Kicking off the Big Ol SAMOA trip

sunset last night

We set sail this past Monday, Feb. 27th, for Samoa. We return to Honolulu May 23rd and in the meantime will be visiting some GORGEOUS places. This first leg of the trip has us stopping at Johnston, Howland, Baker and Swains islands. We actually just arrived at Johnston today and my CTD operations start tonight...of course I have been busy so far running my other systems after a long winter in port.

We pull in to American Samoa for a nice long in port (a week!) on March 24th, which believe it or not, does not seem too far off at the moment. The winter in port in Honolulu was lovely (and I got some great surfing on the north shore just before we left, along with some hiking and good eats!) and I was a bit anxious about sailing again. But I have to say, now that we are out, I am really loving it. Seeing nothing but the gorgeous blue swells, stars, sunsets, even the rain and winds kicking up, is amazing, and pretty hard to describe. Sometimes it can feel stifling to be on a ship with 48 people and to not have some of the comforts we get used to, like picking what and when you eat, long walks...privacy! But the simplicity of being out here replaces a lot of the inconveniences, and many of the people (like my great roommate!) make the tough days easier.

I am doing a lot of reading, exercising, art, yoga, chatting and WORK of course. I am also staring at my new sewing machine, intimidated, but have a friend on here ready to help and an awesome DVD from mom. I have no more excuses! I hope over the next three months I can post some beautiful shots of where we are and some that depict what we do out here. And maybe by May I will post a completed sewing project!

Lots of love. Hope each of you currently have the equivalent of smooth seas in your lives. -L