GO-SHIP P02: Departure from Guam

As we said goodbye to GuamIntroducing Mariana Aguirre (she/her), one of our CTD Watchstanders, reporting on our cast off day! Finally the much anticipated day of departure! Everyone is euphoric, checking to make sure everything is secured and locking drawers so that equipment doesn’t go flying around. It all started at 10am when the tug boat showed up with our pilot. Small next to us but still big! These boats can push ships 20x the size they are. Everyone is gathered to watch the excitement. In Photo 3, you can see your blog host, Sidney, in the top right corner in the back as well as Carol Gonzalez in yellow, and David Cooper in green. Pilots help ships navigate in and out of harbors. The bridge between us and the dock (called a gangway) and the ropes were removed – our last connection with the pier; and off we go!

We sailed for a few minutes in the harbor before our first quick stop to rescue our friends Shuwen and Star, who had been stuck in the hotel until the ship left the Navy Base. Rescue was successful—you can see Star climbing up the ladder to board in Photo 1! After they finally got on board, we headed toward the open ocean. In Photo 2, you can see Sara Gray, Abby Tinari, and Steffi O’Daly (left to right) saying goodbye to Guam.  The water was an incredibly dark blue color and we were able to see some flying fish (!!) and possibly a sun-fish; great start! We had our always-delicious lunch, and then we had some drills where we learned what to do in case of a fire, how to abandon the ship, and how to put on the peculiar emergency suit. Next stop: station 1 after two days steaming. There we’re doing a cast to test the equipment and to train our CTD Watchers (that’s me!).

And that’s all folks! Wish us luck!