the rat pack

sets off.

July 13th, 2024

I’m a reasonably intelligent person. I read a lot and ask lots of questions. But I did go to animation school, so maybe too much mental real estate is given over to Disney trivia. My little artist brain is currently straining with the amount of interesting things it’s trying to file away in a very short amount of time. Also, government acronyms. There are so many government acronyms in there. So some of my questions are inevitably a little goofy.

When I ask a goofy question people get very quiet before answering. Here are a few of them so far: 

“Do you have any plant biologists on the team?” (I forgot the word “botanist” exists)

“So you’re a marine biologist?” (NO, they shriek. Everyone is a wildlife biologist. Marine biologists are for the open ocean. NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] is in charge of that - the refuge’s jurisdiction stops at the mean tide line)

I’m sure I will have more. One of my goals is to make these silent gaps fewer and further between.

In the morning the rest of the team had arrived, as well as the crew. Everyone is super smart and accomplished and very excited to be here. There’s a mix of USDA, FWS, BLM, many other fun acronyms for my acronym collection. I need to think of an acronym for myself, if anyone has suggestions.

Here is the Rat Pack:

We met the ship’s crew, who alternate day and night shifts. Captain John Faris gave us our safety tour and made us try on the survival suits that hopefully we will never need.

The ship started quietly moving around 11:30am. The Tiglax, bless her heart, is a little taller and choppier than most, and notorious for giving people the yarfs. Lots of us have little scopolamine patches behind our ears to help with nausea. I waited for the pukies to hit but so far so good. (It did give me wicked dry mouth and dilated my pupils so I can’t see up close very well. Worth… it…?)

It IS extremely difficult to walk without lolling drunkenly, and the higher you are in the boat the wobblier it is. My bunk is especially high, but I wouldn’t trade my lil porthole for anything. 

Our cook is Janice, and she is queen of the little galley kitchen. The food on this trip is excellent. Lunch was lentil soup, grilled cheese sandwiches and green salad. There is also bottomless LaCroix and a magic snack drawer that I wish I didn’t know had peanut butter pretzels in it. 

After lunch we had school in the galley. We downloaded our survey and map apps, went over plant ID with Ben, and bear safety with Brie. We’re headed to Kodiak tomorrow morning to look for invasive plants, and it’s one of the very few islands we’ll be visiting that have bears. I have a government ipad that I’m going to do survey work with.

We’re bookin’ it to get to Kodiak for morning. I love watching seabirds from up in the wheelhouse - so far fulmars, but other folks have seen puffins and an albatross, as well as porpoises playing alongside the bow. Hanging out in the galley is also the best, and not only because of the peanut butter pretzels. It’s extremely fun drawing while eavesdropping on biologists talking about their favorite owls. The waves are roller-coaster big at night, but the thing keeping me awake is how excited I am about finally getting into the field tomorrow.