17 Nov 2010 - Hey! That doesn't look like Antarctica.

So what does a scientist do to prepare for a month on a ship in the Southern Ocean ?  That's right, they go to the beach in the tropics. Well, not exactly.  Before I know this cruise was happening, I'd submitted an abstract for the Acoustical Society of America meeting which was held in Cancun, Mexico.  So I flew down there for a short (48 hour) trip to give a presentation on some research our group did in Cape Cod Bay looking at right whales and zooplankton distributions. I was able to meet with some colleagues and collaborators, but this picture (which was taken at breakfast on monday) was the only time I got to spend on the beach as the rest of the time I was inside the hotel listening to other talks.

Our group is running around frantically trying to make sure we've packed everything we need. I'm also giving the department seminar on friday and have some lectures to prepare for tomorrow so it's pretty busy here. Stay tuned for more updates later on and we'll try to have daily blog posts once the cruise starts on Nov 25th.