My name is Madison Alstede. I’m originally from West Springfield, MA and I’m currently going into my senior year at the University of New Hampshire studying Earth Sciences with a concentration in Oceanography. I’m very excited to be joining the ADEON crew on this leg of their cruise and broadening my oceanographic experience. The sunsets on the transit to our first site have been beautiful. They look almost picturesque: a watercolor painting of blues, pinks and oranges.

As we left Puerto Rico, the color of the water changed from a pale green to the same color of a royal blue crayon. I have never seen water that blue. It’s astounding that so much life lives in these waters that I will soon witness during our marine mammal watches. While preparing for our upcoming marine mammal watch, we used the grid located inside our binoculars to gauge the distance each marine mammal will be.  It’s crazy how far the eye can see on the ocean! Up to 2 km! The ocean is so vast and unexplored.