So it took me just under 30 hours to travel 10,715 miles to the Faleolo airport in Samoa, and I had good luck the entire trip! Being a tall guy it is difficult to be comfortable on airplanes. However, thanks to the recent winter storm a lot of people couldn’t make it to their flights so there were lots of open seats with leg room! My favorite part of the plane rides was definitely watching the sunrise over the tropical Pacific. I also thoroughly enjoyed Air New Zealand’s “safety video” which was directed by Peter Jackson and featured characters from the Lord of the Rings. My day in the clouds couldn’t have been any better!
Once I landed the heat and humidity hit me like a train! It was around noon and the sun had cooked the Samoan air to a balmy 90 degrees, and with the 95% humidity it felt like 100 degrees! The airport was only large enough to handle one plane at a time which made us passengers feel like royalty when we walked off the plane. There was a crowd of people waiting for us and soon two crew members and I were driving to the ship.
The first two things that struck me about Samoan culture is that they drive on the left side of the road and the men wear long dresses. Once I got used to that, I looked around and noticed that most of the houses didn’t have any walls at all! Instead, they had lots of pillars and a large roof. It makes for very good ventilation, I guess.
Upon further investigation of the island I observed a large number of stray dogs. Apparently they run the place. Everyone puts their trash up on stilts so that the dogs can’t make a mess of it.
After an hour drive, we finally arrived at the ship, and it felt as though I had found an old friend. I walked onboard and recognized the famous cooks of the ship: Terrance, Sarah, and India. Before I even got a room assigned to me Terrance, ‘Grey’ and I hopped on some bikes and rode to a beach with an amazing coral reef! We saw a sea snake, sea turtle, crown of thorns, some bright blue starfish and even the fin of a little reef shark. I was amazed at how much colorful biota lives under the surface!
The next few days in the Samoan port were extremely rainy and consisted of learning different computer systems that control and record the arsenal of sensors aboard the ship. The co-chief scientist, John, asked me to help him put a custom mount for his sensors on the big steel cage that houses the CTD. With the help of one of the Marine Techs, Jason, I was able to make it work exactly how John wanted it. After working on that, Jason and I went strolling through town and got lunch and a final haircut before leaving for a whopping total of $10!
Then we left port on Friday January 10th around dinnertime. I had been naïve enough to not take any sea sickness medication, and the first day of transiting involved some pretty rough seas. I was incapacitated for almost the entire day. However, once we got to our first station the seas calmed down significantly and now I’m better than ever! Wish me continued luck with the weather for this next week!
PS. I’ve had no luck uploading pictures, but I will keep trying!