Kestrachern

I found myself exploring the shoreline around downtown St. Petersburg, Florida via a few rides today. I’m becoming increasingly comfortable with the fixed gear set up on my bike (it still needs a name).

I first caught some children playing in the water off Vinoy Park, north of downtown. Then off to Rollin’ Oats for some raw almonds and apples.

Later on in the afternoon I felt the hankering for cookies grow and headed over to the local Publix grocery store for sugar and chocolate chips! I took the long way, out and around The Pier, skirting the perimeter of the Alfred Whited airport where I saw the bits of trash floating in the seaweed and the cormorant sunning itself on a buoy.

Where the College of Marine Science of USF butts up against the airport is a larger dock where I saw the Fugro R/V Geo Arctic moored. The intarwebbs says that the Geo Arctic is a modern 2D seismic vessel specially suited as source vessel with its dual source capabilities. It has extensive experience from long offset surveys and is capable of deploying a streamer up to 12 km in length and a large source. The Geo Arctic was built in 1988 and has been rebuilt in 1997 and 2005. The vessel has an overall length of 82 m and a breadth of 15 m.
What this means is that the Geo Arctic is used for offshore oil and gas prospecting by shooting a huge bubble gun and using hydrophones to record and catalogue the response.