From June 25 to July 9, UO senior physics instructor Dean Livelybrooks and a team of national scientists on board the Atlantis research vessel will recover earthquake-monitoring equipment in the Pacific Ocean. Follow tweets and other activity at @uocas and #uoshiptrip. To read other dispatches from the Atlantis, visit http://around.uoregon.edu/cascadia-initiative.

We left Astoria about 10:30 a.m. June 25, bound for an ocean-bottom seismometer near Newport and excited about the big waves that would accompany getting through the bar.

Those big waves more than did me in – I was largely incapacitated by seasickness for the rest of the day.

I wasn’t the only one who had to adjust to unusually rough waters, however. UO geophysicist Dean Livelybrooks and the researchers decided to scrap plans for a difficult recovery of an OBS with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), given the rough waters. Instead, we made for an OBS with a self-surfacing setup that would enable it to float to the surface when signaled.

Livelybrooks is handling the rough waters better than me. Cup of coffee in hand, he busied himself throughout the day with computer work and other duties and told stories of past trips to sea, always ending with a laugh.

Day is ending well: We recover our first OBS by 10:20 p.m. and start making our way east, toward the difficult ROV recovery mission.

And I seem to be keeping down this pack of Saltines …

- by Matt Cooper, UO Office of Strategic Communications