Weather, work, and fun

Today was our first day with some blue sky. As we motored to our dive sites, Paul and Sabina were enjoying the sun a bit too much on the foredeck and got a little sunburned.

sunrise from my cabin this morning

On our first dive we finished returning 10 tiles to the shallow FR3 transect. We returned the first 10 yesterday. We then headed along the north shore of the atoll to about the mid-point to dive on FR7 for our second dive. This dive went amazingly smoothly. Unlike FR3, we did not have current or swell to contend with so we were able to pull all 20 tiles in a single dive. We then headed back to the lab after stopping to grab a quick lunch from the Galley. We then successfully processed them back in the lab and hope to be able to return them all tomorrow morning on our first dive. Below is what we are searching for under the microscope. Note that the piece of wire in the photo is 1 mm in diameter, so you get a sense of how small they are.

coral polyp with 1 mm wire below it

Sabina took this photo of Paul being welcomed by the resident red-footed booby on our arrival on Sunday.

Paul Leary with red-footed booby (Sula sula)