Well, it is our second day at sea and things are going great! Yesterday after leaving Pearl Harbor, a Coast Guard helicopter conducted training operations with the boat, lowering a basket down to the deck to simulate an evacuation. Unfortunately I saw none of this, as all scientific personnel aboard were instructed to stay in the mess hall so as to stay out of the way... We're steaming along at about 11 knots, and the crew have fishing lines trailing out the back 24/7. The ship is a diesel/electric drive, meaning that the main propellors are powered by electric motors, using power produced by diesel generators.... I was talking to the captain at dinner and he gave me all the stats on the ship: approx 220 feet long, 43 foot beam, 15 foot draft. Fuel capacity is 163,000 gallons of diesel, and at full bore the ship only burns 1% per day. Last night at sunset, we passed to the south of Kauai, and Niihau was barely visible as the sun went down. This morning we passed Nihoa Island, a 900 foot rock that is the second to last of the higher Hawaiian Islands. It is a huge seabird nesting location, so we were seeing lots of seabirds skimming around including tropicbirds, red-footed boobies, and numerous petrels of unidentifiable species.. It was barely visible on the horizon, as the ship passed several miles to the south. These days in transit to and from the islands are very laid back. No real duties except eating, reading, watching movies and sitting on the flybridge snapping photos... The food is awesome- we have an allstar cook and baker aboard, so there are always homemade desserts, etc. I feel like a kid in the candy store....
Our first stop will be Tern Island at French Frigate Shoals atoll....
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