While each and every JOIDES Resolution expedition is unique in its own ways, Expedition 372 takes uniqueness to a whole other level. After 4 days in port and 2 days offshore of Australia getting our hull cleaned, we are finally in transit to our study area off the east coast of the north island of New Zealand. What’s so unique about that?…We have a roughly two-week transit across the Southern Ocean and Tasman Sea to get there! This means that the everyone on the ship has more down-time than other expeditions typically have. Our expedition is also a bit unique because we’ll be at sea over the holidays, which means no traditional “home for the holidays” for everyone on the ship.

Check out some of the fun ways we occupy our free time and prepare for the holiday season here on Expedition 372:

* What do you do when you have free time on a big and super cool research ship? Ship tours, of course! These tours will help us get really well-acquainted with our home for the next month. Hopefully we’ll get some additional tips on how to find our way around because we sometimes still get lost in the maze of decks and passageways…

* Every JOIDES Resolution expedition has a unique expedition “patch” or logo. We already have the one you see on our expedition webpage but what would an expedition be without a little logo-designing competition? And going hand-in-hand with this is the t-shirt design contest! At the end of the expedition it is tradition to decorate t-shirts. Everyone on the ship is invited to submit their best designs! Take a look at some of the designs from past expeditions, which comprise the artwork we walk by every day in the main ship stairwell…

* As a scientist who loves to do education and outreach, I can attest to how important it is to be able to communicate science and research in a way that non-experts can understand. We decided to have a competition to test the skills of the scientists of Expedition 372 on communicating their science and research using only the 1000 most common words in the English language. Luckily a bunch of them are up for the challenge…

* The holidays are just around the corner – Christmas is almost here! What does that mean with regards to preparations aboard the JOIDES Resolution? Holiday decorating has begun, and it’s time to sign up for the Holiday Gift Exchange (i.e., Secret Santa) and Christmas show. These fun traditions are open to everyone – the science party, tech staff, and ship’s crew. I wonder what my Holiday Gift will be?
Hopefully we’ll get to see some great talents and showmanship at the Christmas show this year! These are but some of the ways that those on the ship make it seem more like home for the holidays…