As we guide our steadfast sailing vessel across the watery expanse of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, shipboard life teems with energy and excitement. A squall rips through the rigging on dawn watch as we scramble to strike the mains’l. Large, translucent lobster larvae and unidentified purple jellyfish are pulled up from the deep in our net tows

Hi y’all it’s me, Jber, the first Assistant Scientist onboard, and it’s my birthday! I know my parents always think about me a lot on my birthday when I’m at sea, so I always try to write the blog on this day to say hi! Hi Mom! Hi Dad! Plz pet the dog for me.

I was supposed to be assistant steward the very first day on the boat, but since everything was chaos and all of the students, including myself, were still trying to find their sea-legs, I missed my chance. After weeks of waiting, the opportunity finally came again

We officially left Orona! Orona was a fun time as there are all the crazy snorkeling stories from the others. I was able to see coral and sea creatures that I have never seen before and it is amazing. I am really grateful with this experience as life on the boat has challenged me and helped me grow.

Where to even start… Sheesh there are so many things I could write about, but I’ll keep it to just a few: Orona and the stars on the open ocean.

Orona was nothing short of absolutely spectacular, utterly unbelievable.

What an exciting night we had!

As the previous blog posts have mentioned, we anchored at Orona two days ago, and the plan was to stay there until tomorrow morning.

We arrived at Orona yesterday afternoon after an unforgettable time on Kanton.  Today started around 6am with a beautiful sunrise and tasty chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes.  After some quick chores, our watch group packed up the small boat and made our way over to the beach.

As I walk up onto the quarter deck of the ship, the first thing I notice is the raucous clamoring of seabirds. I step into bright sunlight and see Orona off the starboard bow. The azure water crashes in foaming waves over the outer reef a short 50 meters from our anchorage.

We left Kanton yesterday, an absolutely amazing place I’ll never forget. A watch (my watch) was then completely wrecked with dawn watch (0100-0700). Fully exhausted from adventures in Kanton and working to get underway again; it was rough.

Hi Mom! Today is the day we set sail for Orona. My early morning was spent recovering from a long night of performances, dancing, storytelling and a feast I won’t soon forget.  After few hours standing watch my fellow watch mates and I hopped into our Defender (small boat) and headed to a new coral sight recently named “coral plains”, and for good reason.