Palmyra Atoll

Got to get on land! Was a lovely hour of sitting on the beach. We are now transiting back to Honolulu, in some rocking seas, but the excitement of getting in makes it all OK.

Ah, Tisa's...

Only three things were allowed at this table-girls, margaritas, and pina colidas. OK, we let the boys join eventually. One last night out before we get back out and start working.

Not a Bad Snorkel Spot

Full Moon Rise Over the Pacific

Tutuila Sunset Last Night

We are back out at sea, working around American Samoa (the island is named Tutuila) until Sunday night. Last night in the midst of doing CTDs I got a treat-this sunset. Of course I was running around working so this is a stolen photo! Thanks to Ben for a great shot.

Some American Samoa Shots

The Umu

You can see Tisa and CandyMan divvying out the amazing food that had been cooking on the hot rocks covered in banana leaves for hours. My favorite was the octopus and the meat eaters felt bad and gave me all theirs! Lovely night. Complete with margaritas.

Yum Yum

Going to Tisa's tonight for an Umu!
SO excited, the food is amazing. I will post some pics soon!

Yet So Far Away...

We have arrived at Tutuila (American Samoa) early; we expected to get in tomorrow (Sun) early morning but ended up making good time and getting here this (Sat) afternoon. Unfortunately, the port is not expecting us. So, we stay out and gaze upon the island until tomorrow around 10am. Then...we got to the fuel pier, then transit to the pier where we will be tied up, THEN we have to clear customs (got me...AMERICAN Samoa, right?!?). So, by the time I can set foot on land it will be late afternoon. Tis OK, no big plans except to grab a drink and some food. Still, have not been on land in 27 days as of tomorrow. It does not help that in this picture lies Tisa's Barefoot Bar. Ahhh Tisa's. (See 2010 posts)

Room With a View

OK Chrissy, you asked for it. Here is my stateroom. But this is when we were in port. Now I have an awesome roommate, so between the two of us we have way more stuff in here and she is on that top bunk (but I have a nice new flatscreen hanging up!). I LOVE my room because of the way it is shaped; long so I can do yoga, and it feels roomy. Many of the other rooms are in an L shape. I also love that I am on the 01 deck, which means I have a pretty nice window and not just a porthole. You can see I have put some of my little touches on it-rug etc. We share a head with the two man stateroom next door. Not too bad for a ship!

Bling

Sailor gifts are the best! Real coral on a hand stitched necklace.

Howland Island

Two days down at Howland Island, two days left before we transit to Baker. Howland is a mile and a half long and a half mile wide; a thin, flat stretch of white sand. Many islands we go to have reefs that keep us from getting too close, but Howland has such a steep drop-off that the ship is able to get pretty close. It is gorgeous, but sadly Amelia Earhart missed it, and she was never seen again. However, standing tall out of the island's greenery is a lighthouse constructed in her memory.

Some of the divers come back early and work on the stern in the "baby box." Kerry, Russel, and Jesse are hard at work here finding critters that have been collecting on plates they put down when we were here two years ago. I got to play with some cool shrimp, brittle stars, and crabs from this particular one.

My awesome roomie, Kaylyn, gets to dive everyday we are at an island, while I stay on the ship. The divers come back in the late afternoon with amazing stories of all they saw that day. She shared these photos with me of some amazing marine life at Howland.

Thanks again to Kaylyn for this gorgeous photo from one of her dives

My mom's a good luck charm

My mom wrote me an email last night that she and my dad were going out for sushi. She said, "Lucky you, you can get sushi right outside of your room." I wrote her that we never get sushi on here. We get Mahi and Ono from time to time but they get cooked up (and they are AWESOME). Once on here, a while ago, we had a bloody little tuna, but not true ahi sushi. Well, that changed today! Fish on! And it was a nice sized Ahi!

The above photo is another catch, an Ono, being dissected...a mackerel head in its' stomach, and you may be able to see the two little parasites crawling around. According to the fish biologist pictured, that is healthy. I watched this dissection as I was chewing my piece of Ahi sushi, about 1/2 hour before dinner...now that is what I call a pupu! Then for dinner-Mahi that had been caught the day prior!

And here is Danny, enjoying the sushi!

In transit to Howland and Baker islands (they are very close to each other). We will be working there from the 11th-16th. For the past few days the seas have been rockin-I am not sure if that is captured in this picture that I just snapped. We are doing the pinball dance down the hallways. This view is off the stern, and you can see a few of our small boats, which are launched every operations day for the divers to go do their work in shallower areas, where the ship can't go. All is well but transit days can seem long..and of course sometimes ops days seem too tiring. So I am trying to embrace the downtime while we have it!

My CTD (...my bread and butter) has been acting up this cruise. Here is the Electronics Tech coming to my rescue; he found a damaged wire inside the winch and is replacing it here. We won't know if this was the main culprit until we can put her in the water...hopefully in a couple of days-we're in transit now. And you thought it was all dolphins and pretty coral... :)

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