By: Tim

Just a quick note because we’re in full-scale preparation for departure on our longboat trip early Sunday.

Laser Leveling at the Cattle Point rocky intertidal zone

The crew got up for our third early morning in a row and headed down to Cattle Point for some biodiversity surveys of the rocky intertidal zone. Intrepid ecologists Orissa Moulton and Hilary Hayford came along to show us how to standardize quadrat elevations above low water (laser levelers are pretty cool) and to help us ID invertebrates and algae. Afterwards, Tom surprised us with a hearty breakfast in the dorm; a welcome change from the on-the-run break (intentional space here) fasts we’d been consuming in order to meet the tide schedule.

This afternoon, we celebrated Eric’s birthday with cupcakes, cookies, ice cream and lemonade. The rest of the afternoon was spent housekeeping and prepping group and personal gear for the longboat trip.

Guest chefs Ken and Susan joined us to relieve personnel from cooking responsibilities while prep continued. Professor Carolyn Friedman and son, Nick, joined us for dinner and a lesson on ocean chemistry and the ocean acidification project we’ll be conducting while out on the longboat this week.

We’re headed out for six days in the wilds of the San Juan Islands and waterways so the posting will be intermittent. But the weather has broken, our dry bags are packed (well, almost) and we are excited to go!