#11. Land Ho!

I am officially off of the R/V Isabu and on land again in Mauritius. It is really nice to be back on land and in connection with the rest of the world. Although it does feel like a dream that I will wake up from any minute now being told that we have arrived at the next station and it is time to collect more samples. 

The last day on the ship, I was working hard to get all of my gear packed into boxes and keeping my samples frozen in coolers. Before I leave the island I will need to ship everything back to Miami via FedEx. My samples will be shipped quickly by air so they remain frozen while the rest of my gear will slowly ship back to the US. It is a bit nerve racking to say goodbye to the samples I have spent the last month collecting and crossing my fingers that they make it back to Miami quickly and still frozen. It would be very heartbreaking to lose the samples, but it is a risk that we take when we do our experiments and take samples from remote locations around the world.  

As soon as my samples arrive in Miami, I will hit the ground running on analyzing everything in the lab. I have managed to collect over 1,750 samples that need to be analyzed in Miami in order to answer the questions we were investigating on the research expedition. This analysis will take quite a while, a few months at least. However, like most things, the earlier I get started working on the analysis, the quicker I will finish and get the results from all of my hard work on the ship. 

In the meantime, I am going to enjoy the short break that I have on the island to relax and recharge before heading back to Miami. Today I splurged and got a wonderful 75 minute massage that was extremely relaxing and everything that I needed. I feel so much better and it is almost like I didn’t just spent a month on a ship working an average of 17 hours a day. 

The above photos include a photos of the science and ship crew from our research expedition, the great group of female scientists from our ship, and the amazing views we had as we arrived back on the island of Mauritius.