From Adam to Earth Scientists in Training

Dear Earth Scientists in Training,

I left College Station in early March to go meet our ship the JOIDES Resolution. Since you and all of your classmates had a fun field trip to IODP and learned about what we do at the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, I wanted to share some stories and pictures of the adventure I am having right now on the ship.

I’m really, really busy out here, but I will try to send you some information and pictures at least every couple of days.  I met the ship in Honolulu, Hawaii on the 5th of March. I didn’t have much time to play before the ship arrived but here is a picture one of the scientists took at the North Shore of Oahu where people surf some of the biggest waves.

Here is a picture one of the scientists took while touring around Hawaii before he met the ship. Hawaii is a very warm, wet place and plants grow very nicely here.                                                                                                                                 

 Here is a picture of the ship at the dock in Honolulu Harbor with a few of the things we need to load onto the ship.

The ship stayed here for only 5 days - we had to work really hard to load the ship with all the drilling equipment, instruments and supplies for the laboratories, food, and gasoline (diesel) we need for being at sea for two months.

Once we leave out to the ocean, we won’t be back on land for 56 days at sea. There is no Home Depot to go to in case you need something.

Here's a picture of the ship in Honolulu Harbor.  Since we are going to spend 56 days on the ship before we come back to land, many of the people went shopping for their favorite things to bring along before we left.

What would you take on such a long time on the ship? Among the most favorite items that people bring are snack foods like chips, candy, chocolate, tea, and coffee, books to read, music to listen to (almost everyone has an ipod), movies on DVD to watch, computers with games, and pictures of family, friends, and pets. 

I brought lots of coffee, many pictures of my daughter and our family doing fun things (like wakeboarding), lots of music, and my guitar. Here we are getting on the ship. We have to walk up the stairs that are called the “gang plank”.

We left Hawaii on 10 March (about a month ago). Here is a picture of the ship leaving Honolulu Harbor with the help of a tug boat.

Here is the tug boat "Mikoi" that helped guide the ship out of the harbor.  Tug boats are amazing. They look so small, but  push and pull enormous ships like ours with no trouble at all.

Here is a picture of me on the ship at sea just after it left the harbor. It has been a long time since I’ve been to sea (about 4 years) and I am very happy to be on the ocean again. The ocean is a VERY special part of the Earth (about 3/4 of
 the surface of the earth!) and I am very lucky to be able to spend time out here.

Here are a couple other pictures taken when we were leaving. The first one shows some other scientists enjoying going out to sea.

Here is a picture of Diamond Head (and extinct volcano) in Honolulu. It is very near where Ann and I lived when we lived in Hawaii. We lived there from 1987-1991 when I was working on my Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii and Ann was working at the Bishop Museum.

Diamond Head is all the way to the right. This is the last land I will see for two months. Some people started to get sea sick from the motion of the ship right around the time this picture was taken – some of them “fed” the fish. They felt better after a couple of days.  Can you find Hawaii on a map? It’s way out in the Pacific Ocean more than 2000 miles west of Mexico City.

Below is a series of photos I took that as the ship left port. The buildings are in the City of Oahu, State of Hawaii; Diamond Head is on the far right.