New Year’s Extravaganza -by Matt

With the end of 2010 very nearly at hand, certain members of the science party decided to set up a series of spectacles to let the waning year go out with a bang and warmly usher in another. From day one there had been disjointed whispers of mud, fireworks, whipped cream and some sort of pool but no one seemed to be able to string them all together. On the night of the 31st all became clear as we gathered on the back deck and watched enough explosives go off to sink a small flotilla. Field-marshalling this blitzkrieg was the fearless Charlie, who diligently made sure there was never a moment in the last minutes of the year where something was not erupting in a spray of sparks and shrieks. Onlookers watched with a degree of apprehension as he and other daring individuals approached fountains of flame to light the next and keep us on the edge of our seats. It was a thoroughly spectacular show beyond what most of us expected to be permissible on a ship. While the festivities eventually stopped for the night, the new year held even more raucous antics carefully orchestrated by Rick and his contingent of game-masters. The first of these was an egg toss, which amounted to a rather messy deck but was well worth it. A water-balloon fight soon followed, making sure that anyone who didn’t have any egg on them was at least completely saturated in seawater. I hasten to add that every single tiny scrap of the countless burst balloons was picked up moments after the last throw. Can’t have ocean scientists choking the poor turtles and dolphins, can we? Hailing from Oklahoma was a game of water balloon volleyball. This entailed flinging balloons like volleyballs cradled in pillowcases. If you can imagine the way firefighters make trampolines by holding a large sheet for people to jump out of buildings, but replace evacuees with water balloons you’ve got the gist of the game. A relay race was next, designed to test the mettle of pairs of ‘Marine Athletes’ with multiple challenges ranging from plankton identification to knot-tying to running around the deck tied to your partner. The varied nature of the relay race tested a broad range of mental and physical skills that we oceanographers just can’t do without in this day and age. The last game involved splitting the pairs up at opposite ends of the ship and making them call to each other trying to find one another with their eyes closed. The celebrations all in all were a brilliant laugh and gave everyone a chance to show their prowess in different areas of Marine Athletics. Everyone took part in some aspect of the celebration and a brilliant New Year was had by all. As if just being on an awesome world-class research vessel for the turn of the calander wasn’t memorable enough, generous amounts of fun and games were thrown in for good measure.