Cool water

Downtown San Diego, seen from the ship as we steamed away

When I last left you, my friends, the cruise was just getting underway. The optode software was finally working; the ship was pulling away from the dock; and I was dead exhausted. The Night of Desperate Phone Calls is now two days behind me, and the ship has been steaming away from San Diego ever since.

Sunset over the Pacific, 13 Feb 2015

I suppose that after my last text-heavy entry, I owe you some pretty pictures. Actually, one of my favorite things to do on a ship is to photograph the sky. Out here, far away from city lights, skylines, and smog, we get beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Clouds, if there are any, stretch all the way to the horizon. You can see storms coming from miles away. I absolutely love the sky at sea. 

Shortly after sunrise, 14 Feb 2015

There's not much to do on board for these first few days, since we're just steaming out to the sampling sites. I expected myself to be seasick - I usually am for the first 3-5 days of any cruise - but our weather has been absolutely fantastic. You'll see in my photographs how calm the water is, and I can barely feel the ship moving at all. I've used my time on board so far to finish up revisions on my Svalbard image analysis paper (yes, I'm still working on it!), revise another paper, get some rest, and help Andrew put gear on the lander. Now that we have the time, we're picking away slowly at the lander, adding a little bit to it each day. 

It's nice to have a few slow days, because once we hit our first station, the activity on board will certainly pick up. I'm getting to know my shipmates one by one.  I'm soaking in the sun. Basically, life is good.