Quick Stop at Maug

Some cool shots from the ship's divers of some curious friends

CTDs at Asuncion

Noah shot some of me standing by to launch the CTD

Leg II-Island #4-Asuncion

We moved on to the beautiful volcano of Asuncion for 2 days of work. I got to taste some great coconut fresh from the island that the divers brought back, that was a nice treat. As I said I am borrowing lots of photos. Thanks to Noah for this shot.

Pulling away from Asuncion (to start my night of CTDs) as the sun sets. After a night of CTDs we got underway for Supply Reef for a half day there, and then to Maug for the afternoon for a ship's crew snorkel!

LegII-Island #3-Pagan

A sweet shot of Pagan from the ship.
Photo by Noah Pomeroy

This island was breathtaking-amazing to see the volcano by day, and then watch gorgeous sunsets by night. of course, the photos don't do it justice but are still a good attempt! We spent three days here and are now in transit to Asuncion.

Check out the arch

Up the Marianas Chain

Follow along as we head up the Marianas Chain, from Saipan (left on April 7th). So far it has been amazing-I will get pictures up soon, my camera is broken so I have to borrow cameras and photos. Next Saipan in port-April 26th-29th. Then we head south towards Guam.

Saipan In Port #1

After 25 days at sea it was wonderful to pull into a port as lovely as Saipan. The people were friendly and the food and drinks wonderful. I got away to the Hyatt for two of the nights and very much enjoyed the luxury of the pool, beach, restaurants, and beach bar (above). Saipan was also a great island to see WWII sites and beautiful scenery in general. We had a nice time out all together downtown as well-fun bars and again, great food. As long as the government keeps functioning we have another in port here April 26th (Happy B day Susan!). For now, we are making our way N up the Marianas Chain and I will post photos soon of the amazing islands we are working around.

A little heaven in front of tropical clear blue water. There was a sand bar to play on in the water. So nice to relax.

A room off of the ship...ahhhhh

My stealth ninja like qualities were very apparent at this WWII fall out shelter

In front of Bird Island

A sweet cave, with gorgeous stalactites, that we climbed all around-can you see me?!? :)

Suicide Cliffs-where many thousands of Japanese civilians jumped to their deaths in the last days of the Battle of Saipan during WWII, in order to take a privileged place in the afterlife for doing so, as offered by Japanese Emperor Hirohito.

The steep hike down to the Grotto.

Just past the rock is where we dove in to swim. Gorgeous blue water and it was a very beautiful cool swim spot.

WAKE ISLAND

I got to go on land to Wake Island just before we left. One of the Air Force guys on the island gave us a great tour in a school bus. The island has a pretty amazing history. Wake was attacked at the same time as Pearl Harbor, ending in the surrender of the American forces to the Japanese on Dec.23, 1941, and the capture of all remaining men on the island. The captured men were kept to perform forced labor, building much of the existing infrastructure. On Oct.3, 1943 the Naval aircraft Yorktown raided Wake and the Japanese Rear Admiral Sakaibara ordered the 98 remaining men, mainly American civilian contractors, executed. Today, the island serves as a fueling station and is managed by the US Air Force. The US Army also has a missile facility. There are many Thai nationals that help maintain the island. We received about 35 of the islanders on the ship for Hi'ialakai tours. They seemed as excited to get off the island for a short while as we were to later get off the ship! Overall, they all seemed pretty happy living on Wake.

This is just one of the many examples of the infrastructure built by the WWII prisoners

This is POW Rock. One of 98 captured civilian workers escaped when the others were massacred by machine gun, and carved this over their mass grave. 5.10.43 is the date they were captured. He was eventually captured and beheaded.

The Thai workers on the island have little hangouts all over called the Beach Houses. Apparently each one is like a neighborhood bar with its own little spin, personality, and food etc.

The bar was closed :(

Fueling next to the aircraft carrier

Thought I would share some photos from when we first left for this trip and went to the fueling pier. We had to snuggle up next to this insane Aircraft Carrier. It was massive and very impressive. I could not fit the entire view in my camera...

The Laysan Island Rescue Mission

Many of you have asked about the rescue the Hi'ialakai just did. I am sorry I do not have better photos of the actual action, but I stayed on the ship and the island was too far for my camera to get good photos. However, I have photos of the launch and return, and can share some details of what the crew did.

We sent two small boats in to get 7 people off the island. Their camp was completely wiped out in the middle of the night. Our one small inflatable boat (called the Avon) went in with a rescue swimmer and he got the people from the beach to the boat-it was too rough to beach the boat. That small boat can not hold many people and took them to another small boat, called Safe Boat, which brought all 7 back to the ship. While they came aboard, the Avon went back and retrieved some possessions the 7 people were able to rescue quickly the night of the tsunami-personal things. My roommate and I received one of the girls from the island and she is sleeping on our floor. Most of them came on with no shoes and wet, so we gave them some clothes (until they got their back packs) and got them settled. They seemed very happy to see fresh food and take warm showers...and sleep! Many of them have understandably had trouble sleeping since the tsunami. Above all though, they wanted internet to let their loved ones know they were safe aboard a ship. Their stories are really amazing and a humbling reminder of how short life is and just how lucky we all are.

We are now in transit to Midway Island, to drop them off tomorrow morning. We have hit some pretty good seas and are rocking a lot right now. Then we will head to our original destination before we got this call, Wake Island, to do some work. In port Saipan after that. I will be sure to keep you all posted! Lots of love, Lauren

Laysan in the background

The Avon, in the foreground, and safe boat headed out for the rescue

Swell coming in the N side of Laysan

Safe boat returning with the weary Laysan group.

Gaetano and Jamie back safely from the mission.