SEA – Robert C. Seamans

MFT: Our boat & Coco Frio
LFP: Lack of sleep

Hallo! So I’m finally here in Tahiti and better yet, I’m with SEA. As I said the plane took forever with a lack of sleep (sadly). Then we waited in customs line for a while (mostly because it was a really big full plane with only 3 customs officials). I managed to get all my baggage and get through customs and immigration pretty quickly. I then had to wait around for everyone else (all 20 people) to make it through. Luckily everyone made it through to Tahiti with no trouble except for Dominique whose luggage didn’t make it. We then all loaded up in 4-5 cabs (soooo much luggage) and drove to the pier. Our boat is gorgeous and very well designed. I have a bottom bunk near the galley (on a hallway to the galley). After coming on board we had a fantastic snack: fresh mango, maracuya (passionfruit), guanabana (sour sop), carambola (star fruit), and iced coffee! Sooo yummy to be eating tropical fruits again. Then we had a brief orientation. All the students know each other because they’ve been taking classes together for the last 3-4 weeks at Woods Hole. All the staff knows each other. Luckily you learn people’s names pretty fast.

We were then assigned to watch groups (I’ll explain that in a bit) and I’m number 14 in watch B. After the introductions we were told to pack lunches and go explore Papeete! Mostly I had to find a hardware store and buy supplies. This took a while! I managed to find two different hardware stores but none of them had shovels (so I can dig trenches). I also couldn’t find any electric tape but hopefully I’ll have enough for the 6 weeks. The best part was buying a cold coco frio (young coconut water). I then spent a couple of hours dealing with emails and making sure all my equipment was put away and ok. I bought a wifi card that I can use at hotspots around French Polynesia. So far it works very well!

We had a couple of meetings in the afternoon explain about the watch system. The watch system is very strange. We have 5 watches a day: two during the day of 6 hours each, and 3 at night of 4 hours each. There are 3 watches groups and you get one watch on and two watches off. This means that after 3 days we repeat a watch. It also means that sleep is very strange more like 4 hour shifts. Hopefully this will work out but the lack of sleep and lack of showers may do me in sadly….


The evening we went out to these local food trucks, which had FUN food. I just grabbed some pasta and came back to the boat to read/eat/charge electronics and then passed out at 8 pm after a quick shower.  It might be my last chance to get a full 8 hours of sleep so I’m glad I slept quickly. Enjoy the photos!




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