Greetings!

Welcome to the JR blog for those who are new and also we welcome old friends. We are very excited to have you following our expedition and extremely excited to be here!

Early this morning (or late last night for us nigh shifters) we embarked on our two month adventure at sea. Expedition 351 along with its counterpart legs- Expedition 350 and Expedition 352, look to provide some revolutionary insights into Island Arc formation. For those who might not be familiar with the formation of island arcs that’s quite alright, there will be plenty more to come on that in the next two months!

Currently all scientists and crew are beginning to get on shifts. Most of the scientist party are working 00:00-12:00 or 12:00-00:00, crew and staff mainly follow the same schedule and a few of us are working the 06:00-18:00 or 18:00-06:00 shift in order to overlap with both crews. Seas have been a bit rough, though life is very comfortable onboard the fully stocked JR. Laden down there is only a gentle roll- which was quite nice when trying to fall asleep this afternoon.

Operations are turning towards planning for the first run of drill pipe and the A-Hole, with planning meetings on the docket tomorrow we will be thoroughly prepared come Saturday when we arrive on location. The excitment is already here as scientists and staff anxiously await the arrival of Expediton 351’s first cores.

Looking forward to the next two months as we have a great science party and a fantastic crew.

Cheers,

Mike