by Hello friends on land!
The first night on the ship was a little more eventful than the six hour drive from Savannah, Georgia to Panama City, Florida. I was super nervous about being on a ship for more than a few hours, due to the fact that I have never been on a ship ever, for this long, and I am really sensitive to motion sickness. The crew and my colleagues were very supportive and encouraging about how it will get better with being sea sick. Despite the fear of being sick the whole time, I am very excited to have the opportunity to be on this cruise and learn a lot of new things. We arrived July 24 about 1630 h for a tour, unload bags/equipment, meet the crew, and grab some food for the week. As we grilled dinner on the deck, the crew set up some crab traps and rods for us to use. We had caught about five female blue crabs, a few catfish, and a snapper. On the 25th the ship was fueled up and we departed about 1130 h. We had received our schedules for our work shifts and preformed a run-through. The first couple hours were great the water is pretty calm and no feeling of sickness. Once I reached the end of my shift the sickness hit. Everyone is adjusting to their sea legs which we will see how it turns out for tomorrow. There was nothing too exciting in the water samples we had collected during the first shift except Patrick and Nat both caught a Skip jack. Hopefully we will get some interesting things soon!
-Gina H.
