Little-known facts: She has a sister ship, the Italic. And a research submarine, the Underline.

The day after my parents returned to San Diego, David and I toured the Bold, the EPA's Ocean Survey Vessel. She's a former submarine-monitoring ship from the Cold War. Now she's used to conduct surveys of sediments, pollution, sea life, etc.

We got to see the lab where EPA scientists conduct analyses of samples they've collected, and the bridge, with all the instruments of propulsion and navigation. We saw the side-scan sonar device sitting on the deck, and below-deck we saw samples of the video sonar pictures it makes of the seafloor. We also saw a demo of a nifty piece of gear that region 10 (this region) owns — a miniature propeller-driven remote-control submersible video device that zipped around the surface like a playful animal before diving to the bottom of the bay and sending back to the video monitor on deck pictures of fish, anemones, and sea stars. David took a video of the video:

It was all very cool — I wanted to run away to sea! (Actually, David did put himself on the waiting list to join the survey trip the Bold conducted off the coast of Oregon the following week, but unfortunately, the one person who cancelled didn't notify the coordinator in time for David to go.)