SeaKaiah

Canceled

An early end

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Yesterday after lunch, we received the sad news that the ship still needs at least 5 days worth of repairs and that we would not be able to complete the science goals with the time remaining in the cruise schedule and so, we will not be going out to the Mariana Trench. Today, we are back in port and will be here for another several days as we pack our gear back up and unload the ship. It's an unfortunate way to end this cruise, but I know that everyone involved has tried their hardest to make our goals and once again, sometimes these things happen.

Spirits are low on the ship, but last night, people tried to lift each other up and set up activities to let us connect as a community before we have to say an early goodbye. One of the lead scientists, Dr. Patricia Fryer, gave a great science presentation about the recent and current eruptions of the volcano Kilauea on Hawaii. Later, several of the interns on board for this expedition organized a snack party, asking everyone to share any snacks they had bought for the cruise. We ate, laughed, and exchanged treats from different places and cultures. I'm grateful to have had such a fantastic group of people to share this time with, and to have had the time to get to know many of them.

I claimed the bunk by the porthole in my cabin when we arrived on the ship. I knew I would need to close it when we started working odd hours, but since we were on daylight operations for this whole time, I've left it open. Without many of the normal life demands on my time and attention, with few people on the same timezone as me, without a weak enough internet connection that I temporarily deleted all of the social media off of my phone, and with the strong reset of changing to a wildly different timezone, I've adopted a schedule of waking up to the dawn light and going to sleep not long after watching the sunset. It has been one of my favorite parts of this experience.

Last night though, there was a ship-to-shore interaction scheduled with a class at Cuyahoga Community College, the community college for the area that I grew up in! I wanted to join in to see some Ohio-faces and to let them know that someone from the same region as them was out working in some really cool ocean science. The call was at midnight on the ship, and I squeezed in a couple hours of sleep right before hand at the urging of some shipmates who saw me struggling to stay up. It was hard to get back up, but I'm really glad that I did! It felt good to connect with people interested in the work that I'm doing and I'm glad that I participated, even once, in the outreach that the Nautilus makes such a fantastic effort to do.

I had too much coffee trying to wake myself back up so I could be chipper and engaging on that call and had trouble sleeping last night. I'm tired today, and it's not helping my mood, but I'm trying to stay somewhat upbeat and to capture and remember some of the great things that I got through this experience.