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What would it be like to live on board the JOIDES Resolution? Schlumberger employee Jonathan Kreb, who was assigned to the ship as a Schlumberger Wireline Logging Engineer, reflects upon his experience:

The ship is 143 m (469 ft) in length. That may sound large when you picture it as being 1.3 football fields in length. However, most of the space on the ship is occupied by the huge engines that power it, the scientific laboratories, and the machinery involved in the drilling operations. Thousands of feet of drillpipe have to be stored laying horizontally in the midsection of the ship. This leaves a relatively small amount of space for living quarters, the galley (cafeteria), and recreational space (theater rooms and gym).

I was usually assigned a room with three other people. We slept in bunk beds, and we each had a locker for our (small) wardrobe and personal items. A single bathroom was shared with another room of four people. We worked on 12-hour shifts. Some people worked from noon until midnight, when others took over and worked from midnight until noon. There was generally somebody sleeping in the bunkroom, so it really wasn’t a place where you could just hang out.

The time I spent on the JOIDES Resolution was among the most adventurous and exciting of my field career, but this was no cruise ship! We would usually be at sea for around 54 days at a time. The trip might start or end in a rather exotic port, but during the 50+ days at sea, one piece of ocean looked pretty similar to the next (except for the sea at high latitudes). The people on the ship had to be good at settling into a daily routine and dealing with being surrounded, almost constantly, by the same people.

Entertainment was limited. In the middle of the ocean, there is no satellite or broadcast TV. Music was limited to whatever CDs people brought with them. There was no continuous Internet service. Emails were up/downloaded twice a day. Telephone was very expensive, and was typically only used in emergencies.  Movies and books were limited to what was in the library, or what people brought with them. The galley’s pantry was well stocked at the beginning of each trip, but the supplies had to last the entire trip. Fresh food—fruits and vegetables—would run out. Toward the end of the trip, everything came from a can. If you had a favorite snack, drink, etc., you had better bring it with you.

On a normal day, I would usually get out of bed around 11:00 a.m. The 12:00 noon meal would be my breakfast. I would spend the afternoon doing my job, and then would have my lunch (evening meal) at 7:00 p.m. After this, I would usually go to the theater to watch a video. The theater was a room with a good-sized TV and VCR. It held as many as 20 people and had a fairly large selection of videotapes. Even so, it was surprising how quickly you could run out of movies you were interested in seeing, when you watch one every night and spend half the year on the ship!

After the movie, I would typically go exercise in the small gym, where there were some weight machines and stationary stair-stepper type machines. Afterwards I would usually shower and send some emails—the main means of communication with friends and family back home. At midnight I would eat my third daily meal. The next two hours might be spent working a little bit more, and then I would go to bed around 2:00 a.m.

Not every day followed a normal routine. On some days I had "critical path" operations going on. These would run 24 hours around the clock.