I started out my morning enjoying my final breakfast buffet at my hotel in Mauritius before officially checking out. I was then taken to a local gas dispenser where scientists from the Mauritius Oceanographic Institute had arranged for me to acquire liquid nitrogen. I will need the liquid nitrogen on the boat in order to flash freeze some of my samples that will be analyzed for microbial community abundance. This includes marine organisms such as phytoplankton and bacteria. It is important to freeze these samples in order to preserve the cells to count later, and the flash freezing will prevent the cells from bursting while they are being frozen. Once I obtained the liquid nitrogen, it was time to move onto the R/V Isabu.
On the ship I was assigned a cabin where I will live throughout the research expedition. Due to the number of scientists on the ship, I was actually given my own room! This room is much larger than the room I had on a previous ship, and it even features a personal refrigerator! I have not yet decided what I will put in the refrigerator, but I am sure that I will figure out something that can go in it.
Today was also a day of socializing. I had lunch with everyone on the ship in our mess hall for the first time. The food was really good but a just bit too spicy for me. For dinner, the entire science team went out to eat together at a local Indian restaurant to get to know each other. We even caught an amazing view of the sunset while we ate.
However, I spent most of my day continuing to set up my lab space on the ship. I am getting very close to being done, but it is taking a while because I need to ensure that everything is laid out as efficiently as possible. Once sampling begins, it can be rather chaotic on the science part of the ship, and I will only have a limited amount of time to process all of my samples in between each station I will collect seawater from. Tomorrow I should have everything finalized as it is our last day of setup before we leave Port Louis, Mauritius for our research expedition.
The photos above feature my cabin, my lab space, my first meal on the ship, and the sunset view from dinner.