As I’m writing this post we are officially in transit back to homeport. I think most of us have very mixed feelings about concluding this trip. On one hand, everyone is anxious to get home to see their friends and family, on the other, we’re sad to be leaving this little ship family (Familyship?). While there is a gym available in the transducer room, nothing can come close to the intensity of the abs workout I’ve gotten from laughing with these people for 12+ hours a day.
It all started when a scientist went out on the stern to take some photos. The camera that we use to keep an eye on our deployments was projected to the monitors in the lab. We commented on how sweet she looked taking photos of the sunset, then we hit a swell and in the blink of an eye, the ocean had baptized her. She walked back into lab to tell us what happened, oblivious to the fact that we had all witnessed the #epicfail.
And it has only continued since. Tony, Hilary, and I got splashed while trying to watch dolphins. We fail every night in our attempt NOT to eat dessert. We fall over every morning as Hilary leads us through a sunrise salutation, no matter the sea conditions. In the evening, getting to the gym is a workout itself, and we start to sweat just standing in there.
There have been countless games of Monopoly Deal that ended in menacing laughter. We sent cups down to extreme pressures to make them tiny, and in an attempt to have them retain their shape, we stuffed them with paper towels; if you stuff them too much, they split (RIP the cat/mouse cup). Just yesterday, Hilary was holding a measuring tape and a cup of tea and the measuring tape somehow ended up in her cup of tea.
Through this, we’ve all come together as a team to accomplish some incredible science. Not only am I literally rolling on the floor laughing some days, I’m also constantly inspired by this group of people. I’ll definitely be sad to see it all come to a close, but I’m also so thankful to have been a part of this trip!
By Kenzie Meier
