Greetings from Guam

Hello everyone, and greetings from Guam!

I'm back on terra firma for another 18 hours or so, then we ship off again for Leg 2 of my research cruise. The first leg was pretty fun - pretty bad weather, all in all - windy and big swells, but we still managed to have 30 sightings of large baleen whales (sei whales, Bryde's whales), sperm whales, small dolphins (spotted dolphins, melon headed whales, and bottlenose dolphins). Also saw a shark and manta ray! It's pretty hard to see a lot when it's so choppy though. Oh and lots of cool tropical seabirds!

Life at sea is good - all of the scientists and crew are great - very laid back and fun to be around. I've learned a lot and made some new friends. It's also nice to be out here and have a chance to reflect on life, since staring at the great blue ocean kind of prompts one to become reflective.

Anyhow, it's all good. Spent the last couple days in Guam at the beach swimming and snorkeling, partying and emailing (362 emails to read/delete!). Guam is pretty much a tourist destination for the Japanese, and as such there's tons of good sushi, karaoke, and strip clubs (not that I'd know about that part!). Anyhow, it's nice for the break, but the ocean is where it's at, man...

Please peruse the blog - there's lots of random photos and ramblings from me. I'm working on getting some better info for my next update. I'll be back in port Feb 27 or so, and will update more then! In the meantime, keep the emails up (kahana@stratosnet.com while I'm at sea - with my name in the subject). I'm thinking of you and missing you, and can't wait to see you all is person soon!

~beth