Leaving Hao — almost done!

MFT: Almost back to land!
LFP: Dinner

Hallo everyone, so we are back sailing. We have left our last port stop (Hao) and our heading back towards Papeete. B watch was assigned to morning watch, so we were on watch as we pulled up anchor and left port. I was manning the CHIRP as always in lab. It was interesting to see the bottom bathymetry of the lagoon as we exited the atoll. Its funny that during anchor setting and pulling up, the students have the least to do but we still have to be on watch. Mostly it consists of us standing around (since we are not allowed to sit while on watch) staying out of the way of the staff. The crew on the other hand are very busy and focused on keeping us all safe (and not running aground for instance!).

Once we finally left Hao, life was back to sea watches and normal activity. We had our last regular hydrocast right off of Hao outside the lagoon. I got to be the driver again (instead of being data cop like normal) and got to run the winch that pays out the wire for the carousel. The best part? My lab watch mate, Melissa, brought be cold Pamplemousse (a wonderful Polynesian fruit)  to eat while standing in the sun watching the winch. It takes about 40 minutes to deploy the hydrocast to 600 m depth. It was a sunny day overall and we’ve had pretty good weather. Not too much wind so sailing has been slow but we motor periodically to make some distance. The best part of last night was the moon bow. It’s just a rainbow but made from the moon. Sadly I didn’t get any pictures of it — but it was a gorgeous end to evening.


We have only another 5 days till the trip is over! Till then I’ll be enjoying the sunsets, sunrises, moon bows, and stars. I’ll also be enjoying the countdown of cleanups (as in only 1 more galley clean up left and 2 more dawn cleanups!). Last field day is going to be a doozy (we will clean for almost the entire day apparently) but that is on Saturday, our last day before Papeete. Hope you enjoyed the pictures from Mangareva! 

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