Transit Days with Land In Sight

It doesn't look like much, but Kaula Rock is the most land that we've seen in a month.

The ship is clean, gear is packed and we're passing the first islands in the Main Hawaiaan Island chain. We've spent the last few days finishing reports and entering data. Our evenings have been filled with celestial navigation talks from the ship's crew, a masquerade and costume ball put on by the Engineering Department and Mongolian night, complete with Mongolian BBQ for dinner and a slideshow of the pictures Ben and I took last month. Ben put a lot of work into creating a very impressive slideshow for a full house and we had a lot of wonderful feedback. Now we're passing Niihau and Kauai. The next island will be Oahu, our home, but we won't reach there until sometime tomorrow morning. The port side engine on the ship has been down since this morning and we're not making very good time. But we have a second engine and several engineers working on the broken engine as we speak - just one more reason to always have backups. So there is no ETA as of yet, but I'm looking forward to having fresh veggies and good coffee (not necessarily together) at some point tomorrow!

Have a wonderful night.

Take care,
Cristi

Ocean Defender and Captain Oreo at the Masquerade Ball

Last day at Lisianski

Last Days at Lisianski

Our last day at Lisianski offered the best survey sites and visibility that we had seen at that island. Unfortunately, it was also our last dive day of the cruise. We are now transiting back to Honolulu and trying to wrap up all of the cruise report requirements. Although I'm sorry to see the cruise coming to a close, I am looking forward to coffee and fresh veggies!

I hope you are having a wonderful day.

Take care,

CR

Turtles in the haze

One of our recent dives was particularly murky as we rolled unenthusiastically into a lagoon site. The area was actually a wall that ended in a sandy bottom at 25'. Even with the shallow depth, we weren't able to see the bottom until we were within 10 feet of it. The wall was covered in algae and cyanobacteria, a type of algae that looks like snot and grows in areas with a lot of nutrients. So I wasn't expecting much from the dive. But I dutifully took out my camera, intent on finding some redeeming quality to the site. I found a small cave where the sun was shining in the perfect direction to throw the fish into silhouette. So while waiting for my buddy to get situated, I positioned myself within a few feet of the mouth of the cave to try for some interesting photos. I was doing this for at least five minutes before I noticed that sitting in the cave and watching me intently was a turtle. The visibility was bad enough that unless you looked closely, you couldn't see him. I happily snapped a few pictures before he headed off into the murky haze.

I hope you are having a wonderful evening.

Take care,

CR

Cinnamon Roll Wake Up

Monk Seals at Kure Atoll have nothing to do with cinnamon rolls, but I still liked the picture.

I woke early this morning not to an alarm but to the ship making headway both vertically and horizontally through a large swell. We have thankfully been spoiled on this cruise and the weather has been wonderfully calm. However this morning was a reminder that we may see rougher weather ahead and that my bunk is situated as far forward on the ship as possible. This is important because unlike on a bus, the bumpiest part of the ship is the bow and the more stable bunks can be found at the stern or rear of the ship. Ben always says that he sleeps better with the gentle rocking of the waves but I can never understand that. However my early wakeup call on a transit day was excused by the wonderful smell of fresh baked cinnamon rolls wafting down the hall (my room is also very close to the galley). So I started my day with cinnamony goodness and I have been continuing it with catchup computer work, partially conducted on my laptop while sitting outside and watching the endless blue drift past.

We have one transit day and then three more days of diving at Lisianski before our transit back to Honolulu. It's been a great trip so far and I'm a little sad that it is drawing so close to its end. Although you rarely have privacy on the ship (40 people all within 240 feet of you), I love the simplicity of the routine and the vastness of the horizon stretching out in all directions. I'll miss this when I'm back in the hustle and bustle of life on land.

I hope you are having a wonderful day and that cinnamon rolls are somewhere in your future.

Take care,

Cristi

It's not ALL about the Dolphins

While marine biology is not all about dolphins, they certainly make the job fun!  We started our first day at Kure Atoll accompanied by a pod of dolphins playing in the bow wake of our small boat.  They stayed with us for part of our transit, but then left us alone for the rest of the day.  At the end of our fourth dive, we were on our safety stop and started to hear the high pitched sonar pings of dolphins in the area.  We were in a current that was moving us into deep water and by the time it was time to surface, we still hadn't seen them.  We were peering into blue water, circling as we went to the surface, when the first set of four swam by without a second glance.  Luckily we had plenty of air in our tanks because we spent the next 20 minutes surrounded by Spinner Dolphins.  These are one of the most acrobatic species, jumping and spinning into the air.  In the water, many were graceful and peaceful, while others were darting in and out amongst the small groups.  It was an amazing thing to see and is definitely one of the highlights of this cruise.  It was only my third time seeing dolphins while diving and I've never seen them this close or in these numbers.  There were at least 40 individuals swimming by.  Once we surfaced, the pod stayed near the small boat and we counted at least 80 in the surrounding waters.  Incredible.


I hope you are having a wonderful evening.
Take care and good night,

CR

Saving the Sargassum Frog Fish

Sargassum Frog Fish (camouflaged to look like Sargassum, a type of brown algae)

Well, he wouldn't have needed saving except that as we were transiting between survey sites yesterday, we were trying to be good marine scientists and picked up some derelict fishing net that was drifting in the water.  After a few minutes of having the net onboard, we noticed that there was a fish laying on the deck.  He must have been using the net as floating habitat and once it was aboard, he managed to wriggle out of it.  We stowed him in a spare bucket and transited to our next site with him.  We wanted to release him in a shallow area, hopefully away from the large, predatory Ulua that make their homes in the deep water.  Once at the site, we released the Frog Fish and spent a few minutes snapping pictures of him before continuing with our day.  I've never seen a fish like this and it was impressive to be in the water with him.  He stayed close to us as we were snorkeling and trying to snap pictures - sometimes too close for the camera to focus.  He was checking us out evidently to determine if we were going to remain floating in the water and act as a good protection for him, similar to what the net had been doing.  But our survey site was waiting at 25 feet and we made our way back to the small boat to gear up.

I hope you are enjoying the evening.
Take care,
CR

Calm Days

Yesterday at Pearl & Hermes Atoll was one of the calmest that I've seen so far.  There was barely a breath of wind and no whitecaps as far as the eye could see.  We were on the outside of the ring of coral that creates the atoll (the forereef) on the windward side.  This is generally the area that we can't get to because the seas are too rough and the tradewinds are making things sloppy.  But yesterday, standing on the side of the small boat, we could have counted fish without even getting in the water.  There was barely a ripple on the water and the largest disturbance to be seen was from diver's bubbles reaching the surface.  The picture above is in about 20 feet of water as we are transiting back to the ship.  All of the shapes that you can see in the foreground are coral colonies.  Even into the evening, the water looked like silk as the sun was setting.  The ripples that you can see to the left are about 10 feet from the side of the ship with the reflection of the setting sun.

It looks like we will be enjoying similar weather today but it is not supposed to last.  We have gotten reports of an 8 foot swell from the north that should be reaching us tomorrow.  It probably doesn't sound like much, but when you consider that our small boats are only 19 feet long, an 8' swell can make for a bumpy ride.  So I'll be enjoying as much of this calm as possible today!

I hope you are doing well and enjoying the day.

Take care,

Cristi