Matthew's Journal

I was sleeping late this morning because I was up late last night for our 06:00 UTC (3:00am ship time, 2:00am EDT) balloon sounding launch. I was half asleep this morning and quite comfortable when I was rousted out of bed rather suddenly by a fire alarm. It turns out that the fire detection system on the ship is pretty sensitive. One of the ocean technicians on board set the fire alarms off while doing some soldering work while assembling some sonar equipment. As a result, I got to traipse up to our secondary muster location in the mess area in my pajamas with my hair sticking up everywhere and my eyes still full of sleep. Once the alarm was canceled and we were free to go back about our business, I figured that I would grab a shower and start my day. I had all my shower materials pulled out, my towel in had, and was getting ready to undress when the fire alarm went off again. So, I had to head back to the mess deck in my PJs again. I'm actually rather thankful that the second fire alarm didn't come about 90 seconds later. I would have probably had to show up for muster rather damp and most likely grumpy.