Hi crew: This will have to be my last picture. We are 100 nautical miles from Honolulu. Yesterday I forgot to mention an important piece of information about working on the JR: everyone works 12-hour shifts. On a typical expedition, most people are midnight to noon or noon to midnight (my favorite shift has always been midnight to noon; a good sunrise always makes the second half of my shift seem to go faster). So besides science, what do we do? We eat!! Because the ship is a hive of activity 24 hours a day, there are meals being served around the clock.

Who needs a watch on your wrist when you’re on the JR because feeding time comes so often. On top of that, there are cookies and breads out at 9 am, 3 pm, 9 pm, and 3 am. And because it’s so easy to eat (a lot!) many of us choose to go to the gym (small, but air-conditioned and well-equipped). All the days would be a blur if it wasn’t for Sundays; that’s when we have a BBQ out on the deck. Unfortunately, we had so much rain and wind on this expedition we only had one outdoor BBQ (the other Sundays were indoors). We also mark the time by weekly boat drills. I hope you’ve enjoyed the string of pictures and captions with a bit of info and story-telling. I’m looking forward to getting back home. I sure hope the snow is gone!! Mark L.