25 June – Return to Shore.  Joe  Warren, Chief Scientist.

Well, the three weeks have flown by (or more accurately sailed by), and we have returned to land at the University of Rhode Island. We finally got some poor weather so the past two days have been a transit through some lumpy seas, but we were able to get all our science mission accomplished this trip PLUS lots of extra sampling as well since we had good weather for most of the trip.

Now the packing is finishing up, loading gear, running to get rental cars, and cleaning our rooms and labs so that the next scientists who will board the boat have a clean ship for themselves. Everybody at this point is ready for home-cooked food, a cold refreshing beverage, and (for some of us) the burden of mowing a lawn that has grown and grown and grown for the past 23 days (ugh).

I’d like to thank all the people in the science party of EN615 and the Captain and crew of the RV Endeavor and the URI ship office for making this cruise a great success. And the scientists of the cruise before ours who let us put our gear on the boat before they left the dock, so we didn’t have to ship everything to Puerto Rico. Now we can start looking at the data, finish processing samples, share photos of sunrises and sunsets with our family and friends, and start getting ready for our next cruise – which is in 6 months (back aboard the RV Endeavor!). Thanks for following our trip.