WOW WOW WOW!!!! I just experienced laundry aboard the Launcher for the first time today and wow I can't get over it - the process is silly easy: you just put your laundry into smallish laundry bag and upon filling said laundry bag, you simply place it outside your door and within a few hours LIKE MAGIC it returns to outside your door folded. I'm getting spoiled out here - I don't have to cook for myself, I don't have to wash my clothes myself, heck I don't even do my own DISHES! What an existence this is. Losing my sense of house skills and duties frees me up to spend time doing important things (like updating my blog ;p) such as learning how to tie knots like a sailor! One of The Ocean Cleanup's crew has spent 16 years working on the sea as a fisherman and has taken it upon himself to teach us the skills necessary to secure loads and tie off containers. Amazingly practical considering that almost everything we are using to do our research out here is stored in shipping containers on the deck, which I feel the need to remind everyone is constantly rolling back and forth with the movement of the waves. Though we've only gone through two knots, the passing on of this skill gives us time to bond and spend time on deck - last night just as the sun was going down we were on the deck tying knots and taking in the views. Happily my stomach decided to buy in to the whole "being at sea" thing and my brain no longer tries to throw itself into a crazy Disneyland Tea Cups spin! I feel like I'm well on my way to becoming a salty sailor - which was the goal (aside from my thesis research and, you know, contributing to an amazing project, obviously) of coming on this ship in the first place! Yarghhh! In case anyone was wondering, it is 75 stairs between the main deck and the bridge (the place where the captain steers the boat from). Ask me how many flights of unnecessary stairs I've done today? Too many. The stairs also have the fun quality of being remarkably steep, something I've noticed when visiting the The Ocean Cleanup's headquarters in Europe. Not sure why the US has super flat short stairs but this whole climbing thing is a WORKOUT let me tell you. It's also a fun dance to get in and out of the boat - to be on deck we wear our personal protective equipment which translates into me sliding in and out of coveralls, safety boots, eye protection, gloves, and a hard hat say, 5 or 6 times a day because "work clothes" stay outside and away from our living quarters. I am totally for having a safe and clean living environment but I have taken my boots off and/or put them on unnecessarily around 3 times today and the rage is palpable. I may just be tired...to be determined. I'll let y'all know how I feel about unnecessary boot removal tomorrow. For the moment let's talk about sleeping on a rolling boat. Now about 90% of the time it's like being smoothly rocked to sleep like a baby (or at least as close as I can imagine because my memory of that time of my life is nonexistent). For about 10% of the time, the sense I have laying in bed is that same one you have where you're falling in a dream, only instead of waking up either the boat slowly begins to roll the other way or I sit up FAST against the crazy forces I've only experienced on boats or on roller coasters. It's super bizarre. I wish I had more to say about life at sea but today a lot of my day was just going up and down stairs and continuing a (never ending?) literature review for my thesis. OH I do have something of interest: some of the crew on the Launcher have a little "candy shop" that sells candy and convenience items. You guessed it. I caved. TWO DAYS ON THE OCEAN and those Salt and Vinegar Pringles were calling my name. Salt and vinegar never tasted better than that first chip in my room this afternoon/evening. My concept of time is messed up because I changed my clock to ship time AND 24 hour clock and I'm all kinds of turned around. Anyway, check back in whenever you feel like it - I read/heard somewhere that the key to keeping your readers interested is to be consistent, so I'll probably be posting to this daily(ish) depending on my responsibilities! Cheers to those that are reading!
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AuthorBree Gibbs, here. I'm a recent Master's Grad just trying to share what it's like to be a trash scientist (for those who aren't in the know, I'm a marine biologist). Categories
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March 2021
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