Once again back to the ROVs! So with construction now complete all that’s left to do is test and for that we need a large body of water…well we could just test over the side of the ship, right? Wrong, because while that would be fun it poses more safety risks then anything else. So, on to the next best thing…A POOL!

Yes folks there is a big blue pool on the sun deck of the JR, bought specifically for this expedition.  Before we could go out and test our ROVs we had to fill it, which turned out to be an adventure in itself. After checking with Captain Alex, we (Leslie, Brigitte, John Marie and I) checked the directions, and found out that it was one of those 12 foot pools where you just inflate a ring, start filling with water, and it will take shape on its own. So, we used the hose up on the sun deck to fill the pool.

Let me tell you, this sucker takes a long time to fill when using a regular hose! So we decided to make guesses on when it would be finished filling and go to lunch…we were all wrong in our guesses by the way.  Anyways, so with the pool filled and listing sideways a little, we realized the water was a murky, grey/green color and had a very interesting smell but oh well. That afternoon we carried all of the ROVs and batteries up onto the deck and tossed the ROVs in the pool so that everyone could test them out. Needless to say it was A LOT of fun!

Geoff and I attaching floats to one of the ROVs

The murky pool water…(dont worry we got it refilled later with clear water )

(More ROV pictures can be found on the Oceanleadership Flickr page and on the JOIDES Resolution Facebook page! Check ’em out!)