back on track from padang

greetings landlubbers,

argghhhh. a few days ago we arrived at padang to 1)try to fix one of our sheaves
and 2) pick up a sheave we had freighted over from scripps (where the atlantis,
the sister ship to revelle, was conveniently docked). while the machine shops in
padang could not repair the sheave we had, the one from atlantis got installed.
i am just getting over 3 days of GI distress. mama mia, papa pia, dia----. i
think i can hold my food down, ill let you know. i am suspicous of the dish
cleanliness, but who knows...

we were unable to take piston cores until last night (remember we broke much of
the necc. equipment). we had a successful attempt with about 5 meters of
recovery. yippee. since the equip broke down, we could only take gravity cores
with an average recovery of about 2 meters max. so we are quite pleased. of
course, the sheaves are already smoking and this makes us very nervous. one
would think that this equipment would be in better shape. but, scripps manages
their equipment like many other public institutions, fix it when it breaks
(unlike maintain it so it does not break).

i did get to catch up on my sleep as we went into padang and during my illness.
so i am feeling rather well rested, a short lived experience. i am feeling much
more confident making decisions on where to core, following some successfull
choices without goldfinger at my side. expensive time, so lots of pressure to do
the right thing, but i can do it. all of my humboldt trained field geology
skills are paying off, ONCE AGAIN! thanks ken and bud and longshore, etal.

peacefully yours, one love jay