In transit to Honolulu

             We finished shooting five days ago. On the last day of shooting, Ted and I went to the stern on a super foggy day and listened to the guns. Nobody told me we would be able to see the vibrations that occur on the water milliseconds before the shot! It is really cool to see but when we tried to videotape it, it was too dark. I don’t understand why we decided to go to the stern and take pictures on the last day of shooting! We should have gone earlier.

Now we are in transit to Honolulu. The shooting is done and the lab has become uneventful. We are doing 30 minute logs, BIST tests, XBTs, and adjusting the sonar window every time the sea floor changes considerably. There is a lot of time to be pensive. I’ve been curious about the Bridge. We had a tour of it when we started the trip, but it was short and fast. Ted and I got to go up to the Bridge and get a more in depth description of all the equipment they use and we were able to ask the chief mate a million questions. We also got to know what it feels like to sit in the VIP seats on the R/V Marcus Langseth.

The most confusing aspect of this trip so far is the date and time! It seems like the easiest detail to understand and remember, but not on this ship. We have gone through at least 4 time zones, we had Easter Sunday twice, an 8 day week, and of course the UTC time never changes. You can imagine what it’s like to schedule our time to use the phone to call our families! At least we always know what the UTC time is and what Julian Day it is, but nobody at home uses Julian Days. Yesterday we crossed the dateline. It was fun to watch the computers get confused.

So the captain said we might get to the islands earlier than expected. Everybody seems to be looking forward to it. Personally, if I would have packed a little better for this trip it wouldn’t matter to me if we got in early. I am starting to run out of everything!

Since this is my last blog, I just want to say I enjoyed the last few weeks with the company of my new ship family. You all have taught me A LOT and opened my eyes to even more different kinds of lifestyles. A special thanks to Jun Korenaga and William Sager for allowing me to be part of this scientific adventure!