Onboard R/V Thomas G. Thompson

Well, the two week break between cruises went pretty quickly, as expected I guess, and now I am on the Thompson for the next cruise. I arrived in Guam on 12/20 (I left HI on 12/19 but we are 20 hours ahead here). This time I really didn't get any time to explore the island since we boarded the ship the day after I arrived. From what I saw and what I've heard Guam isn't the most exciting island to visit anyway. It sounds like the primary reason to come here is for scuba diving, which I have heard is very good. Unfortunately I won't get a chance to do any diving since I don't really have the money and I didn't want to stay very long after the cruise since I've been away from home so much. All that I saw of the island was on the drive from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the harbor (which is inside of a Navy base), as well as a quick stroll along the beach by the hotel. It has a very strong American influence since there are some massive military bases on the island and it is an American territory. Most of the typical fast food restaurants and stores that you would see in just about any American city are there and everyone speaks English. It basically looks like an average American city for the most part, although there are some pretty decent tropical beaches. Apparently, it is a big place for Japanese tourists, it was described to me as the Japanese Waikiki, it's where they go to get a taste of some tropical beaches. It's about the same distance from the equator as Samoa (~13 N), so it is a little hotter and more humid than Hawaii, but since it is winter in the northern hemisphere, the weather is generally more pleasant than Samoa. It sounds like there is a possibility of typhoons coming through, but so far the weather and the seas have cooperated, I'm already used to the motion of the boat and off the dramamine after 3 days.

The boat itself is significantly larger than the Kilo Moana, meaning that there is a lot more lab space, more deck space, and the rooms are larger. All of the science people have their own rooms, which is really nice. However, despite the fact that the room is almost three times the size of the Kilo Moana rooms, the beds are still the same tiny size. They could have easily added a foot or two of width to the beds and still had plenty of floor space, I'm not sure what they were thinking on that one. Beyond the larger size of the Thompson, the Kilo Moana is pretty much a nicer boat in every way. It is newer and cleaner, and the food was significantly better (although it's pretty hard to beat the food on the Kilo Moana, so that is not unexpected). We did have some surf and turf last night (steak/lobster), so there is good food onboard, but just not as consistently good so far, and generally lower quality. There are more public computers available and slightly faster internet, so that is a plus. There is a pretty decent lounge with a nice big TV and a bunch of movies, but the 70's fake leather seats and couches are not nearly as comfy as the huge soft black leather couches on the KM. The gym is also not quite as nice as the KM, they have a bench with some dumbbells, a decent non-electronic exercise bike, and a broken treadmill. I'm not sure why they thought free weights on a moving ship was a good idea, the KM had a pretty nice weight machine that seemed a lot more appropriate for a boat. But it's better than nothing, I've already used the gym twice. I think that covers the basics of the boat, let me know if you have any questions. I'll get into the scientific aspects of the cruise and my job on the next post...