her homeland.
I was exhausted from the day’s events and laid down for a short nap. After a pasta dinner we went to the mall (the kids were dying for this!) for an hour to start some present purchasing for Loryn’s eighteenth birthday. It was amazing what we found in such a short time. Super shoppers! The younger ones had the opportunity to sleep in a tent trailer in the driveway, which helped with space in the house. We had a good rest that night - our first on land for over a week. Read our first leg of the journey HERE Read the Press Release based on the visit to Woods Hole Our Photo Album is at the Top of THIS ARTICLE.
|
