Day 2: Life on a Boat

After two full days, I'm just starting to get acclimated to shipboard life. Based on warnings from those in the know, I'd been bracing myself for seasickness now that we're through the Straits. Luckily conditions are good so I'm not getting bounced around like I thought I would, and I don't seem to have any problems with the ship's gentle rolling. Instead of seasick, I just feel discombobulated. Attempting to live on something that isn't stationary feels like someone has taken the world and rotated it about 10 degrees off kilter. The little things, like getting dressed in the morning, or taking a shower, or even just sitting on a stool and typing this don't feel routine like they should, I suspect because a large chunk of my brain is now entirely tied up with keeping me vertical.

Everyone on the ship is incredibly busy getting ready for the research we'll do at Hydrate Ridge. I've spent a good few hours over the past two days as an extra set of arms helping Evan set up his flow meters, which involved a lot of troubleshooting on his part and holding of various plastic tubes on mine. We're expected to arrive in Gray's Harbor at around 21:00, which will be in the middle of my watch, so I might get to witness ROPOS in action when it retrieves the seismometer, though hopefully conditions won't be like they were last night and I'll see more than a just a screen full of marine snow.