Hawaii

"This morning I woke up in The Barn in Woods Hole, on Cape Cod, and now here I am in Hawaii." Tanner's description conveniently leaves out the very long day of travel to get between those two locations. But yes, here we are. On Saturday, upon arriving in Honolulu, we headed straight to Sand Island to see the warehouse housing fifteen pallets of scientific equipment that we had shipped over the last several weeks.

Sunday started with an early return trip to Sand Island, this time to see our home for the next two weeks, as the Kilo Moana came into port from a Hawaiian Ocean Time Series (HOTs) cruise. Upon hearing the HOTs expedition's warning to chew our food well, we then headed to the North Shore of Oahu to check out the Pacific surf for ourselves. Indeed, the waves were substantial, so we're hoping for some truth in Monday's radio report that the trade winds have dropped considerably.

Today has been quite the day, beginning at Sand Island at 0700 to start loading the ship! Pallets moved from the warehouse to the dock, where the ship's crane picked them up. Once on board, equipment and supplies quickly disappeared to the various labs, where their owners strapped them down, secured for the rocking of the seas. OTG, the Ocean Technical Group, was invaluable, from developing a system to hold 15 nitrogen tanks to providing eye bolts to screw down equipment. The chef's lunchtime work contributed to the good spirits even as the list of supplies to be purchased at Home Depot grew. The evening was capped with a scientific crew group dinner at the lovely La Mariana yacht club. The crew settled in early for the first night aboard the K-M, anticipating an action packed morning of last minute purchases and unpacking before leaving port at 1200 tomorrow.