Day 1: Welcome Aboard!

Welcome aboard the Kilo Moana! All ashore! We're taking off.

Life on a ship is foreign to me. I'm currently feeling like a mess in no makeup and I'm trying to navigate a Macintosh. It took me a while just to find the "x" button.

Anyway. Here I will blog all about the RaDyO cruise from an outsider's perspective. My apologies for no links or pictures - I'll develop and post them after the cruise. Please check out my personal blog, Spilled Coffee, if you are interested.

I arrived on board yesterday afternoon and received a brief tour of the boat. Here they use words like galley and starboard, and dinner is at 1700. I bunk with a PhD student named Selda from Turkey who has all kinds of textbooks about light in water. That's what we're studying: radiance.

I admit I know nothing about radiance.

I admit that AP physics was among my least favorite classes in high school.

I admit that I was hoping we were studying something like dolphins or plankton or deep sea vents or even microscopic algae.

But light?

Then I talked with a couple of nerds scientists who told me about their rad equipment that can do things like measure just the very top surface of the water, and I started getting excited.

Then I remembered that media day was canceled, so I am their only means of documentation. Then I started fantasizing about getting this article published. Then somebody told me that next year the Kilo Moana is going to Hawaii (where it's from), and maybe I could come.

Light or no light, I started getting excited.

I ate a massive breakfast.

There is an endless supply of chocolate on board.

So maybe I look like a land-lover who over-packed - so maybe I get seasick - I've brought my notebook, camera, and Dramamine, and I'm ready to sail!

CROSS-POSTED ON SPILLED COFFEE