UW research vessel Clifford A. Barnes marks its 1000th cruise

This week, the rusty but reliable Research Vessel Clifford A. Barnes will head out for the 1000^th time as a University of Washington research boat, carrying scientists and students to explore what happens beneath the blue surface of Puget Sound. It's a landmark trip for the vessel that has spent almost 30 years taking people from the UW and elsewhere out to Puget Sound, the Olympic Peninsula and the Canadian coast to make discoveries about chemistry, currents and marine life. All this from a boat that even its biggest fans admit has serious drawbacks. The boat was never built to go into open seas, and adding 10 tons of scientific equipment to the stern did not help with stability issues. "It's safe; it's just miserable,” said Ray McQuin, the ship's captain and supervisor. "Everyone gets seasick.” (McQuin has a naturally strong stomach, he said, and suffers from seasickness only a couple of times each year. The scientists' berths, two sets of triple bunks that hang from chains, make the undergraduate dorms seem plush by comparison.