May 27

Celeste Soliz

As the fishing crew were finishing up there last catches of their extended shift, I ended up collecting little trinkets--- scales and teeth. I was able to obtain scales and a matching jaw set from a Scamp Grouper and one of the biggest Red Snappers Ive ever seen ( which will taste amazing at breakfast, thank you in advanced Doug<3). Just a few new additions to my ever growing bone collection. On another note, the night crew were able to successfully get shipek (surface sediment grabs) samples from several sites, although as Schwing likes to call it I have gotten the " Multi-core bug". Convincing them to do one last multicore setup at DS400 or DS600 was unsuccessful, but a valiant attempt was made. I know a few of us had just gotten used to being on the ship (AKA no more sea sickness!) not  and are ready to tackle any more tasks given, but coming to the realization our time is coming to a close leaves us wanting to stay for the third leg. Additionally, the sleep on the boat is some of the best sleep i have ever gotten, I've never fallen asleep quicker in my life. 

May 27th-28th - night shift shenanigans

Noya Hudkins 

Out of the three days on the cruise, the last day was by far the best, in my opinion. After waking up for my 6pm-6am shift, we had AMAZING asian food, that was the start of a good shift. The fishing crew struggled with one of their tasks, which turned out to be beneficial because we, the mud group, could experience working with them and dissecting the fishes. Hence, I had the chance to learn both about the mud and the fishing tasks. All of this while the sun was setting, leaving a beautiful sunset in the background, leaving its orange and purple colors in the sky for probably an hour after the sun disappeared, incredible.  A couple hours after that, when we finally arrived at our coring site, we got to experience a group of curious dolphins playing around the boat, this is what got me. I got to see this beautiful species swimming in their natural habitat while we worked under the stars and the moon. This might sound cheesy, but it's just how it was. There was a baby dolphin with its mom swimming around the SHIPEK, so cute. While we waited for the SHIPEK to come out, we went to the bow where there was no direct light disturbing our eyes and, thus, we could see the full sky full of stars. It was here when we encountered the group of dolphins again, but this time, they were swimming with the waves that the boat left when moving, waves full of bioluminescence.  An amazing moment to experience.  Although we could not do the multicore during this last shift, it was nice learning how to use the SHIPEK as well. (RIP to the missing ninja in the multicore). 

May 27th-28th. :)