5/16-"Order of the Cups"

Well, it finally happened! We were at a depth that was deep enough for us to put in the CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth). Each of the different gray cylinders collect water samples at different depths. We were around 1200 meters. A piece of equipment on the CTD can only go to 600 meters so that is what we were shooting for. Notice how bright it is outside--it's about 11:00PM!! The CTD was lifted with the wench and lowered over the side of the ship. Once at 10 meters it stops to make adjustments. Every science experiment always has flaws along the way--right!?! Yep! We noticed 5 cups are now floating on the surface of the ocean. The look on my face must have been pitiful. Everybody looked at me and asked if they should bring it back up. I said, "Nope, go for it!" What seemed like forever, but was really only 45 minutes later, it was back at the surface. I looked in the bag from across the deck and I really thought there were only 3 in there. We got wire snips and cut off the zip ties that were holding the bag to the rail. Some cups had fit into larger cups. We ended up with 11. I took a picture of the ones that were left. They are upside down because I had to reshape a few of them, and I left them there to dry. They still look pretty big in the picture but the smallest is actually only 1 1/2 inches. They are packed and ready to come home. I have "Order of the Cups" certificates to give to the students whose cups were chosen to be pressurized.