Well hello there. Over the next three months I'm going to be going from Japan to Australia and New Zealand... via 2 months spent on a big boat in the North Pacific. I'm part of the scientific team for IODP Expedition 324, which aims to sample deep basement rocks from a giant underwater volcanic-plateau called 'Shatsky Rise'. Should you be interested, you can follow what I'm up to here...

Tuesday 1 September 2009

Ready for the off

Morning campers.
It's 8.30am on the day of my departure, the cab gets here in an hour and, predictably enough, I'm not even remotely ready.

I have no idea what you pack for 3 months away, when you'll be on two separate continents and in at least 3 different climatic zones (probably including "typhoon", which will be a new one on me). Now I'd like to think I'm a pretty sensible person, so the top things on my to-bring list were obviously:

Series two of The Wire,
My hilariously funny "I'm on a boat" T-shirt,
6 gallons of TRESemme,
Enough Green & Blacks to sink the ship.

So yeah, fully prepared. hmm...

Off to Tokyo this morning for a whistlestop 2 day visit to the city. I'll try not to get horribly lost/ abducted/ go native and forget to leave. Hopefully boarding the ship at Yokohama on the 5th and then off we go!

I have nothing sciencey to add yet, although I'm pretty sure i'll have to bend the space-time continuum to get all my stuff in this rucksack.
For the moment you'll just have to content yourself with this:



It's all you're going to hear about for 2 months so get used to it.

Toodle pip x

2 comments:

  1. You'll find season 2 of the wire very appropriate given you're on a boat.

    Tamryn x

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  2. You're so right! I do feel like i'm trapped in an airless freight container sometimes too. I'm rationing myself so that it lasts the whole voyage...with mixed success.

    x

    ReplyDelete