Blog entry by AJ Lefevre

The trip is now officially worth it.  I was about to quit counting and try to get some sleep when Wendy asked for some help labeling tubes.  We were just finishing when Kathy came in and told us we should go out to see the Southern Cross.  (We haven't made it outside much this entire trip.)  It is so dark out and the stars are beautiful.  Wendy and I were chatting at the front of the ship (is that the bow?  I should know that...) watching spots of bio luminescence  in the waves.  Then we saw a big stream of the light come toward the ship.  We could only see the glowing outline of the animal in the black water as it swam just in front of the ship.  Soon another one joined.  We decided they were dolphins, as they were making the squeaky, chattery noises generally associated with dolphins (or porpoises).  They stayed swimming with the ship for quite some time.  We wanted to go tell other people (anyone who was awake), but didn't really want to leave them.  We watched them for several minutes, then decided we had to tell everyone else.  By the time we got other people and got back outside, the ship was stopping for a box core station and the dolphins were gone.

As for our project, we arrived at our last station this morning around 2:30am.  We took our t=0 samples, Wendy did chlorophylls and I did slides.  We went on our shore excursion, where we saw lots of sea lions and marine iguanas.  So, our last batch of incubations will be done tomorrow morning while we are on watch, 4-8 am.  (Yay!)  I am about halfway through (20) the slides that I am expected to have counted (40) by the time we leavethe ship (out of 120 total). Right now we are on station for Allison's box core.  She has been doing mapping all day.

 Okay, I need to sleep.

 -AJ

PS -Thank you all for your support!