Programs Blog

Monday, 28 July 2025

Noon Position: (Lat and Long): 29° 39.1 ’N x 156° 26.6’W

Ship Heading (degrees): At anchor 

Ship Speed (knots): At anchor 

Taffrail Log (nm): 321.3

Weather / Wind / Sail Plan (from 1300 Watch Change): Overcast, NW x W winds, Force 2 

Description of Location: Nahuna Point, Maui 

*Preface; fieldwork is difficult, and conditions are often very out of your control. This is a fairly dramatized retelling from my point of view, but I want to make sure it is known that circumstances change and that is part of the process. For the parents I promise everyone was completely safe it just so happened we had to deviate from plan! 

Today was the day I had been anticipating. 9(ish) days since our last snorkel and I have been JONESING! Further tortured by the fact that I am literally in a vessel surrounded by water and yet cannot touch it (being on the sea is not nearly as much fun as being in it.) All this set up to say today was supposed be like x-mas but instead of presents I got coal…

The water is choppy, the clouds are blocking the sun, I’m in the second boat that leaves later than the first and parks a half mile from the snorkel site (bit of an exaggeration…slight.) Anyhow, snorkel time dwindled from about 45 to 30 to 20 to 15 mins of swimming back and forth from the boat all the while choking on water, dumping it out of my mask, and fighting waves. On top of all that I had to do the beached whale technique to get back in the boat. 

Needless to say expectations were NOT met. After a much needed (navy) shower and change of clothes my attitude adjusted slightly. I ended the night with a watch meeting, played a game with my lovely group — shoutout to Zadie, Lake, Maya, Hudson, Kanoe, Sara and Sara — and did an exercise I really enjoyed. We created our own scales to express how we were feeling; mine was according to the ripeness of a mango. I came to the conclusion that I felt like a mango that was still a little green and not soft enough but one that just needs a couple days to fully ripen. I started the day as a tough green mango picked way too early to eat. 

All and all an improvement. 

Besos, Mimi ;p