25 November – Happy Thanksgiving!

Today at 1400, we officially embarked on our voyage.  Before we were able
to leave, all of the lab’s gear needed to be tied down.  We’re
expecting to hit pretty rough seas within the next 24 hours and do not want
any of our equipment to be at risk.  Yesterday we organized all of the
smaller, loose gear into labelled drawers and today we tied down the larger
instruments, such as microscopes, using parachute and bungee cord.

We must also prepare ourselves for the ominous seas.  We have all taken
sea-sickness medicine (except for Joe) and are encouraging each other to stay hydrated.

Wolfie, Stony Brook University’s mascot encourages us to drink lots of water!

While it may look funny, it is
important, as these suits could save our lives in an emergency

We also had a safety briefing today, where we learned about safety
protocol. We were guided to the lifeboat launch stations to see where to go
in the case of an emergency warranting the need to abandon ship.   There
are many lifeboats on the ship, two that hold 44 people, and five smaller
ones.  I found this impressive as there are only about 35 of us on board;
this is just one example demonstrating how everyone on board has safety as
their number one priority.  After the meeting, we took the time to try on
our survival suits (also known as immersion or gumby suits).

While we are all enjoying ourselves and excited for the adventure ahead, I
felt homesick eating Thanksgiving dinner thousands of miles from home, but
not due to lack of food.  We ate massive amounts of turkey, stuffing,
mashed potatoes, and numerous desserts including pumpkin pie, apple pie,
apple cranberry clobber, and peach clobber, which left us smiling and
thankful for our family, friends, and new shipmates.

- Katie