Packing for the trip started at 6 a.m. with us loading roughly 100 crates, weights, gas tanks, and other odds and ends into vans. The Duke contingent of researchers arriving from Durham around 7 a.m. to help out. Most of the materials had been packed over the past week and checked over multiple times, so that we didn't forget any equipment. That pretty much left a lot of heavy lifting to get everything in the half a dozen vans.
We were on the road by 10 a.m. and soon arrived at Goldboro for a much needed lunch break. Spirits were very high thanks to the good barbecue at Wilburs and we got a chance to get to know the Duke scientists a little better. Everyone is excited to escape their offices, labs, and TA duties for the next 10 days to get out and do some research.
We get to the dock near Beaufort around 2 and begin the unpacking process. Half of us unload while the other half aboard the ship begin lashing down the gear to keep it from moving while we're out at sea. After dinner, everything is on board and tied down, lab set up begins. The ship left port at eight as we continued to prepare for the samples we'll begin taking at the station tomorrow.
I need to get some sleep since I've been assigned to the midnight to noon shift throughout the trip, so I will begin processing samples tomorrow morning when we reach the station. I get the first stint in my bunk, which I'll be sharing with another scientist, my fellow UNC Ph.D candidate Sanjay Kapadia, who is on the noon to midnight shift. I need to be out of my bunk by 4:30 a.m. to ensure he too can get enough sleep.
