May 21 - Hazel Schaub

Goodness, today was a huge day! I am currently curled up in my bunk, most of the boat party is asleep and the boat is rocking us into a deep slumber. We departed this morning at 08:00 from USF/FIO's campus and embarked on our 27 hour transit to our first site. We had an active first hour with safety briefings and run-throughs of deploying equipment. But then, much of the day was spent napping, bracelet making, dozing, reading, catching some zs, eating (great food), shut eye, and fishing. I filtered our first set of radioisotope water for 3.5 hours and that felt nice to get into the lab. Emma S and Helena D finished the list of chores at 10:00. Before we even got out of Tampa Bay. Everyone else slept most of the morning, but in the afternoon, Yasmin K caught a 25lbs king mackerel! Captin J. will be smoking it for a dip tomorrow. I spent an hour before dinner watching a juvenile brown boobie catching flying fish and sitting on our boat anchor. We arrive at our first site tomorrow at 12:30, watches start at 07:00 and we will continue to work throughout the night! Overall, it was a peaceful day, it's beautiful out here and the stars are pretty spectacular.

To see videos of the mackerel catch and the boobie, follow us on innstagram and facebook @eckerdsas!